June 6,2021 So now it is summer

 It is now hot.

It is now dry.

We have both the front yard and back yard hoses hooked up to sprinklers, which makes things feel better.

In our old house the upstairs is too hot and the basement is too cold

I should stop complaining.

It has been a busy week with Katie and fmily here for a two week visit. Dinner is close to 5 o'clock. Mornings start at 6-0-0, according to Christopher who has his biological clock set for sometime before that.

My gardening is still limited by some back/neck problem. Every other day I can just about convince myself it is getting a little bit better.

Poppies were the flower of the week.

The last few days the lilium have begun to bloom.

This first is named Lollipop. Christopher asked why. I had no answer.

This is a martagon lily, a wonderful group of lilium that all hang down. It makes it hard to photograph.

Julia's recipe

Rigatoni with mushrooms and sausage

Joshua McFadden, The Six Seasons cookbook guy, has a several recipes of rigatoni plus sausage plus some vegetable. I have made and posted the rigatoni plus sausage plus eggplant.  This time it's rigatoni plus sausage plus mushrooms. Different but equally delicious. 

The ingredients: 

1 lb. rigatoni (you might not use it all);

1 lb. mild Italian sausage (not in casings);

1 lb. mushrooms (I used cremini. JMcF. suggests a mixture of wild mushrooms. Not in my scope, but perhaps in yours.);

1/2 tablespoon smushed garlic (about);

2 tablespoons olive oil (or less, see below);

1-1/4 cup pecorino or parmesan cheese;

1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs;

1 tablespoon butter (optional);

salt and pepper. 

I started by cooking the sausage over medium heat until it was cooked through and beginning to brown. 

While the sausage was cooking, I put on a big pot of water (with about 1/2 tablespoon of salt) for the rigatoni.

And I washed and cut up the mushrooms. I left the little ones whole and cut the bigger ones in half or in quarters, depending. 

And I smushed the garlic. 

When the meat was cooked, I transferred it to a bowl. The meat was a bit lean (meaning not much fat in the pan) so I added 1 tablespoon of oil. 

Here are the prepped mushrooms and smushed garlic, waiting.

I added the garlic to the pan, turned the heat to low and let the garlic cook gently. No burning. 

Note the pasta cooking in the background. Ignore the pan of eggs. We eat hardboiled eggs, either straight or as deviled eggs. 

When the garlic was soft (less than 5 minutes), I added the mushrooms. The goal is to brown the mushrooms without burning the garlic, which requires some attention to the level of heat (up and down from medium high) and some stirring. 

I added some salt (maybe a teaspoon) to the mushrooms while they were cooking and some grinds of black pepper. 

When the mushrooms were done, I took the pot off the stove and dropped in the butter. Not sure that the butter added much to flavor or texture. See what you think. 

I also fished some pasta water (about 1 cup) out of the rigatoni pot and stirred some of it in - maybe 1/4 cup. 

Then I drained the pasta.

I added the sausage next. 

Then some of the rigatoni. I don't think I used the whole package. Leftover pasta gets eaten up in our house. 

Then most of the cheese and another bit of the pasta water. Maybe another 1/4 cup. 

I checked for proportions. Did I think more rigatoni was needed? How about the salt and pepper levels? 

After adjustments, I turned the contents of the pot out onto a serving plate and sprinkled it with panko bread crumbs plus the rest of the cheese. 

And here it is. We had it with the usual green salad and blackberries with yougurt. 

Leftovers heated up nicely in a covered no-stick skillet over low heat.  

Odds and Ends

It is time to try to sleep. 

Be safe.

Philip