Linguine with Cacio e Pepe

Oooh, a food post!!  Last weekend, after Jaynie was sound asleep, Scott and I broke out our cast iron skillet, some fresh scallops, and dried pasta to whip up this amazing dinner.  I was in charge of the linguine, and Scott threw together a quick lime-butter sauce for the scallops (I'd like to point out that the lime-butter scallops were my idea...I was the creative genius, and Scott was solely my kitchen minion).

Linguine with cacio e pepe (or linguine with cheese and pepper), is a Mario Batali recipe that I adore (as do my parents).  For it's deliciousness and refinement, it is AMAZINGLY easy to make.  Seriously, your guests will be impressed...and you can say: "Oh this?  I just whipped it up!"

Linguine with Cacio e Pepe
(From Molto Gusto, by Mario Batali)


Kosher salt
1/4 cup coarsely ground black pepper
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 pound dried linguine
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus extra for serving
1/4 cup grated pecorino romano


Bring 6 quarts water to a boil in a large pot and add 3 tablespoons kosher salt.


Meanwhile, set another large pot over medium heat, add the pepper, and toast, stirring, until fragrant, about 20 seconds.  Add the oil and butter and stir occasionally until the butter has melted.  Remove from the heat.


Drop the pasta into the boiling water and cook until just al dente.  Drain, reserving about 1/2 cup of pasta water.

Add 1/4 cup of the reserved pasta water to the oil and butter mixture, then add the pasta and stir and toss over medium heat until the pasta is well coated.  Stir in the cheeses (ass a splash or two more of the reserved pasta water if necessary to loosen the sauce) and serve immediately, with additional grated Parmigiano on the side. 

Dinner & a movie!

Eggs

A little behind on Easter posts, but heck, I'm always behind on my blog now.  Funny thing...working full time with a one year old leaves me precious little time to blog!

But here is Jaynie's first egg dye-ing experience.  She was very interested and curious about the process.  She gently handled her egg, dipping it into color after color.

The final product was a lovely marble red Easter egg, and a pair of lovely red marble Easter hands.

Of course, being Jaynie, she had absolutely no interest in eating her egg the next day.  Maybe next year....

Easter Easter Easter!

Easter was a busy weekend for the McCarthy's.  We had tons of family in town, which meant plenty of get togethers.  Scott's mom and sister stayed at our house, and my grandparents, aunts & uncles, and cousins (all of them!!!) were here for the weekend (thankfully not at our little townhouse).
The weekend began with a visit with Aunt Janet and Julianna at a little park in Danville.  Jaynie showed off her walking skills, swinging skills, and duck pointing skills.

Grandma and Nonny

Saturday was Easter prep day, which meant dying eggs, making potato salad, and baking desserts.  And of course a trip to the toy store since Grandma was visiting!

Eyeing Aunt Janet's bunny cakes.  Someday it will be Jaynie's job to make these cakes.  Also, pretty sure she is signing "more" here.

Then came Easter.  The last time Jaynie had to deal with huge family get togethers was at Christmas time, and she was a bit under the weather, and was hardly herself at all.   I was a little worried about Jaynie braving the crowds again, but this time she was a champ!!  She stayed up 2 hours past bedtime on Easter, and didn't even let out as much as a whine that she was exhausted.  I think she didn't want to miss any of the party, so kept going and going.   Good girl =)

We had 30 people at my parent's house, complete with our annual ping pong tournament.  This year also featured an egg hunt, starring Jaynie.  Out of 30 people, Jaynie was the only child (hint hint cousins), so she did a solo hunt.  She was thrilled to open the eggs and find goldfish, yogurt melts, and chocolate.  She even tried her hand at ping pong.

Egg hunt time!

My favorite egg hunt photo...it captures  the magic of her Easter

My cousin Christian won the tournament this year, with a $132 prize, and Jim F. took second place with $65.  The stakes are going up!  I really need to practice for next year, since I have been eliminated in the first round every single year.  No pics of the tourney, as I was hardly able to watch any of it as I was keeping my eye on my very active one year old!

Ping pong champ 2022

It was a wonderful Easter, and I feel very lucky that so much of our family is able to get together so often.