Wing It Spicy Pasta

Like many cooks, I have a tendency to wing it and not really measure the ingredients when I'm cooking. I just let my instincts take over and I create dishes according to my taste buds. I've thought about sharing my recipes like this before, but I hesitated because I wasn't able to give precise measurements. However, I realized that it's okay if I don't have precise measurements because part of cooking is creativity and what's more creative than making up a dish as you go along  ;-)

So here's my recipe:

Ingredients (to your own taste):
•roughly a tablespoon of Cajun seasoning
•roughly a tablespoon of oregano
•2 vegetable stock cubes
•roughly a half teaspoon of flat leaf parsley
•roughly a teaspoon of smoked paprika
•a splash of Worcestershire sauce
•a splash of balsamic vinegar
•1 large onion (chopped)
•about 8 medium sized mushrooms (chopped)
•roughly 4 ounces of water
•teaspoon of olive oil
•half teaspoon of butter
•spaghetti (amount depending upon how many you're serving)
Cooking time: about 25 minutes
Prep time: Just enough time to chop your mushrooms and onions

 Add your olive oil and butter to your frying pan, letting the butter melt down. Next add your chopped onions and let them cook down until they're close to being translucent and then add your chopped mushrooms. Let the onions and mushrooms mingle together for a bit.

Then crumble up your vegetable stock cubes and add them both to your onion and mushroom mixture. Stir it all together. Next add your water, because this helps to bring  a little moisture to things and it helps with incorporating the dry stock cubes into the mixture.

At this point you can add all of your other ingredients to the pan except for the spaghetti. Stir all of the ingredients together well, making sure that everything is incorporated into the mixture.

Depending on your preference you can boil the spaghetti before, during, or after you make the spicy mixture. I usually start it halfway through preparing the mixture so that the noodles don't become too mushy. But I leave this to your individual preference.

I really love making this dish and it's very tasty! I hope that you'll try my Wing It Spicy Pasta! :-)

This recipe post was previously published on my other blog Labyrinthus XXI .

Love

Just wanted to spread some love today!

 

Happy Monday!  :-))

Happy Valentine's Day

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY EVERYONE!

I know that we shouldn't just love on one day, and we don't, but I still think it's nice to say it whenever we can and today seemed like one of many good days to do that  ;-)

Also...

 

HAPPY FRIDAY !!!!

Remembering Shirley Temple Black

 

Like many of you, I woke up this morning to the news that Shirley Temple has passed away at the age of 85. Her name was actually Shirley Temple Black as an adult, but the sweet name from her childhood sticks in my mind so much because I LOVED her movies when I was a child.

 

When I was a little girl I'd get up on weekend mornings and ask my mom if there were any Shirley Temple movies scheduled to be shown. My activities for the day often hinged upon whether or not one of her movies was going to be on that day :-)  That was a sweet and wonderful memory that crossed my mind this morning when I heard the news.

 

I have a lot of wonderful memories of singing and dancing along with Shirley Temple movies throughout my childhood. I didn't know it then, but those fun performances alongside the television shaped a lot of my love for all things creative. They helped me to dream and to express myself and that is why I remember Shirley and her films so fondly now as an adult. They fired my imagination so very much and for that I am grateful.

 

Farewell Shirley Temple and thank you....