Friday night when I got home I decided to make the Linguini Walnut cream Sauce that I had been craving all week. I never made it because I was too tired after work to even think about cooking or cleaning up the mess. Friday was no different, but I decided to do it anyway because I was tired of frozen burritos and peanut butter sandwiches.
I've made the recipe so many times that I just do it all from memory. Chop the shallots, add garlic and butter to soften, add crushed walnuts 'til toasted, cook pasta, add pasta, parmesan, mascarpone, sour cream, pasta water, salt, and pepper. Serve with parsley and parmesan. As usual I made extra so I had leftovers for a couple meals.
After cooking I threw together a salad and decided to post my amazing dinner to Facebook so everybody could be jealous that I was eating home-cooked fabulousness on a Friday night...
...and was mortified that I couldn't find a clean spot on my kitchen floor to photograph against. I had spilled stuff, dribbled stuff, and even had a leaky tub of ice cream which made messes that I wiped up but never truly cleaned. Eventually I gave up and zoomed in close so my dirty floor wouldn't show...
The following morning I took a hard look at my floors and couldn't believe how bad things had gotten. I'm meticulous about keeping my countertops spotless but, without guests to impress thanks to quarantine, I had been neglecting my floors. I hadn't steam-cleaned them in months, so I guess it was time. Once I was done I removed the cleaning pad and... holy shit...
THAT'S JUST FROM MY SMALL KITCHEN ALONE! Remember when I first got my steam-mop how mortified I was seeing the pad AFTER CLEANING MY ENTIRE HOME? This is what grossed me out after steaming a kitchen, living/dining room, two bathrooms, a laundry room, two hallways, and three bedrooms...
I've always been obsessive about keeping a clean house... especially my kitchen. It's highly disturbing that I've used the pandemic and subsequent lack of houseguests as an excuse to just "let things go," and this is where it's gotten me.
But I'm going to try and not beat myself up over it.
Like everybody else, the mental toll of being isolated while the world goes to hell has changed my perspective when it comes to things I allow myself to beat myself up over.
Eh. You know what I mean.
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Your cooking always looks delicious, but those pretty patterned plates would make me cross-eyed! For me, the food is all the decoration I can handle so I have pristine white crockery.
What kind of pasta do you prefer? I had to switch to whole grain, thus far I’ve stuck to wheat, but I have some others to try – chickpea as well as brown rice & quinoa.
Speaking of food, are you only feeding your kats dry food? I ask because I did that in the past which led to one of mine getting diabetes.
Last question (as if you’ll actually answer any of them!): how many hours do you sleep??? I was wondering how you managed to watch so much telly!
I prefer fettuccine egg pasta best. Whole wheat, rice, and the rest are not the same for me.
I do not feed my cats only dry food. They get prescription dry food in small portions throughout the day, but their main meals are prescription wet food twice a day… which is sometimes substituted with “treat” wet food like tuna.
I usually sleep between 4 and 6 hours a night. Lots of room for television!