You had me at pasta and bacon

Pasta with bacon and watercress.

Ever have one of those work days when you do a huge amount of work and then feel like you produced a huge amount of crap?

I had one of those days last night. I was up all night writing. I wrote a lot of pages.

But at 5am when I was taking the dogs for a long walk, all of the work I did last night seems awful, without merit and will never see the harsh fluorescent lights of a book store.

I am sure it is just because I am way too over tired and I should sleep.

But at 6am I was starving so I made some pasta.

I cooked the pasta according to the package directions. While that was boiling away I pulled out two pieces of bacon out of the freezer and set them sizzling in a skillet.

When the pasta was cooked al dente I drained it and set it aside. When the bacon was nice and crispy I pulled it out of the pan and let it dry on paper towels.

I drained off most of the bacon fat and tossed the pasta back into the skillet along with one clove of garlic, minced, the bacon and 1 cup of watercress.

Just so you know, I added 1/2 a piece of bacon to my dish – the dogs got to enjoy the other 1 1/2 pieces

When everything was warmed through, I plated the pasta and added a generous shaving of Parmesan on top.




Happy Friday!

The perfect summer dish

Watercress salad with white peaches and watermelon.

This salad is the perfect summer dish. 

I mixed together 1 cup of watercress with two cups of red leaf lettuce and tossed everything with my new favorite dressing:

The peppery bite of the watercress went really well with the sweetness of the peaches and watermelon. 

This was a very light and refreshing salad. I will be sad when summer ends and this endless supply of juicy fruit ends.

Some creamy goat cheese would have been great in this salad but I resisted the urge to run to the store to pick some up.  And, yes, the eating down my pantry project continues...