Chicka-Chicka Chick Peas.......

So I was looking for foodblogs to start following, and I came across rawbeets.com,
and I said to myself, "Charles...you are no longer in charge." Because this person's in charge. While the concept of a rawfoods diet is spectacularly unappealing to me, I enjoy entertaining the notion. What a marvelous way to eat. Just like a brontosaurus. In the land before thyme. Anyway, this website is the bomb-bizzle honey-drizzle for those into raw food. I grew beets this year an entertained hanging a near identical blog title. but I don't have a theme yet, which is another reason why I love this website. Mad style, hella cohesiveness all up in that. And it's witty. So witty it pissed me off. But as I calmed down, and realized that a raw food diet might exaggerate my burgeoning superpowers, I entered the kitchen to laydown a raw foods track, on that spicy tip B.

The dish pictured above has chicken in it, but it doesn't want or need it, like the way I feel about a classic ceasar salad; the salad doesn't need or want for chicken, but I'm not saying no to it. Just my way of avoiding wasted rotisserie bird. Turning a sidedish into a meal. Better believe that was a euphemism. Dig.

So I martryd some tomatoes off the backyard vine. I baked some potatoes (whatever you want, but the Yukon golds bring the flavor extreme and help create a paste of eurasian spices). Maybe even boil them with some bay leaves. Then I brought out some canned chickpeas because soaking the dried ones overnight just isn't my steez.

Needs:

Tumeric
Paprika
Cumin
Salt
White Pepper (Incidentally, the name of my last R&B album)
Olive oil
Lemon juice and zest if you are a baller

I do everything to taste unless I am really getting down, down to Electric Avenue, from a recipe. A recipe for funky body movin'. These spices constitute a curry
basically. Super rudimentary, just mixin it all together, like a bollywood mixtape. I like to throw in some chopped italian parsley in everything I make, all the time. But, scallions would do it right. Chop everything chunky and mixed up well, then refrigerate. It is better when the flavors take a skinny dip in the pool, relax.

All of these items are raw. The only work is baking or boiling the potatos.
Ohh baby I like it raw, said the Biz Markee to the grand marquis, and I agree; the less you play and prep with your food, the better sometimes. Fresh flavors are the prerequisite for DJ Quick and simple meals. Don't touch it - just let it chill for a second. Yeah boo. And you're feeling it, don't be afraid of the funky chicken.

Dill Clinton Always Doin' Work...

Just an observation: HTML Text Can be daunting, immense.
I came home from a scheduled hiking endeavor early, leaving an unexpected extra day of vacation open to interpretation. After an incredible hike in the north Cascades, I came home late, hungry for some hearty carbohydrates, a baguette, a little pasta. I had been spotting carbonara recipies here and there around the foodblog galaxy, and I finally couldn't ignore the plain-speaking gustatory reason of bacon and noodles anymore. It occured to me that if could win a lifetime supply of anything, it would have to be parmesan arregiano. That's my choice. I could eat pesto everyday, just as I could put on socks, or shower. Parmesan has so many applications, like the iphone of cheeses.

So I went to my gardenspace. I hoisted some scallions, separated some greek oregano (that stuff is robust), and copped down a bushy dwarf genovese basil plant, a lone survivor from early summer's basil massacre...too sad to talk about. Seriously, don't ask me about it. Don't even. I'm only gonna say...no, it is still too soon.
Moving on.

I didn't use a recipe. Pasta really doesn't need a directive once you understand the foremost rule of pasta: there are no rules. Maybe prison rules. Garlic needs to be incorporated, but after that it is more of a choose-your-own-adventure-story with meat and cheese and garlic and herbs. And everybody loves to read those. That's delicious complexity. Perhaps I should develop a pasta algorythm? Or iphone application, like a magic eightball for pasta dishes.

So...

Bacon or pancetta (seems tough for me to find)
Decent olive oil (always the extra virgin)
scallions
Shallots
oregano
garlic
Sun Dried Tomatoes (SDT's isn't a fortuitious acryonym for these treats)
parmesan
salt & my friend the ground black pepper
I asked my buddy about capers, which I have been putting in everything lately, just a 'yes' or 'no', without any context, and he says 'yes'. That was how I was leaning anyway. Glad I did that. Capers make anything more interesting.

Made the bacon, reserving bacon fat (unicorn dust; all-spark) for later, for everything.

Made the pasta, linguine. Linguine never disappoints me. Olive Garden disappoints me.
Generic Alfredo sauce disappoints me. When that happens, belive me, somebody gets whacked Sopranos style. I too can be cold, like the fettucine you had the misfortune of serving me.

Chopped the basil, oregano, garlic (finely),scallions, and shallots.
You know I do the scallions for color and the shallots for all of those things that shallots do to me and you. I do it for you really, and shallots really do it to me. No, I do it for us. I do it for we. That's why I diced so finely. Because I care. Me, you, and shallots in a fragrant dance of flavor.
Heated up the olive oil and a small amount of the flavorexplosion formerly known as Prince, to medium, added the chopped garden goodness.
Dumped in the sun dried tomatoes and followed that with the pasta and capers.
Salt and pepper the things, with little salt and heavy black pepper, always heavy with the black pepper on pasta.
Put in bacon. Cue the cheese. Don't be bashful here, just give yourself what you want. More cheese.

I left out the egg yolk this time, wanting something a little lighter. I understand if you don't appreciate me using the term carbonara here. If that makes me more of
marked man, then a 'made' man in your eyes, don't whack me. I also understand if you think I am perpetuating italian stereotypes here. I am, just not in the kitchen.

Capers!!!