Shopping Impressions

I can't say that shopping is a hobby, especially if I go with my wife. The difference between going shopping alone and going with the wife is expressed as at least double the bill for the latter.

This situation will certainly repeat itself this time.

I like more to watch, to observe people shopping and I like to watch how the fruit and vegetables are arranged. Autumn is queen right now and pumpkins are in high demand.

Like any self-respecting supermarket, this one mixes local and international produce so I get to admire the beautiful pomegranates.

However, the main purpose of shopping is to have something to cook with, so a stop at the vegetable stall becomes mandatory.

I don't want to show the whole supermarket now, it's boring but I want to point out that these kinds of stores, with everything, make you buy much more than you intended when you entered them. Our initial need was small, by the looks of the shopping cart...

... but the wife's watchful eye identified a lot of things she thought we would need. I chose a small basket, hoping that its small size would have an impact on the wife's appetite for shopping but I was wrong.

and the ending led me to this. There are also products under the basket that are not visible.

Well, I can't say I didn't expect this! It wasn't a surprise, because the opposite has never happened before.

If shopping doesn't really appeal to me, I love cooking instead. It's I think the activity that relaxes me the most. Of course, if no one interferes with what I'm doing. Usually, there's no interference...

So, in great need of relaxation, I will show you how I cooked, for the first time, Pasta Carbonara!

I'm not a food blogger. I don't do slideshows with photos so beautiful that they inspire eating. I try to show what I do in the kitchen so that something good to eat comes out of it. So it might not look like the book.

Pasta Carbonara!

As proof of what I said above, I always miss the beginning of the food preparation, I mean I miss shooting from the beginning! After I start work in the kitchen I get the idea to photograph the stages of food preparation, so I miss the start. Same with this pasta.

I forgot to point out the first necessary ingredient with which I start cooking. A piece of bacon. This one has to be cut into strips and put to roast in a pan with little or no oil.

When we don't use oil, we have to be careful not to burn the bacon. I didn't put oil but forgot to stir often in the pan and so I burned this bacon a bit. So the start was wrong!

While the bacon is frying we have to boil the pasta. Put the pasta in the boiling water with a little salt. Cook the pasta for as long as it says on the package, in my case, it should be cooked for about 11 minutes.

By the time the pasta is ready, I will tell you what ingredients are needed for this dish. Pasta Carbonara is a famous Italian dish, probably only an Italian chef prepares it best and the rest of us can try to cook something roughly similar.

Ingredients

a piece of bacon
spaghetti or other pasta, such as "penne rigate", now used by me
some Italian cheeses: parmesan, gorgonzola
eggs, cream
salt, pepper

For the sauce we do this.

Mix two eggs (that's for four servings of 100 grams each) with grated Parmesan cheese and gorgonzola broken into small pieces (because it's a soft, gooey cheese, it can't be grated) and a few tablespoons of sour cream.

The sauce is ready and waiting. Now we have to deal with the pasta because it has cooked in the meantime.

Put a few strips of pasta and a little pasta water in the pan with the fried bacon to mix in all the bacon fat.

Add more pasta water and then add the rest of the pasta. Stir well and cook for a few minutes more so the flavors from the bacon get into the pasta.

Very important to put more ground pepper, the Italians emphasize this and say it gives a special flavor.

Then we finish by adding the sauce!

Amestecam sosul si il lasam sa mai fiarba cam cinci minute si mai adaugam cateva linguri din apa de la paste, daca credem ca sosul este prea gros.

I forgot to photograph the pasta in the pan. As I told you, I don't have the rigor of a chef blogger. Fortunately, I photographed the pasta on the plate. I have to tell you that many times after I cooked and took photos of the cooking process, at the end, I jumped up and ate it all and then remembered that I didn't photograph what the food looked like on the plate.

Not very pretty but, fortunately, very tasty. You can't really go wrong with this dish and the Italian cheeses, especially gorgonzola give it a very special taste and flavor. And don't forget the pepper!

Flowers go with food, flowers beautify any table. Because I shy away from cutting flowers to bring them into the house, I enjoy their beauty in the garden.

If somehow you want to try cooking Carbonara pasta, know that they are really easy to prepare and you can choose the spaghetti version. They will definitely be extremely tasty but you have to use a slice of good Italian cheese. Enjoy!

For #marketfriday and #alwaysaflower by @dswigle