garden-inspired pasta (pb)

I’m feeling really lucky today.

Not only was our neighborhood ‘harvest walkabout’ a success, my husband, Paul (on the fly, with almost nothing in the fridge) created the most amazing, garden-inspired pasta on Saturday night. It was so delicious, we bought more Italian sausage on Sunday and he made it again that night!

He sauteed a large Spanish onion (procured from my favorite vendor at the Sunnyvale Farmer’s Market that morning) and a few links of Italian sausage in some olive oil, letting the onions caramelize just a bit. He then poured this over ‘al dente’ spaghetti and added a roughly chopped tomato or two from our garden. We topped it with salt, freshly ground black pepper and a chiffonade of fresh basil (just a dusting since our snails have devoured most of our Genovese).

Speaking of devouring, it was gone within minutes and we talked about it all the next day, prompting a visit to Crate & Barrel (where we found the coolest 4-layer herb scissors that automatically give you a chiffonade) and Whole Foods (where we also found some amazing Bronx table grapes that taste even better than my favorite Muscat variety).

And then today, I broke a window throwing a frozen water bottle for the dog. Maybe that’s bad luck. I also crashed my computer pretty hard and had to run a 2-hour diagnostic to see if anything was damaged. But I walked down to the local Hallmark Store/post office and stopped at For Other Living Things, an organic pet supplies store. I got $17 back in change from buying Scout something to keep her busy and the owner and I decided my luck was changing (17 is one of my lucky numbers). She recommended I play the lottery and after many years of avoiding it, I bought two tickets.

Wish me luck… if I win you know I’m going to plan my ‘family&friends’ trip to Dalhousie Castle in Edinburgh!