{Weekend Footnotes} 8 Cuts Burger + RECIPE: Pasta Aglio Olio with Spicy Shrimps

Let me start this week's edition of Weekend Footnotes with a recipe for Pasta Aglio Olio.

Over a decade ago, long before I even discovered Ina Garten's recipe for Pasta Aglio Olio, my kids already preferred eating their pasta this way.  When the girls were still young and went on playdates, I remember B telling the hostess to not put marinara sauce on her pasta, emphasizing, “just parmesan cheese, please, thank you.”

Here's a quick and easy recipe for dinner by Ina Garten. The addition of shrimps is a variation which you can omit.

Spicy Shrimp

1 kilo of jumbo-sized shrimps, peeled and deveined

juice of 1 calamansi

handful of parsley

1 teaspoon salt

freshly ground pepper to taste

drizzle of EVOO

1. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.  Toss to mix well. Marinate for 15 minutes.

2. Heat a pan over medium high heat, then add half of the shrimp. Cook shrimp until it turns pink, about 2-3 minutes. Remove shrimp to a plate and repeat process with remaining shrimp.  Set aside.
3. Use the same pan to continue making step 2 of Pasta Aglio Olio.

Pasta Aglio Olio
Recipe by Ina Garten

Ingredients
Kosher salt
1 pound dried spaghetti
1/3 cup good olive oil
8 large garlic cloves, cut into thin slivers

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1/2 cup minced fresh parsley
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving

Directions
1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add 2 tablespoons of salt and the pasta and cook according to the directions on the package. Set aside 1 1/2 cups of the pasta cooking water before you drain the pasta.
2. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil over medium heat in a pot large enough to hold the pasta, such as a 12-inch saute pan or a large, shallow pot. ( You can use the pan used to cook the shrimps) Add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently, until it just begins to turn golden on the edges-don't overcook it! Add the red pepper flakes and cook for 30 seconds more. Carefully add the reserved pasta-cooking water to the garlic and oil and bring to a boil. Lower the heat, add 1 teaspoon of salt, and simmer for about 5 minutes, until the liquid is reduced by about a third.
3. Add the drained pasta to the garlic sauce and toss. Off the heat, add the parsley and Parmesan and toss well. Allow the pasta to rest off the heat for 5 minutes for the sauce to be absorbed. Taste for seasoning and serve warm with extra Parmesan on the side.

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Friday's merienda for the kids was a well-loved and guilt-free version of Banana Cream Pie.  This is one of the few times where I didn't have to work with a recipe and just eye-balled everything.  I just layered all the ingredients the same way you would layer a Banana Cream Pie.  I made a loose crust of graham crackers, chia seeds and toasted oats. Poured plain yogurts drizzled with condensed milk on top. Finished with sliced bananas and some more chia seeds and oats.   It's a winner with my kids!!!  

As for me, I just had a salad of red rice, quinoa, and vegetables.  It's not as bad as it looks.  It's actually good, but my carnivorous family couldn't be convinced.:)

Saturday, my sister shared some home-made Coconut Ice Cream with the kids.  It was surprisingly good! Because when I first heard coconut ice-cream... meh. But the kids love it, I think they had 2 each.

Since I promised B a baking session at least twice a month, she requested to make coconut macaroons. It's been years -  no, decades, parang more than 2 decades since I lasted tasted coconut macaroons; so I had no idea why she wanted to make them.  I even had to clarify that they are no the same as French macaroons. She knows the difference daw! Pagbigyan.:)  It was so good that everyone ate it up over the weekend. None left for recess baon this week.

Do you still remember how I shared with you what my take-away was for the service 2 Sundays ago? When we are faced with irritating and annoying circumstances, we should respond in faith by remembering the acronym PRAY. 

Well, to be honest with you, it didn't turn out that well for me. I did P because I paused to think of how to respond appropriately, I also did R since I resisted the first impulse to get upset, and I also did A by asking God for self-control... but instead of a triumphant finish, my Y turned to YELL, instead of Yielding to God. Tutor time is really a cross for me!  

I am posting the acronym once again, in the hopes that this week will be better for my li'l man and me.

Pastor Peter added that maybe in order for PRAY to be more effective, we should all make it a conscious reminder to act like we are always in the presence of the Lord, which we really are.

I promised my li'l man that if he gets in the swimming varsity, we'd all eat at his favorite restaurant, 8 Cuts Burger Blends.  So Sunday lunch was all about him!

Since weekends are everyone's cheat days...

Sunday dinner was easy and relaxed for this mama, it's a make your own taco kind of dinner.:)  I decided to make it healthier by decreasing the amound of ground sirloin beef, and adding in a a cupful of quinoa to the beef and cumin mixture. My family didn't even had any idea. wink!

Ending my post with another OOTD of my J and me. She really loves her oxfords, and has been wearing them non-stop.:)