Whats For Dinner and Crafts!

     

What do you do on cold winter nights when the wind is blowing and the sun goes down way too soon? Me I watch movies, read, and do crafts.

    By a happy accident I started a crafting club this winter.          As I have confessed before I am real good for seeing things on line and wanting to try them. Recipes mostly but craft projects are just as dangerous for me. I will jump right in without thinking and more often than not end up with a mess that is only good for the trash. The Elmers glue and food coloring on glass is one of those projects I just jumped in and tried. At least I was able to wash the mess off and keep my bottle.

     Anyway I saw an " Easy to make Yarn Gnome" tutorial on line and asked who's in.

        A group of 12 ladies gathered on a cold dark January night, and the crafting began.

   We left that night all saying see you next month, and next month hadn't even been planned. It is now! and in February we will be making button flowers in salt and pepper shakers. 

       The ladies are so into this they have all sent ideas to fill all the cold months ahead and even into the spring.

    Oh by the way, I wouldn't call the Gnomes easy, I would say they were so much fun to make.

    Everyone of them had a personality all their own.

    I do like a project that doesn't have a set outcome making getting it wrong a lot more difficult to do.

   Whats For Dinner

       I love being over 60 with no one home but the hubby and me. It is so freeing. Yes I have to remind myself what day it is sometimes, and yes I should be using a day planner because I can be that busy, it is still so freeing. I use to run my day by a clock, not anymore. Sometimes I not only don't know what day it is I also go through the entire day not knowing what time it is.

    I certainly don't worry about dinner anymore. Some days I cook, some days Bill cooks and then many others we tend to graze. Lately when I get the urge to cook I don't worry about the time or even if we will eat a proper meal that night, I just go ahead and cook. For the most part one or both of us will eat when I cook, and when we don't it doesn't matter because I wrap it up and put it in the fridge for later. That actually works out well  on the days we don't want to cook or even eat an entire meal, because we always have something to graze on. 

   I came across this on Face Book there was no real recipe, just a women doing a video and preparing it as she went. I didn't think, didn't look for a recipe, I just dived head first. Who wouldn't with the title " Not Your Mothers Buttered Noddles"? 

       In the video I saw 4 ingredients Pasta, Butter, Lemon and soy sauce. I figured if it sucked to high heaven and wasn't even edible I wasn't wasting much and if it was only a little good I wouldn't have wasted my time. 

    I did decide to make a single serving, well as best as you can with pasta. I don't think I have ever cooked just enough pasta so there were no leftovers.

     I prepared the pasta as usual, once drained I put it back in the pan. I saved a little of the pasta water just in case I needed it, and I did use it. In the pan  with the pasta I added butter, lots of butter, garlic powder, a spoonful of pasta water a 1/2 ish TBS lemon juice and a little less of Soy Sauce. As you may 0f guessed I really didn't measure, I guessedamated based on my taste. I mixed it all up until the butter was all melted and mixed completely through. Thats it thats all it took. Plopped it on the plate and enjoyed. I put the leftovers in the fridge and enjoyed 2 more meals with my single serving of pasta. I will make this here and there, but I wouldn't call them buttered noddles. They are full of flavor and the lemon adds a bit of tang to the taste while the soy gives it an earthy saltiness. We all know the butter, well it is butter and it just leant itself to being yummy. 

    I filed this recipe in 2 places, 1) Pasta, and 2) recipes that can be altered. This dish leaves so much room for the imagination. I feel like it is a good jumping off point for so many dishes where you want flavor in you pasta but not so overwhelming that hides the other flavors in a dish. It is also a wonderful stand alone comfort dish, not to mention one of those bowls you can eat while standing over the sink. 

        I am seeing some sesame chicken being served on top of this pasta. Made just as written the two would pair beautifully.

    If you try the pasta I would love to hear from you, and if you altered it and got a new and exciting dish from it ,I would really love to hear about that. Just leave me notes in the comments, I will read them.

    

        See you next Time!