Food: One-Pan Pasta (for breakfast)

On Sunday morning I got up early (really "normal" time given the time change) and went for my first outside run in a long time.  It was not nearly as bad as I expected.  It helped that there was a nice downhill right at the beginning.  When I got back, Marek got up and went for a hike.  So it was just me, trying to decide what to eat for breakfast.  And I decided I wanted some pasta.

We used to have so much pasta in the house - so many different shapes and brands (I am going to blame that on being half Italian, and not on my hoarding tendencies).  We had cut back when we moved to New York City (nowhere to keep it), and kept our stock low when we moved to Seattle.  However, Marek just joined Costco and one of our first purchases?  About 6 big bags of (dried) pasta.  Of course.

My least favorite part about making pasta is waiting for all that water to boil (which also feels very wasteful when you dump it all down the drain).  So on Sunday morning I cut all that out by combining some methods I'd seen in previous recipes here and there.

First, I "toasted" the pasta in some butter and got it nice and brown.  This gets the cooking process started and also adds a nice bit of "crunch" to the pasta.

Then I covered the pasta in chicken stock and added two giant spoonfuls of whatever red sauce we had on hand.  This allows the chicken to absorb some flavor while it's cooking and also doesn't waste water.  The tomato sauce cooks into the liquid and coats the pasta  while it cooks, which really "bakes" in the flavor, so to speak, but doesn't leave the red sauce all runny and making a mess.

I ended up adding some more water to this pan (I had run out of chicken stock) and let it cook, covered, for about 10 minutes.  When I was done, I had a nice al dente pasta with a tasty red sauce.  I added Parmiggiano-Reggiano and tore up some fresh basil and it made quite a good breakfast - and only one pan to clean!

Recipe
1/2 T butter or olive oil
1 cup dried pasta
2-3 cups of chicken stock or broth
2 large spoonfuls of red sauce (vary depending on your tastes)

Heat pan over medium heat to melt butter or warm oil.  Add dried pasta and let brown for 3-5 minutes, keeping an eye on it so it doesn't burn.  Add 2 cups of chicken stock (enough to cover pasta) and red sauce and stir to combine.  Bring to a boil and then turn heat down to medium.  Cover and let cook for 5 minutes.  Check to see if you need to add more stock and turn down to medium-low and let cook for 5 more minutes.

Read more...

Cross-Country Road Trip: Bismarck to Missoula

or: The One with All the Pictures

Despite the creepy looking door the Radisson, the hotel itself was very nice (especially given that we were travelling with pets).  We ordered some room service, ate dinner, and then went to bed pretty early since we had an early start time the next morning.

Getting settled into another hotel bed

I think the drive from Bismarck, ND to Missoula, MT (our second long day of driving) was our favorite.  We got up early to get on the road.

UGH, do I have to get up???

Before we left Bismarck, Claudius and I took this picture in front of the Bismarck auditorium.  Growing up, I learned all of the state capitals using these coins my Grampa gave me, and he would quiz me all the time.  For some reason, the Dakotas were always some of our favorites.

I was taking the first shift of driving, so got some kisses from Claudius before we headed out.  Mostly because I was trying to put my sunglasses on him and he wanted no part of it...

...but he was eventually forced persuaded to give them a try!

On our way out of Bismarck, we saw some signs for the Lewis and Clark trail.  It is pretty cool to think that we were taking some of the "same" route that they might have on their journey.  (I say "same" in quotes because I'm not sure how precise this sign was or if it is more a representation of the general direction.)

It was a nice, sunny day - this view probably looked a lot nicer in person than it does in the picture.

As usual, Claudius spent most of his time sleeping.  This probably has something to do with the fact that we got sleeping pills from the vet.  It was a bit of a pain to get him to take him and they didn't knock him out completely, but it kept him from getting too restless.

One of the longest uninterrupted stretches we've ever seen on the GPS - 631 miles!  We had to drive out of North Dakota and into Montana, almost to the western edge of the state.

This picture really does not do the landscape justice.  It's easy to see what they mean by Big Sky Country.  It was very open and just beautiful.  We were lucky to have such a nice day for the drive so that we could really appreciate it all.

Looking ahead, looking behind.

We were not entirely sure what these structures were used for but we thought they were kind of neat.  We weren't sure if they were used to mark the way for birds or something (doubt they need our help though).

We stopped to switch drivers and I finally got a picture of the coolest dog wearing some sunglasses.

Cool Claud

Some more pictures of the big open sky!

We finally made it to Montana, where we would spend the bulk of the day driving, to get to Missoula.  When planning the trip, we had looked at Missoula and Helena.  We finally settled on Missoula because it got us a little bit closer to Seattle, and we found a good hotel that accepted pets.

Big Sky Country also meant Sunny Sky Country and Hot Car Country when the sun was out.  We devised some good ways to keep Claudius cool during the drive. :)

During part of our trip we drove past the Painted Canyon.  I think these pictures are from there, but they might not be - it was awhile ago.  Whatever it was (we'll just go with the Painted Canyon) was also really pretty and again, the pictures do not do it justice.  We had originally planned to stop a lot to take pictures with the good camera, but that never happened, so you get these phone pics instead. :)

We came up to a part of the canyon where there were wild horses.  This was probably the most exciting part of the drive.  I think we actually did pull over and took some pictures from the side of the road.  They were just hanging around on the side of the hill or whatever and eating the grass - out for a stroll and a little snack.

Some more pictures of the landscape we drove by.  So beautiful!

The drive through Montana was not nearly as boring as the drive through North Dakota.  While North Dakota was mostly flat and straight, there were some twists and turns in Montana and lots of hills and stuff dotting the landscape.

We passed an exit sign for Home on the Range - not quite sure where it went though. :)

Some more scenes of the landscape going by.

We came up near a train and decided to "race" it.

Hi, train!

Claudius missed all the fun, of course.  Look at how tight his eyes are closed!

Some more landscape pictures - there were some nice clouds in the sky that day too.

We had to get off the highway at one point to get gas (stopping every 300-350 miles), and stopped in Custer, Montana.  Population: 145.  It was REALLY small and we did not hang around - we joked that it felt like something out of a horror movie.

Panda kept Claudius company and helped block some of the sun.  My mom bought me the panda from the Smithsonian National Zoo a number of years ago and he made the trip to Seattle with us!

As we moved along, we started seeing The Rockies.  For some reason, I didn't think these mountains were The Rockies, but my mom (whom I was texting) kept saying they were and now she won't let me live it down that she was right about them! :)

The Rockies were just amazing to look at.  They just dominated the landscape and it was just awesome (in the true sense of the word)!

NOT The Rockies

We made a pit stop for some gas and then washed the windshield - cleaned up all of the "bug bodies", as Marek called them.  There were LOTS of bug bodies!  You can even see some of them in the pictures above.

Claudius was waiting for his turn to drive the car.

PLEASE?

We also saw some cows on the side of the road and I thought they were wild cows, but Marek laughed at me and said there is no such thing as wild cows.  Is this true??  Are there no wild cows?  They looked pretty wild to me, but he said there was probably a farm somewhere relatively nearby that we couldn't see.

After a long and much nicer drive than the day before, we checked into the Hampton Inn in Missoula.  It was a nice hotel Claudius and I parked ourselves on a chair waiting for Marek to come back with dinner...

...which was from Hooters!  Seriously, the food is good.  I can't get enough of the tater tots with the cheese, bacon, and scallions.

Someone was pretty darn tired after our long day!

The end of the day meant the end of the long days of driving.  The next morning we would get up for the last leg of the drive, which was "only" about 8 or 9 hours.  Then we'd be at our new home! :)

Read more...

Cross-Country Road Trip: Chicago to Bismarck

After getting a good night's rest at Andrea's, we were up early the next morning to get started on the long drive.  Up until this point, we had stopped and done things or visited with people but after Chicago, it was just three straight days of driving through Big Sky Country and whatever you call Eastern Washington.

First order of business was getting His Highness nice and comfortable.  The drives on the other days had been 8-9 hours at the most, but starting this day (a Sunday!), we would be driving around 14 hours each day for the next two days.

A 14-hour drive meant an early start time.  We had a long day ahead of us so we left as early as we could.

We got the GPS up and ready to go for the drive, which was about 830 miles.

GPS estimate of a 14.5 hour drive!

Before we really got going though, we of course had to make a stop at Dunkin' Donuts.  Claudius and I waited outside while Marek got his fix, especially since there are no Dunkin' Donuts where we were going, something I still don't think he's gotten over!

DID YOU GET YOUR COFFEE YET?

The drive out from Chicago was the farthest east I had ever driven!  We headed up through Milwaukee...

And Claudius and I snoozed through most of the rain, which went on for a couple of hours I think.

Furrowed doggie brow

At some point we stopped for a bite at McDonald's.  I think the order was written down because I got the wrong things during a previous stop.  All this food is Marek's, too!

After eating, we kept on driving, and the skies started to clear up.

I can tell by the pants in this picture that I had taken over driving at this point.  The weather was nicer and Marek took his turn catching some ZZZZZs.

We made it to Minnesota!

We saw a sign for "Manning Ave" so I had to take a picture. :)

We stared longingly at the sign that said Fargo, ND was less than 200 miles away.  Too bad we had another 200 miles to after Fargo!

We finally made it to North Dakota!

Driving in North Dakota was pretty boring.  Lots of open space and nothing much to look at, but at least the sky cleared up so it was a nice, sunny drive.

We got to the hotel in the evening (a Radisson).  The door to the hotel from the garage creeped us out a little, but it was a very nice hotel.

Read more...