Well this past Sunday was my birthday. I got so many well wishes from friends and family who called, texted, or on Facebook that I was overwhelmed. Thanks again.
Why is it that birthdays go by so quickly? When you’re young you can’t wait to grow older so you can do grownup stuff. How many of you would love to go back to those days? I know I would. I would change a lot of things I did in my life, but then I think “if I changed some of those things I wouldn’t have my children and my grandchildren.”
My daughter made me one of my favorite dishes…linguine with white clam sauce. That’s going to be one of my next cooking videos. I’ve also had a request for pasta fagioli. There is the long old Italian version with soaking the beans, then cooking the beans (don’t forget to throw out the first water), sauteing garlic and basil, adding tomatoes, pasta water or chicken broth…. Or you can do it the simple way using cannelini beans, i.e. Progresso, Rienzi, etc. You can use whatever kind of beans you like, but we always used cannelini. I prefer doing it the simple way. Surprising because I always like to do things the old Italian way, but in this instance the results are very nearly the same.
As for my reference to “don’t forget to throw out the first water” it reminds me of a story when I was a young woman. My girlfriend Lorraine, may she rest in peace (we lost her six months ago) was a big joker and loved to play pranks. In our old neighborhood the older Italian ladies liked to hang out in their chairs in front of the buildings where they lived. Lorraine had a little mechanism we made when we were kids with a large paper clip, rubber band and a metal dishwasher. We would spin the washer in between the rubber band and sit on it. As you lifted up your thigh the metal washer would hit against the fabric of the chair and sound just like a fart. Lorraine did this in front of her future mother-in-law Mary “Honeyball” and her friend Josie. Every time Lorraine did it Josie would exclaim “Oh my God. Tell your mother when she makes the beans to throw out the first water so you won’t have so much gas.” We all laughed so hard we were crying.
I look back on those days with very fond memories and miss my childhood friend Lorraine. She loved a good prank. We were friends for a lot of years. Where did they all go!!