a whole mess o' photos

It's Sunday, and while it's not quite as nice as yesterday, it's pretty damn nice out.

Let's put you in a Sunday frame of mind:

The above was taken by Penelope, an ex-coworker of mine. She's got a great eye for the right shot, and I found this one hypnotizing.

I ruined my Namsan triumph by eating "pan fried fusion spaghetti" last night-- a mutant beast I created with a bunch of leftovers. It went something like this:



Above, you see the cast of characters. We've got leftover white sauce in the cylindrical plastic container; we've got lovely tomatoes from Min-sung's family; we've got the pasta ingredients laid out, along with onions, mushrooms, spices, and sundries.

(NB: Cheese snobs will note with disappointment that I caved and bought bottled parmesan cheese. There was a reason, though: I'd made a bunch of sauce for friends, and wanted to give them parmesan without obliging them to pull out a grater. That, and the regular parmesano reggiano was a bit beyond my budget at the time.)

Below, we chop an onion into submission.



Can mushrooms be far behind? Look:



I decided I was going to make a quasi-sauce with the tomatoes, so I chopped them in such a way that no piece of tomato had a long strip of skin. Man, I wish I had a blender.



Now witness beauty as I heat olive oil and pure butter. And let me take a moment to sing the praises of Korean butter. It's easily on par with European butter. Watch the melting:



As with the white sauce, we stir in the garlic, get it slightly brown, then stick in the chopped onion:



The tomatoes come in next. I should note, though, that if I'd had a blender, I'd have done this differently, pureeing the tomatoes, stir-frying the onions and spices separately, then heating the tomato sauce and adding the onion mix later.



A little bit further along in the process... add some wine...



And now-- the shrooms:



Watch that baby simmer. We're reducing now, trying to drive out most of the excess water:



And now... the dirty secret they use at Papa John's Pizzeria: add some sugar.



We've got spare tomatoes and mushrooms, so why not make a salad, eh?



Yes: I've added a bit more wine... the sauce is reducing nicely... but I realized later that I'd made a mistake in keeping the heat too high.



I've taken the sauce off the burner and am concentrating on making the pasta now. Flour, salt, egg, water:



Another neat thing I discovered: why knead? Mix the ingredients up with a fork, add flour as necessary to keep the dough from getting too sticky, and you end up with well-behaved mush. Notice how little flour is left over in the bowl. And notice, too, that your hands remain clean during this part of the process:



On a well-floured board, I continue to knead the dough, this time by hand because the flour keeps things from getting too sticky. Then I split the dough into two pieces:



In the following pic, I've taken one of the halves and started rolling it. It rolled out neatly into this circular shape, at which point an idea for oven-free white pizza struck me. I might try that when I'm over at Smoo. You a big fan of white pizza? I know I am.



I'm making pan-fried pasta, and here you can see that I'm cheating by cutting thick strips: takes less time.



Pile the dead onto a plate:



Then send them to hell:



Drain thoroughly, because we're frying them next, and you don't want tepid water mixing suddenly with hot oil.



Return them to the pain, this time in oil:



Sample a noodle before it fries:



Don't be overzealous:



Eventually, you end up with this very yummy result:



And when you add the reheated white sauce, the newly made red sauce, and sprinkle cheese on top, you get the following ensemble:



Accompanying the main course are a cup of tea and a bowl of the mushroom-tomato salad. The salad dressing is a quick mix of olive oil, salt, pepper, a little basil and oregano, a spot of sugar, and a very tiny dash of Korean apple vinegar, which is extremely bitter and can overwhelm your dressing.


Moving on now...


I took these magnolia photos today. Here's what the blooms look like when they're fully out:



These late bloomers remind me of the evil plant in "Little Shop of Horrors."

Feed me, Seymour.



Finally, a photo of decay. As I noted before, the blooms (and their lovely smell) don't last long-- only a few days.



But I'm happy to have brought these blooms to you. Enjoy.


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