That’s funny, I thought I’d updated my LJ over the weekend. I guess I planned to do it, even constructed the entry in my head, just neglected to actually sit down and write it. How very odd…

So anyway, picking up the narrative from where we left off, we wound up heading over to Boston Market for dinner on Friday. The ambience leaves a lot to be desired, but their chicken is quite tasty, and it’s a fast-food place where the food is even slightly good for you. Though the steamed vegetables had been steamed into submission. I think I’ll skip those next time. After that, it was back to the house to relax and geek out on Furrymuck. I haven’t been on Furrymuck lately, and it was nice to chat with some of the good folks there.

Saturday was a bunch of errands, which takaza has already described so I won’t bore you except to say that the wine shop is quite nice, if a bit sparse in inventory right now, and the Italian store has a truly fabulous selection of goodies (which you can order over the net, too!). Dinner was indeed decadent, as I made a tasty carbonara sauce.

This is a pretty basic sauce, though it’s absolutely horrible for your health – all that heavy cream. I figure it’s a nice splurge for maybe once a month, if that often, so it’s not too bad.

(Serves 4 as a side dish or 3 as an entree)
2 tbsp olive oil
1/3 – 1/2 pound of pancetta, diced small (you can substitute bacon, though the flavor is really better with pancetta)
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups Parmesan cheese (imported, never domestic, preferably Parmigiana Reggiano)
4-6 white mushrooms, sliced thinly (optional)

Add the olive oil to a frying pan (with at least 2″ sides) and heat on medium high until shimmering. Reduce the heat to medium and add the pancetta (or bacon). Saute this until almost done, then reduce the heat to medium low. Add the minced garlic and saute until the garlic is golden (NOT brown! This means the garlic is burned, and you should start over) – about 1-2 minutes. Add the mushrooms if you are using them and saute for about two minutes on medium. Add all but 1/4 cup of the cream to the pan. Bring the mixture to a simmering boil (raising the heat if necessary), stirring occasionally. Reduce the liquid by about a half. Using a spoon or a scraper, draw a line from on the bottom of the pan from one side to the other. When you can reach the other side of the pan before the sauce flows in to cover the track left by the spoon at the starting point, you’re done simmering. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cheese a little at a time, making sure the mixture stays smooth. If the sauce is too thick after all the cheese has been added, add a little of the cream you set aside. You’re done!

Serve this sauce immediately over a good, sturdy pasta – we prefer fettuccine.

Sunday was a complete spud day. Following a wonderful morning of enjoying coffee, the Sunday paper, and messing with the old Playstation game I picked up on Saturday, Takaza and I worked on some Midwest Furfest staff issues. Sometimes it really sucks to be half the country away from the rest of the staff, but we’ve been able to make it work, mostly. The rest of the day was spent emptying the Tivo of the various stuff we’d recorded over the last few days and catching the season premiere of Witchblade. They’ve done a good job of picking up where they left off, and took some surprising plot turns. I’m looking forward to following this over the next few months.

Not much planned for this week, except a Gang trip Babymoon Cafe on Wednesday, then a fun weekend planned. More about that later.