Pasta Express

For my cousin Teddy's birthday, I was given a Pasta Express. It's one of those infomercial junk thingys that I just couldn't turn down. You boil water, pour it into the long plastic tube, along with your favorite kind of pasta, and presto, change-o, just minutes later, you get cooked pasta. Magic in a tube, that's what I say. Looking back, this Pasta Express was destined to be mine, I just didn't know it at the time.

It all started on New Year's morning, when I was driving back home at around 5 am with my cousin Jo. Going down Roosevelt, we spotted a half dozen fire trucks, ambulances and even more police cars, sirens blasting, speeding past us in a hurry to get somewhere. Jo tried to talk me into following them, but I said, "No. I will probably do a lot of ambulance chasing in my future, but not tonight. I am not a lawyer yet." Her response, "Well, I was driving with Jenn once and we followed the fire trucks." Jenn is another cousin (yes, I have a million cousins but it's allowed, I'm Chinese). Jenn's not wild, or if she is, I don't really want to know, but she sure is unpredictable. You never know what she'd be up for. Like a 5 am trip to Bob Evans after falling asleep at 4 am. And then walking the dog afterwards. And then apparently, ambulance chasing (they ended up somewhere on State where a building was on fire).

Now remember this, as we fast forward to a few days later when at 2:30 in the morning, after hanging out at Funky Buddha for Teddy's birthday, she's driving me back home when her sister messages her and tells her she can't sleep. Minutes later, Jenn hangs up and looks over at me, "do you mind if we swing by my sister's house?" (her sister lives about 20 minutes away) I was tired but I figured, hey why not? Maybe this could be an adventure, like the ambulance chasing with Jo.

But it wasn't.

We got there and her sister was about to go to bed. It was almost a waste of a trip, except that Booge gave me her Pasta Express. Brand new. In the box still. I don't know if it was out of guilt, or if she wanted to bribe us so we would leave and let her go to sleep. Or if she just wanted to get rid of the damn thing. All I know is that I got a free Pasta Express. I know, made the trip totally worth it.

So as I was saying, the Pasta Express and me - destiny. If there weren't a million sirens going off on New Year's morning, Jo wouldn't have reminded me about how crazy Jenn could be, and if I hadn't hitched a ride with crazy Jenn after Funky Buddha, she wouldn't have dragged me over to Booge's, and Booge wouldn't have given me her Pasta Express. And I wouldn't have been able to sit here and watch my angel hair pasta get cooked without a stove and a pot.

Amazing how everything falls into place huh?

Quote of the Day

"Some people like to make workout tapes and take them to the gym, but I can't fathom why. Any music I hear in a gym is ruined forever."

-Rob Sheffield, Love is a Mix Tape

Year of Eights (and Rats!)

It's a brand new year, full of new hopes, possibilities and blah blah blah.

I spent my New Year's Eve at my cousin Elaine's house. It was an intimate gathering of friends and family, just the way I like to celebrate the coming of the new year. I enjoyed award winning chilli, champagne and homemade dumplings, courtesy of the hostess. Booge, you should seriously consider signing up for the next season of "The Next Food Network Star". After visiting her house, with her wonderful kitchen full of cooking gadgets and utensils, I was inspired to cook a dish myself.

I made the Korean dish, Kim Chee Gee Gay. Since I did not have all the ingredients the recipe called for, I made it my own way. Sadly, it did not come out the way my cousin made it. It was too sour. I don't think I should have added so much Kim Chee. Lesson learned, next time, follow the recipe more closely. But I guess all in all, it wasn't too bad, hey at least I cooked!