The Life of the Unemployed.

School is over for the year...and I have yet to find a summer job. It's not as if I've been searching frantically...I've been sort of lackadaisical about it...enjoying my time off. Give me until next week and then I'll become frantic about the job search. But in the meantime...

I've been totally into the cooking thing. Last night I made the most sensational clean-out-the-fridge pasta sauce. I was inspired by this squid ink pasta that I picked up at the Italian store a little while ago. I've had squid ink pasta in restaurants before, and it has been paired with things like vodka or blue cheese. Ok, well fast forward...here's the recipe...no proportions cause, as I think I've mentioned before, my method of cooking is a-little-of-this-a-little-of-that.
- Saute chopped garlic in Olive oil (I would have added onions or shallots, but my friend, J, was over, and they make her sick), add a good handful of mushrooms (chopped)
- Add the end of a bottle of red wine that's been sitting on the top of your fridge for about a month, that you couldn't possibly drink any more.
- Add a good quantity of Vegetable stock (I probably would have used chicken stock, but friend, J, is a vegetarian (excepting fish), and so I keep veggie stock on hand)
- Bring to a boil.
- Crumble a handful of blue cheese that has been sitting in your fridge since the wine & cheese you hosted over a month ago.
- Open a can of tomatoes (one of the good and yet remarkably cheap italian brands from the Italian store - seriously...take the time to go and stock up once in awhile...your tastebuds will thank you for it). Take your chef's knife and run it through the tomatoes while still in the can...this gives the tomatoes a sort of rough chopped/crushed appearance and it's super quick. I added approximately half of the can to the pasta sauce.
- Add a big handful of shrimp (mine have the tail on...and are pretty big suckers, but I imagine this would work with scallops, or clams or even a firm white fish, or snapper or anything like that...maybe even chicken)
- Add skim milk until the sauce looks right (ideally this would be cream but this was a tuesday night dinner, not a special occasion, and therefore I could not justify the milk fat)
- Add salt to taste, and tons of pepper.
- The sauce was a little thin and so I made a roux (sp?) using corn starch. My godfather taught me how to make the world's best gravy and he swears by using corn starch instead of flour as a thickening agent - less lumpy. I suppose we could have let it simmer until it reduced, but it smelled so good, and the pasta was ready...which brings me to my final point
- Let simmer until the pasta is ready or you can wait no longer, which ever comes last. Toss the squid ink pasta in the sauce, serve in bowls. Top with fresh parsley or grated parmesan or crumbled blue cheese. Take a bite, and let your eyes roll heavenward.

The knitting thing is going really well...I'm comfortable enough now with my samplers that I've embarked upon a project - a hat. I'm dropping stitches all over the place, and I highly doubt that it will be suitable to wear...but it's getting there.

I also found some pictures from a fantastic day I spent in Montreal last August...a true only-in-Montreal kind of day. I'm going to go fix them up a bit and post them. To be continued...