not tuna noodle casserole, tuna pasta

dinner tonight needed to happen fast. my husband left his lunch at home (again) and called on the road to say he was starving. mr. hyde has nothing on my sweet, scholarly, husband when he's hungry. so, pasta it was. and oh, what pasta. when i waitressed at an italian restaurant during my misguided youth this particular pasta was one of my favorites. it also happens to be one of the first things i made for my husband, and consequently, one of the reasons he didn't head for the hills when he got to know me better. it's simple and tasty, just heat olive oil in a pan, before the oil is hot put some red pepper flakes in so they will flavor the oil, which by the way, is the sauce so don't be stingy with it. when the oil is nice and hot add plain ol' canned tuna. if you want to spring for it you can get the stuff packed in olive oil and add it with the oil it came in, if you're like me (cheap) press as much water out as you can before plunking it in the pan, mince a clove or two (for us three) of garlic and put it in at the same time as the tuna. you still want the garlic to be sharp when you serve it, not sweet and browned. salt to taste. give the pan a couple of good shakes and heat the tuna through. squeeze some lemon juice in once it's hot and sprinkle with some dried parsley. could you get cute and use fresh parsley? sure. don't get carried away with the lemon or the parsley though, the star here is the pepper flakes and tuna. pour over the pasta of your choice and serve with grated cheese and fresh lemon slices. if it looks a little dry when you toss it together just add some olive oil on top.

chili verde, the second generation

so the recipe for the chili verde is already out there, it's one of our favorites. usually when i make this, as i believe i stated in the recipe, i use a rather large pork roast, usually butt, cushion, or picnic shoulder. this being the case when i made a batch a few weeks ago i had about a quart of leftovers, which i put in a plastic bag and threw in the freezer. last night i wanted mexican food badly, as only a pregnant lady can, and decided to try something new for the leftovers. i'm going to level with you, mostly i wanted to cut down on the dishes i had to wash. so here's what i did: i warmed about 9 small corn tortillas, i mixed the chili with a hand full of shredded 'taco' cheese and rolled enchiladas in my 8x8 glass casserole dish, nothing fancy. it wasn't greased, there wasn't any extra sauce to layer under it, it just all went into little rolls crammed into the pan, i put a little warm water in the bag the chili had been in and swished it around to get all the sauce out and poured that over the enchiladas. i spooned refried beans right out of the can all over the top, used my scissors to chop some fresh cilantro over the beans, and topped with cheese. cover with foil and bake for about an hour, maybe only forty-five minutes, until heated through. i just served it with chips, a tub of salsa from the store, and a chopped up avocado. yumm!

thing three update

well, our wonderful OBGYN got us in monday afternoon to talk over the ultra sound. our regular appointment was for wednesday, so it wasn't really that early. after i once again checked out right on target for weight and blood pressure and tummy size the dr came in and cheerfully said, "well, there is nothing else wrong in your ultra sound, so this means nothing. it can be cause for concern, but not to you, you're fine." he did say that he might (might!) send us to a specialist for a detailed ultra sound to track/compare baby's growth in 6 weeks, but that would be after next months appointment. so, after about three more rounds of the "you're fine, your baby is fine" litany he smiled, shook our hands and said, "see you in a month!" our feelings afterward: let down. hunger. we shuffled off to wendy's saying things like, "well it's a relief, of course, but i knew we were fine." and "see i told you, we're all good, the baby was fine all along." because these are the brave things you say after a long weekend of trying not to worry, because worry wont help.