Pasta

 
            Anybody ever have some of Kimmy's pasta??  She made such a variety, with many different sauces...marinara, vodka sauce (my sister, Lauren's recipe!), bolognese, sausage, white sauce, garlic sauce, clam sauce - I'm getting hungry just thinking of each of them!!!  And then there was her pasta salad...I found that recipe the other day, and I'm anxious to try it - it was her own and if you've ever been to a picnic or family function with us, you probably have had the chance to try it.  Autumn used to eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner!
           Then, there was the kaliedescope of pastas she used:  angel hair (my favorite), orzo - the little pasta she used for wedding soup and the kids, as babies, used to eat daily, ditalini, farfalle (butterfly pasta, sometimes called bow tie pasta here in the U.S - the bambini always have called it butterfly pasta, and their Mama used to give them 'butterfly kisses', 'baci della farfalla' - this is Tonio's favorite), linguine, lasagna, I could go on and on and on...If a Dr. ever tells me I can no longer eat pasta, I'll slit my wrists...and, I'm sorry, this new age brown wheat pasta is an abomination - pasta is made with seminola, wheat!  It's good for you, trust me.  Kimmy always felt it was good comfort good, kept you feeling healthy and was perfect for any occaision - oh, she'd always make a shrimp scampi over angel hair that was incredible!!  When I'd come home from work, I could smell the garlic from the driveway and I knew she was making some sort of sauce with a perfect pasta to compliment it...she had that knack.  Jim Morrison used to sing 'I eat more chicken than any man's ever seen...', well, I like to insert 'pasta' in place of 'chicken' and sing that to the kids.

          So, the marinara recipe that she taught me to make is pretty easy:

          Place 1/3 cup of olive oil in a cooking pot (I've got a great  black one I love to use!).  Heat that up and put in 3 cloves of minced garlic (don't buy it already minced, it loses some of the flavor!), add a 1/2 of chopped up onion, one chopped celery stalk and one chopped carrot to the oil.  Stir well and regularly.  Let it cook for about 15 minutes, or until onions become transparent.
          Add in two 28 oz cans of diced tomatoes and one 14 oz can of diced tomatoes.  Add two bay leaves, a punch of salt and pepper and bring that heat up to a medium/high until it begins to bubble. Stir it well, turn down heat to low and cover for about 20 minutes. 
         Add in two cut up basil leaves and about a 1/4 cup of Italian parsley cut up.  Simmer for another 20 minutes.  Test the carrots to see if they are soft yet.  If they are, remove the sauce from the heat.  Remove the bay leaves.   Run your sauce through a blender and place into serving dish or container.  I usually put half right into tupperware and toss it in the freezer and the other half in a serving bowl.
         I will soon try the vodka sauce - the bambini absolutely loved Kim's vodka sauce!!

        Speaking of the bambinis - they had a pretty good day.  Cody received an A on his science fair project and brought his grade in algebra up to an 88 %. He has worked so hard, with the help of Mrs. Lopez, his teacher - I am unable to help him with algebra!!  Autumn stayed after school and Mrs. Rudzena helped her get a lot of her homework done.  And Tonio, well, on Tuesday, Tonio told me 'Daddy, it's 'love of reading week' and on Thursday, it is 'dress as your favorite storybook character'...I said, that's great!  Who do you want to dress as?  He expressed concern, saying, last year, Mama made him a cool pigeon from the Mo Willems story 'Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!'.  The year before that, she made him a full body Wild Thing from Maurice Sendak's 'Where the Wild Things Are'...I saw what he was driving at...I am a man of limited artistic abilities...Tonio wanted to ask me what I thought I was capable of, in such a sweet way - he gets that concern for other's feelings from his Mama.  We talked about it and he decided he really wanted to be 'Toothless' the dragon from the series "How to Train Your Dragon".  Tonio and I had read all 7 books together and he absolutely would be riveted, transported to dragon times.  He loved the movie, too, but after seeing it commented 'wow.  It was really good, but nothing like the books!'.
        I went online and google 'toothless' images...when the photos came up, I quickly added 'dragon' and found what I was looking for.  I printed it up, bought a piece of poster board and...asked Cody to sketch the dragon for me!  Cody took the poster board to the garage, using the ping pong table as an art desk and went to work.  When he was done, he brought it in and I'm telling you, it looked liked Kim had done it herself!  And, of course, he free handed it!  And Mrs. Schrantz and Mrs. Kampelman helped him color it in!  He was so proud!!

Oh, and check it out!  Brian has done all of the cuts for the nitcho!!  He is doing a great job and we hope to cement it together this weekend!

       
        It was a good day...we got a lot done and had a lot of love and support...and we froze!  It was so cold today!  We're moving to Panama.  We just went outside to say goodnight to Mama...the sky was brilliant with stars - the kids called their good nights and asked Mama to bring us some warmth...they said they hoped she was warm in Heaven...these little ones are such a blessing...I will sleep tonight... ; )
        Sweet dreams,

                            Love,

                                       Dave

"There will come a day,
 When we transcend our pain.
 Until that day, take it easy on yourself..."
  -Weezer