18. The secret sauce

"Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again." 

--Ecclesiastes 11:1

As part of my Konmari spiritual awakening, I'd decided to not let myself have more than one back-up of everything we buy at Costco (e.g, napkins, Clorox wipes, Ziploc bags), even when they go on sale. I used to buy two or three of things when they were on coupon, in case I needed them before the next sale happened. (I'm sure it's all a part of their strategy to have sales at different rates/frequencies to increase your feeling of scarcity.)

My defense was that we'd need those things anyway, and since inflation possibly outpaces interest rates, toilet paper might - from a strictly financial point of view - be a better investment than cold, hard cash in our checking account...?!?!?

But when I started seriously considering the things that made me happy, having a calm and uncrowded house was more important to me than the $2-3 I might save each time I bought something on sale. Also, it was starting to get really packed in our garage (still is) and sometimes I honestly can't find stuff I know we have. Less frustration > saving money ==> sanity > money

I'm definitely grateful for the scrimp-and-save mentality I learned from my immigrant parents, but I'm now nonetheless enjoying experimenting with that in my life.

In a real emergency, being stocked up on things is not going to save me, right?

And if I can be more present and more alive by having less stuff and being less worried, I'll be free to create and generate more whether it be financial or otherwise.

A crazy (to me) example of how this played our recently was with this marinara sauce I discovered at Costco sometime last fall, called Victoria White Linen. We usually make our own sauce but this stuff was good: Old World style and with few ingredients. After trying and loving it, we stocked up and got eight 40 oz (!) jars. I freely cooked with my supply until I stopped seeing it at Costco. I thought it was so bizarre that it disappeared right after it had been promoted. I loved the sauce so much I almost wrote Costco.

For a while I stopped using my precious remaining jars. I was like a crazy Depression lady.

Then, after recently doing Konmari, I thought, This is stupid. (Not as stupid as Costco discontinuing the sauce, but still stupid.) I started using the sauce, even as an act of faith. Faith that there'd be enough. Faith that I could enjoy the sauce and faith that there was enough hope, peace, and resilience in me even if there would eventually be no more sauce.

We enjoyed and savored it, and slowly whittled down our stash to one last jar.

And then just yesterday we were wandering around Costco and to our astonishment we saw it! The people around me must have thought I was a little crazy when I reached out as though seeing an old friend, squealing "Victoria!"

My habits are changing and I'm so glad I didn't waste any of my own precious time mentally complaining about why Costco discontinued the sauce or fearing we'd run out of something good.

And now, I'm beginning to wonder if perhaps I am the secret sauce.

The definite winner

Green bean, barley, chickpea, feta salad from last week's menu plan

Of the recipes from last week, carbonara was the definite winner. Only the fact that the menu plan was published here for all to see kept me from making it every day for the rest of the week. And David did not try to stop me, either.

Isn't my parsley chopping so profesh?

I remember having attempted carbonara after my favorite high school English teacher gave me my first cookbook as a graduation gift. (Part two of the gift was supposed to be dinner at Chez Panisse, but for some reason it didn't work out and we ended up at this lovely Tuscan restaurant on College, which - sad to say - is no more.) It was The Silver Palate, which I still reference from time to time. From it I learned to make cream soups, the very best lemon and carrot cakes, and a few other fancy dishes. 

As great as The Silver Palate is, my first time making carbonara from there was not. I was living at home at that time - probably the summer between high school and college - and I had at that point not really cooked for my parents. (Most of you already know how amazing of a cook my mom is, so really there was no need.) As you can imagine, debuting as a teen cook with an Italian dish in an Asian home could be considered, well, risky.

Uh oh. Different bowl = evidence that we ate it another time last week.

Anyway, since then I've been gun shy about carbonara, but this recipe has changed my perspective. Before this week I had no clue how to cook the eggs without scrambling them. (And I believe in my first experience, it turned out the opposite, with unbelievably runny sauce. Yuck.)

The secret is to cook bacon in a pan until crisp, then swirl in minced garlic just enough to warm it and release its fragrance. Time your pasta so you're ready to add it at this point. To save on dishes (and to ensure that I don't forget to reserve some pasta water), I transfer the pasta over with tongs (rather than using a colander). Following the recipe, I mixed the pasta with the bacon-garlic greasy goodness over heat and then when ready to add the egg/parm mixture, I removed the pan from the stove and whisked in the eggs. Finally, a few scoops of pasta water to loosen it up and make a delicious, creamy glaze on the noodles.

Make sure you plan other meals so you don't end up eating this all week! It can't be good for you. (Well, not that kind of good.)

Spaghetti Carbonara

from Tyler Florence 

1 pound dry spaghetti
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 ounces pancetta or slab bacon, cubed or sliced into small strips
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 large eggs
1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus more for serving
Freshly ground black pepper
1 handful fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Prepare the sauce while the pasta is cooking to ensure that the spaghetti will be hot and ready when the sauce is finished; it is very important that the pasta is hot when adding the egg mixture, so that the heat of the pasta cooks the raw eggs in the sauce.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until tender yet firm (as they say in Italian "al dente.") Drain the pasta well, reserving 1/2 cup of the starchy cooking water to use in the sauce if you wish.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a deep skillet over medium flame. Add the pancetta and saute for about 3 minutes, until the bacon is crisp and the fat is rendered. Toss the garlic into the fat and saute for less than 1 minute to soften.

Add the hot, drained spaghetti to the pan and toss for 2 minutes to coat the strands in the bacon fat. Beat the eggs and Parmesan together in a mixing bowl, stirring well to prevent lumps. Remove the pan from the heat and pour the egg/cheese mixture into the pasta, whisking quickly until the eggs thicken, but do not scramble (this is done off the heat to ensure this does not happen.) Thin out the sauce with a bit of the reserved pasta water, until it reaches desired consistency. Season the carbonara with several turns of freshly ground black pepper and taste for salt. Mound the spaghetti carbonara into warm serving bowls and garnish with chopped parsley. Pass more cheese around the table.

We had gorgeous weather last week so we took Theo to Silver Lake. So much fun and we are READY FOR SUMMER!

P.S. I have changed the settings to make it easier to post comments here. You no longer have to log in our use a Google (or other) account. You can sign your name or leave it anonymous. (I'll know it was you, Sharon.) However, I did set up comment moderation so it will take a moment for them to show up as I'll have to approve them after I'm emailed a notification.