Frog Collectibles & Other Such Nonsense: Spaghetti

Frog Collectibles & Other Such Nonsense

A look at my frog collectibles as I get them and my wacky world in the meantime.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Spaghetti

Monday I felt pretty good for the majority of the day so I didn't take any pain killers for my knees. By Monday night I was regretting that decision. I got up to go to bed and it felt like sledge hammers slamming into my knees. It was too late to take a pain killer (it requires eating a full meal and being upright for a couple of hours) so I had to wait till after breakfast yesterday. So a sleepless night and a pain level getting worse every minute meant that by the time I woke up I was nearly out of my mind. Pain killers work better when the pain is mild - before it gets really bad. I ended up taking a pain killer after each meal yesterday to finally bring it under control. I actually got some sleep last night and feeling a better this morning. Hopefully I'll only need to take one pain killer each day now to keep the pain under control until the muscle heals - about 6 weeks from what I'm told.

So yesterday I had to make a big, hearty lunch so I could take medicine and I decided upon spaghetti. I usually make ziti or penne or farfalle - but all I had in the house was regular old spaghetti. I guess the reason that I have such problems with it is that I never know how much to make. Oh I've tried those measuring holes that come on various gadgets. You make the pasta for one and you're left wondering if it was a supermodel's meal because you have 2 strands of spaghetti in the middle of the plate. Or you get so much spaghetti it's running over the edge of the plate. I took out a small amount - tried to visualize it cooked and whether that was enough or not and decided it would do and threw it in the water.

Now spaghetti takes about a minute to go limp and the tops actually fall into the water, so I took that time to figure out what to do with the remaining spaghetti. It comes in that practically shrinked wrapped plastic - so I decided to take some saran wrap and cover the end to put it back in the cabinet. I took off a modest piece - after all, those packages aren't very big. I wrapped it around the end and found that it would not stick to the package. After several attempts and beginning to worry about the fact that I'm not stirring the pasta that's cooking in the pot, I ended up wrapping the whole package in about 3 layers of plastic wrap. I'll probably never get it unwrapped to make more spaghetti and will have to cut it open and go through the whole re-wrapping process again. I better stock up on plastic wrap.

Then I turn my attention to the pasta in the pot. Which is now one big lump - no matter how much you stir it and try to break it apart. The directions say to cook it for 7 minutes. Unfortunately I don't like my pasta crunchy, so I ended up cooking mine considerably longer. I get the pot over to the sink - and after a brief minute - decide that it would be better to pour this huge pot of water into the collander with the pot pointed away from me rather than towards me. This means you're pouring a huge pot of water into a small collander blindly. So I ended up with about half the pasta I originally cooked. Hey, I just realized why those gadgets with the holes never work!

I turn back to the stove to get the spaghetti sauce off the stove to find that with my back turned it decided to become a volcano and erupt all over the stove. While I didn't want it to dry on the stove - I've had that happen before and it's a bear to clean. So I grab the dish cloth and wipe up the little spatters that cover the stove, the wall, and I guess from the initial volcanic eruption - the hood over the stove. Finally, all cleaned up, I turn back with my sauce to the pasta which has now cooled a bit and congealed back into a single mass.

Finally at the table with my fork ready to enjoy. Twirly and pulling and splattering all over. A shirt change and a full cleaning of my kitchen and dining room - I'm exhausted!

Next time I'm picking up the phone and ordering a pizza!

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