Spaghetti with anchovies

Spaghetti with anchovies

Ingredients:

¼ cup of olive oil
2-3 garlic cloves sliced
hot pepper , if desired
1 small can of flat anchovies packed in oil
½ lb of cherry tomatoes
2 tablespoon of chopped parsley or cilantro

Directions:

In a large heavy fry pan pour in the olive oil, garlic and hot pepper. Use a moderate to high flame.

When the garlic is golden fling in the anchovies and their oil…careful they skitter and sputter, spatter and squirt, so cover the pan as soon as you toss them in.

When the fish is smushed into the oil, add a ¼ cup of red wine. Let the alcohol burn off.

Add the tomatoes and cook till they pop open. Top with the green stuff!

Do not use cheese with this pasta sauce—you’ll kill it. Instead, you may sprinkle with
toasted breadcrumb.

Add to piping hot well-drained spaghetti.

If you want to jazz this up some more, add olives, capers and pinoli (pine nuts)

What is your phobia?

My friend Mel, greengirlfromwisconsin! wrote on her blog about her phobia and then asked her readers, what is your phobia?

Here's my answer.

What's your phobia? Number one biggie: losing the people I love.

I'm thinking of this because I just received the sad news that Barbara Jean Parker passed away this morning after a long illness, and while we weren't close friends I took a grad course with her and she was a very generous writer. She was a lawyer and went on to write at least 13 mystery books...the "Suspicion " series and was twice on the best-sellers list.
There's nothing you can do in the face of death, so why fear it? Because it is the unknown. Because it means you'll be deprived of the dead person's company, laugh, smile for the rest of your own life.

So while this is not an obsessive phobia, it is, I find, a great introspective question, and an intriguing writing prompt for fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

So I thanked Mel and decided to post this on my blog as a farewell salute to a lovely scribbling lady, Barbara Parker, who knew how to sling the English and who had a handle on plot! She's in my thoughts and prayers. It was a pleasure to have known her.

In Memory of Barbara Jean Parker

The smell of pencil shavings as the sharpener spins,
The feel of the pencil in between my fingers as I write
Of the bitter taste of sadness in a mouth barely able to speak regret,
And for the sound the empty word condolence makes in this room
Void of people, void of thoughts, save my head’s reflections on
How short your time was, how well you used it.

Halibut a la Nina and endive salad

March 5

Last night’s dinner: halibut a la Nina

1-1½ lbs of fillet of halibut—cut into 4-6 pieces
1 diced sweet potato
¼ diced fennel white part only
4 scallions thinly cut
1 minced garlic clove
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of chopped cilantro
A dash of paprika
Hot pepper if desired


In a large fry pan (with a cover)…sauté the scallions, potato and fennel in the olive oil.

Add a splash of vino and one ½ cup of H2O.

Cover and lower heat and let simmer for 10-and uncover on high for the last 5 minutes.

Reduce flame and add butter, fish, paprika, cilantro, and salt, pepper to taste.

Cover and cook high for 2 minute and turn the fish and uncover, reducing flame for another 2minutes or until the fish flakes...

Cover with the veggies in the pot and serve with white rice, egg noodles or cappellini, or bruschetta. I served it with bruschetta and cauliflower made with olives and anchovies. If you want the recipe, contact me.

I also made an endive salad with the halibut.

Directions for salad
Take off any damaged leaves. Cut in rounds and wash quickly in a colander. Do not hurt or bruise the delicate endive--treat it like an old lady. Drain and add to a chilled bowl covered with this dressing:

1 tablespoon of mayonnaise
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1 minced garlic
1 teaspoon of anchovy paste (or 2 smooshed up flat anchovies)
salt
fresh ground pepper

It’s snowing .... yeah! And we're expecting more this evening! Guests from Italy arriving to ski on Saturday!

More later...