Nothing You Can Do That Can't Be Done

All You Need is Love (Lennon-McCartney)

There's nothing you can do that can't be done.
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung.
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game
It's easy.
There's nothing you can make that can't be made.
No one you can save that can't be saved.
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time It's easy.

Is it easy?

If anyone has noticed, I haven't blogged in a while. I understand if you haven't been paying attention. I've been going through a crisis of sorts. Everyday I think about things I can blog about, recipes to share or thoughts about life. But then I over-analyze it all. I get the song "All You Need is Love" going through my head. Along with the philosophy that nothing in the universe is new - that everything has been done before. Most importantly I think about how I doubt my capacity to do it better than those who have come before me.

Honestly, I've always had this problem. I am only now realizing that this is the main reason why I have such a hard time finishing, well, anything. I am terrific at starting things, but finishing them... I know that this is not a healthy way to look at life, and yet I find it difficult to change.

I'm not working right now, because I'm supposed to be trying to write the "next Great Novel". But I find myself unable to write. Unable to put the ideas and thoughts I have to paper (or computer). I fight with myself because I am so afraid of hurting any one's feelings if I happen to write something that even as a hint suggests friends or family.

I guess you could say I'm really not sure what I'm doing. But I guess the next question I have for everyone is this: Does anyone really know what they are doing with their lives?

I truly envy those who know exactly what they want to do or be. A few years ago on our trip to Vienna and Prague we met this young woman who astounded me. She was an American visiting Vienna and it's symphonies. She was a high school student who played the flute, and her mother and aunt were with her. After talking with her mother for a while, I learned that this young woman had asked for a flute when she was 4. Four. She had seen someone playing a flute on TV, and decided that was what she wanted to do. She spent hours every day practicing her flute. She studied and was learning everything she could about Classical music. All I kept thinking as I was talking with this brilliant young woman was "Wow. To know without a doubt what you want to do in life. Wow."

I'm edging closer and closer to that 40 mark, and I still have no clue what I want to do when I grow up. Do you know what you want to do?

Okay, enough philosophy and ramblings for today. Because I do have a recipe I want to share with you.

I've made Baked Penne with Roasted Vegetables by Giada De Laurentis that I found on FoodTV twice now. Each time I make it I'm surprised with how much I like it. This last time I made it, we were shopping at the Commissary and I was unable to find either Fontina or smoked mozzarella. For those of you who are lucky enough not to have had the pleasure of shopping at the Commissary, it is the grocery store on all US Military Installations. The Commissary is a great store where you can normally save money on groceries. However, it is hard to get "gourmet" things there sometimes. I substituted regular mozzarella and gruyere cheese with wonderful results.

Baked Penne with Roasted Vegetables

from Giada De Laurentis

2 red bell peppers, cored and cut into 1 inch wide strips

2 each zucchini and summer squash, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1 inch cubes

4 cremini mushrooms, halved

1 yellow onion, peeled and sliced into 1 inch strips

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon salt, divided

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided

1 tablespoon dried Italian herb mix or herbs de Provence

1 pound penne pasta

3 cups marinara sauce (store bought or homemade)

1 cup grated fontina cheese

1/2 cup grated smoked mozzarella

1 1/2 cups frozen peas, thawed

1/4 cup grate Parmesan, plus 1/3 cup for topping

2 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces

Preheat the oven to 450F.

On a baking sheet, toss the peppers, zucchini, squash, mushrooms, and onions with the olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and dried herbs. Roast until tender, about 15 minutes. (I roasted the vegetables the last time I made this recipe for a total of 25 minutes.)

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook for about 6 minutes. Since you will cooking the pasta a second time in the oven, you want to make sure he inside is still hard. Drain in a colander.

In a large bowl, toss the drained pasta with the roasted vegetables, marinara sauce, cheeses, peas and remaining salt and pepper. Using a wooden spoon, gently mix, until all the pasta is coated with the sauce and the ingredients are combined.

Pour the pasta into a greased 9 by 13 inch pan. Top with the remaining 1/3 cup Parmesan and butter pieces. Bake until top is golden and the cheese melts, about 25 minutes.

Heat makes me crazy

I think I must have been delusional when I found out we were moving to St. Louis. For some strange reason, I thought that St. Louis in the summer would be cooler than Washington, DC or Norfolk, Virginia. Ha! I'm not sure why I thought that, maybe it was during one of the heat spells in Norfolk that I thought that. St. Louis is HOT. I think of this as the beginning of summer and with the heat index it is 108 right now outside. I'm really afraid to know what August is going to be like!

I don't know if it's my Irish blood, or the fact that I grew up in mild Seattle, but the heat does strange things to me. Not even taking into account the fact that I burn in under 10 minutes, but if I am out in it for any length of time, I get light-headed, dizzy and downright odd in the head. I am really thankful that I am not working, and I don't have to go out much if I don't really want to!

Thankfully we have central air conditioning, which is something almost unheard of in Seattle. Whenever I think of central A/C I can't help but think of the scene from the movie "Dogma" with the demon Azrael. "No pleasure, no rapture, no exquisite sin greater than central air...". I whole-heartedly agree with that!

But, because this is an older home that we are renting, there are some rooms that don't cool quite as well as others - the kitchen in particular. My kitchen is 80 degrees right now, while it is 75 degrees in the dining room, where I am right now. As you can imagine, I haven't been wanting to spend too much time in the kitchen, but I have to spend some time in the kitchen - we have to eat!

Which brings us to one of the most recent dishes I've made. I did have to heat up the kitchen to make Rotini with Salmon and Roasted Garlic from "Everyday Pasta" by Giada De Laurentis, but I ate the leftovers cold the next day! If you can remember to roast your garlic earlier in the day or the day before, this comes together very quickly.

But, you can also use the heat of the oven to make on of my favorite side dishes - roasted asparagus. Just rinse and dry your asparagus, and snap the ends off. Place them in a roasting dish large enough to lay the spears flat. Drizzle them with just enough olive oil to coat and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Depending on the thickness of your asparagus, they will take approximately 6-12 minutes to cook.

Rotini with Salmon and Roasted Garlic

from "Everyday Pasta" by Giada De Laurentis

2 whole heads of garlic

2 tablespoons olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 pound rotini or fusilli (corkscrew-shaped pasta)

1/2 cup Marsala or white wine

1 cup chicken broth

1 pound salmon, cut into 1-inch cubes

zest and juice of 1 lemon

1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons drained capers

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Cut the heads of garlic in half crosswise and place on a sheet of foil. Drizzle with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Fold the foil up and around the garlic, making sure it stays flat, and fold the edges to seal into a tight packet. Roast until soft, about 60 minutes. Let the garlic cool slightly, then squeeze the cloves out of the skin. Mash half of the roasted garlic cloves into a paste with the back of a fork. Set aside.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain.

Meanwhile, combine the Marsala and chicken broth in a large heavy skillet and bring to a simmer. Add the mashed roasted garlic and stir to dissolve. Simmer uncovered for 4 minutes, then add the salmon, cover, and simmer for 4 minutes longer. Remove from the heat and add the remaining whole roasted garlic cloves, the lemon zest and juice, rosemary and the cooked pasta. Stir to combine; add the extra-virgin olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and stir once more. Serve immediately.