Spaghetti, Subways...and Apples

I find that more often than not, I make pasta either for or with my dinner. It's usually due to forgetting to defrost some meat before leaving for work and not wanting to take the time to make rice. Tonight's inspiration came as I was watching Everyday Italian last night. Giada made a really simple pasta dish that looked delicious and I instantly got food envy. It even has a simple name: Spaghetti with Olives and Bread Crumbs.

As the spaghetti cooked I chopped some black olives (the recipe recommends using kalamata - which I don't have - as well as green olives, which I'm not in love with, so black olives sufficed) and heated some olive oil over medium heat. In the process, I was also talking on the phone, looking at the recipe, and being distracted in general, so I didn't realize just how high the heat was on the oil. When I added my bread crumbs in to toast them, it was instant brown.

It wasn't burned brown, just...brown. According to the recipe, it should've taken two minutes for this to occur. I immediately removed it from the heat, allowing the residual heat to continue toasting the bread crumbs, then added my pasta to the mixture.

Since Giada recommended reserving some of the pasta water (due to its starch content), I attempted to get all the pasta out with tongs, which was fairly successful. The bit of water that I did ad actually helped to evenly distribute the breadcrumbs, who knew? I finished it by stirring in some parmesan cheese and some pepper.

The result was great! Not necessarily mind-blowing, but a good amount of flavor for few ingredients. As Giada mentioned on the show, you won't need to add more salt considering the bread crumbs and olives have enough themselves, especially if you opt for the green as well. You're also supposed to finish it with fresh parsley, but I only had dried herbs...and I kind of forgot about that step until just now. Regardless, I was satisfied.

[image courtesy of pinterest]

Another interesting find today is pictured above: Apple Nachos. Being the dessert freak that I am with a hint of a health nut, I'm stoked about these. It's sliced apples, topped with melted peanut butter, slivered almonds and chocolate chips. I find nothing wrong with this...and intend on trying it in the near future.

As for city living, today got off to a rough start. Turns out I can't keep track of 30 days use of a Metrocard and had the oh so embarrassing moment of trying to board the bus with an expired card. I did have cash on me, but decided to just get off the bus so as not to hold the line up any longer and walked to the LIRR stop instead. Once inside Penn Station I was able to make my way to the A,C & E trains to get a new card for the month. I wasn't late to work thankfully, but was definitely flustered. Luckily my day went well and I was introduced to a delicious sandwich at Gourmet Garage.

This weekend I head upstate to the land of Stewarts stores and considering all my trips are centered around food, I'm sure I'll have much to report and possibly more pictures to post!