ADVENTURES IN PASTA

Throughout much of my life, cooking has never been one of my strong points. Actually, that is probably an understatement. For much of my adult life, I pretty much hated cooking & wasn't too good at it. In my younger days I could have eaten out everyday! In fact, I negotiated with my ex-husband, who enjoyed cooking, that I would do all the cleaning, laundry & most of the yard work if he would cook dinner every night.

These past 15 years or so, I've changed (for whatever reason) to where I don't mind cooking at all. I certainly can't say that I love it, but most days it is somewhat enjoyable. I begin by always cooking with wine – and by that I mean, I pour myself a glass of wine before I start! If I could only see my sports on TV from our kitchen, while preparing dinner, maybe I would learn to love it.

I'm far from a gourmet cook, but Lou is so easy to please that at times he makes me feel like one. Honestly, I could feed that man most anything & he would never complain. A couple times my experiments have caused me to take a bite & say, “Yuck! That's awful,” but Lou would simply say, “It's okay, it's not that bad”. I've discovered that when you cook for someone who genuinely appreciates your effort, it no longer seems like such a chore.

So, last night I'm making dinner – whole grain pasta roni to which I was adding chicken & crumbled bacon. Yes, I do still cut corners using boxes & cans but I add my own touches. Hey, if it requires heat, it's cooking in my book. Anyway, the chicken was cooking on the stove, the bacon was in the microwave & the water was just about to boil. The opened box of pasta was sitting on the counter. I turned around quickly, hit the box & knocked it onto the floor. It didn't just spill, pasta shells went everywhere! They literally flew all over the kitchen floor!

I stood there with my mouth open for a few seconds, uttered a few choice swear words, then made a quick decision. They were going to be boiled for 14 minutes – I was sure that would kill any germs. Plus I would rinse them off in the colander first so I decided to pick them up & use them since I didn't have any more. I know, I know, I shouldn't be telling you this – you'll never come to dinner at my house if you're invited.

Lou comes in a minute later & says, “What was that noise?” I'm sitting on the floor amidst hundreds of pasta shells carefully picking them up & replied, “That was me knocking the box of pasta on the floor. But I made an executive decision. Since they'll be rinsed & boiled, I'm picking them up & we're going to eat them.” To his credit, he squatted down, started picking up shells, kissed me & said, “Well, I just vacuumed in here yesterday so there shouldn't be much cat hair.” I do love that man!

Dinner tasted fine & neither of us got sick so I'm guessing my theory that 14 minutes of boiling neutralized any germs was correct. Instead of the 3 second rule, it was more like the 5 minute rule. :-) Cooking is always an adventure! How about you, any similar stories?