Salad with a Side of Pasta

True story: My family doesn’t call “pasta” pasta. Around here it’s known as macaroni, no matter what shape it is. Growing up I don’t think I ever heard anyone even say the word pasta at home, it was always, always, always macaroni! Anyone else grow up in a family with limited starchy carb lingo? I’m probably the only one in my whole family that says pasta, but I also only say (type) it when I’m blogging or visiting blogs so I don’t sound like a dork calling ziti or penne macaroni, and of course in restaurants. Despite being in the habit of saying pasta, it still feels really formal every time I do say it, lol.

Another true story: I smell like peanut butter. Even though it’s MaraNatha no stir peanut butter, that’s not completely true. It gets little pools of (organic palm) oil on top. So, tonight when I had pretzel crisps and peanut butter for a snack, I hastily jammed my butter knife in the jar to stir it and *SPLASHHHHHHHH* —all. over. my. shirt! I haven’t changed it yet because I was anxious to do an update so I could go to sleep a little earlier tonight. Sigh. It’s not that I don’t love the smell of peanut butter, but I also don’t want to be engulfed in it. Going to be fun getting this oil stain out, too. Mom: Your 31-year-old daughter is peanut butter jar incompetent, please help.

Speaking of momma, she made a pot of homemade sauce, which is another family tradition on Sundays. We’re so stereotypical Italian-American, lol. Well, mom is Cuban and Polish, but I think she adopted all of her recipes and traditions from my father’s side of the family. Although, her side of the family pretty much eats a lot of the same foods, except for major differences like turkey on Christmas. That wouldn’t happen on my father’s side, lol. Seven fish dinner on Xmas Eve, and usually lasagna or baked macaroni ziti on Xmas Day. We’re predictable like that.

I contributed roasted garlic bread and salad to the meal. But I was the only one eating the salad, so I guess I contributed that to my meal. heh

About a cup of macaroni pasta with mom’s meaty sauce (some kind of sausage and pork chop) and grated reggianito cheese.

Trying to ration my olives from the olive bar by slicing them into smaller pieces. I could eat several dozen of those little sodium bombs all at once. They’re SO good, but soooo salty. I don’t like the slices as much. The texture of the firm olive is what makes it extra amazing. That burst of salt and bitter fruit in your mouth… *sighs* Heavenly.

Not that the ciabatta bread I made the garlic bread with was much better sodium-wise. I cut the top of a head of garlic off, just enough to expose the cloves. Then, I drizzled olive oil over it, wrapped it in foil, and popped it in the oven on 425F degrees for about 35 minutes. When it was done, I let it cool for a bit, then squeezed the cloves out and mixed it with butter and dried parsley and spread it on ciabatta rolls from Hannaford; back into the oven on 425F until they were crispy.

The garlic gets so sweet and creamy, it’s fabulous!!

Dinner was delish. Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia FroYo for dessert. Gotta love Sundays!

I’m going to sleep now. I stayed up much later than I wanted to. Ugh. Can’t wait to get out of this peanut butter haze. I know, sacrilege, but too much of a good thing, ya know? lol

Question: Do you or does your family rename foods? I’m sure I have a long list of foods that my family or I have renamed through the years, but it’s so ordinary to me that I don’t really notice anymore.

Tagged as: dinner, garlic bread, macaroni, pasta, sauce