Cooking with Manda
How I Made an Organic, Romantic Dinner
Last night, I wanted to make Ryan a special dinner to say thank-you for all the hours he puts in at work to make our homestead a reality someday. Here’s my recipe for Lady & the Tramp Spaghetti with Serena’s Fresh Garlic Bread! This meal was created in honor of that very special Disney movie and also inspired by my friend Serena who gave me a whole new concept of garlic bread.
Sorry there aren’t any photos; we ate it before thinking about documenting the evening. Hopefully the text will illustrate the story fairly well.
Lady & the Tramp Spicy Spaghetti with Serena’s Garlic Bread
Boil water with a pinch of salt. Cook spaghetti for two according to your dietary needs, whatever type you prefer. Don’t forget to overcook the pasta like I accidentally do, to give it that stuck-together-the-way-I-love-you clumpiness. In a saucepan, start with your favorite can of organic tomato sauce or make your own from scratch. Add a half teaspoon or more red chile pepper flakes, a heaping tablespoon of pesto, about 3 cloves chopped garlic, some Itallian seasoning from the farmer’s market, and Organic Valley heavy whipping cream until the color is pleasantly orange and tastes creamy. Add sauce to pasta immediately after draining, unless you forgot to make the sauce and are scrambling for time, then leave it in the sink and slap your forehead.
Next, make the garlic bread out of whatever you have. Last night I found a single hot dog bun in the back of the fridge, and thought it resembled a bread stick shape, so I used that. Toast the bread in the oven and burn it a little, or it won’t have that Manda-made-it texture. Then, scrape the burnt places off and applaud Serena’s awesomeness while rubbing a raw clove of garlic across the tops of the toasted bread. Add way more butter than necessary to make up for the somewhat stale, burnt dryness of the bread.
Romantic Ambiance
Light 3 small candles in the window near the table, or if, like us, you lack a table and chairs, simply put pillows on the floor near the closest thing to a surface you can eat from. String some Christmas lights around the room, and use a handmade pottery dish for a dessert display of butter cookies dipped in melted fair trade dark chocolate (coming soon to Ripples’ Cookies!).
Trust me, this is a fool-proof meal that will taste good no matter how terrible a cook you happen to be, and for safety’s sake always watch the Itallian dinner scene from Lady & the Tramp to distract your partner from the clumps of spaghetti clinging to their fork.