Long Distance Ritual: Salmon Asparagus Pasta

Admittedly, it has been awhile since my girlfriend and I exchanged recipes pursuant to our little "long distance ritual," as described in full detail in a prior post. To add a bit of humiliation, she's been giving me more recipes than vice versa...in fact, I don't think I have given her anything to cook thus far. Well, today, after saying good night to her (time-zone consequences), I went through a not-so-normal bout of missing her and started to feel the significant distance at an odd time of the day. Luckily for me, I finished up work early and took the opportunity to swing by the supermarket to gather some fish and ingredients, and attempt to concoct something delicious for dinner. After all, it's about time that I live up to my end of the promise/ritual and give her something to try out in the cucina.

The result?

Salmon Asparagus Pasta. It's a cream-based sauce, but because of the portions, it came out lighter than expected.

Ingredients:

1 bunch of Asparagus, cut into about 1-inch pieces

Half a box of Angel Hair pasta

1.5 Tbsp Butter

1/2 Cup Heavy Cream

Grated Parmesan Cheese

Lemon Pepper

2/3- 1 lb. Salmon fillet

2-3 Garlic Cloves, minced

Parsley

Rock/Kosher Salt

Cracked Black Pepper

Recipe:

Place salmon fillet on baking sheet (I used an olive oil cooking spray over the sheet). Season your salmon fillet with the salt and black pepper, and then add the parsley and minced garlic over the fillet. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Bake for around 12 minutes or until salmon is flakey.

Boil a pot for your pasta, but before you place the pasta inside the pot, put in the asparagus pieces for around 2 minutes to soften the asparagus a bit, but not too long so that it remains firm. Take out the asparagus, and then cook angel hair pasta with boiling pot.

On a skillet, melt the butter, and then add asparagus pieces. Toss to coat. Add the cream and the lemon pepper. Heat until cream begins to thicken. Add pasta, salmon, Parmesan cheese and cracked black pepper, then toss. Voila!

An Ice Cream Phase 2008

It was probably over 5 years ago when I made one of the biggest steps towards a healthier lifestyle. That was the year that I decided to take softdrinks out of my diet entirely (although if absolutely necessary, I will take an orange soda or a small coke once in awhile for lack of having an alternative available). I stepped it up and started drinking more water and juice, and then became less groggy, full and bloated for the years to follow. The second biggest step was cutting down my ice cream intake. I believe at one point, I lasted more than a year without touching ice cream once. Once in a blue moon, I will return to an ice cream phase, which simply translates to finishing up one container and not buying ice cream for another year or so.

My ice cream phase has returned, and this phase's winning indulgence for the first quarter of 2008 goes to ... Edy's Vanilla Sandwich flavor.

During my childhood, I always used to buy grocery brand vanilla sandwiches (not klondikes, or ice cream sandwich wannabes), primarily because of the sequence of taste that fills the mouth when biting gently into a soft but firm chocolate "cookie" while the taste of vanilla cream spreads over my taste buds like a refreshing milkshake. Unfortunately for me, I never really learned how to finish an ice cream sandwich without making a mess of myself, whether it be staining fingers with melted chocolate cookie, allowing vanilla ice cream to drip on my lap, or creating a brown and white mustache.

Decades later, Edy's decided to make life easier for me. Peculiarly, it tastes nothing like your typical cookies n' cream flavor.

So, if you like ice cream and haven't been to the frozen section of the grocery in a long time, take a trip and see what kind of creative new flavors are available.

And the World Grows Old with You...

Have you ever been disoriented by the sight of college kids crawling and rolling down the street in drunken stupor, not because the laughable image is somewhat annoying, but because there was a time in your life when people looking that young were still high schoolers? Do you remember that one day you had a conversation with friends and realized that many of your former schoolmates and other friends are getting married or having children? How about the shocking news that some acquaintances have passed on due to medical complications that are not typical in persons in their mid-20's to early-30's? How did you react when you heard updates of friends becoming regional managers at a big consumer company, or have the title "VP" attached to their name?

The 30-year mark of my existence in this world beckons on the eve of the launch of the Beijing Summer Olympics. The Chinese are very particular about numbers, and have found that the number 8 is an extremely lucky digit to have around, so much so that the Olympic organizers have decided to launch the Olympics on August 8, 2008, at 8 minutes after 8. It isn't the number 8, however, that is swimming in my mind like a guppy dropped in a goblet of merlot. The number 30 is upon me, and surprisingly, I invite it with open arms and heart-pumping anticipation.

This is the year that I become the stories I have witnessed thus far, and take life to an all new level. It is the time for me to shape my career with utmost prudence, and take it down a balanced path of uncertainty, excitement and reasonable calculation. It is the period in which I allow the smallest of mistakes and annoyances to become challenges, and the fatigue of having a year-older body, an opportunity to return to a rejuvenated physical and emotional state of being. This is the year when music, interests, relationships, goals and travel merge into one scheme of life. This is definitely the year that calls me to be as mature as an adult as I need to be, and removal of all the "unnecessaries" and complications becomes a priority. This is also a year when I must take up one notch my responsibility to myself and those most important to me.

Appropriately, it is the Olympics that houses the slogan, "Faster - Higher - Stronger," and as the world grows older, such a simple yet powerful thematic motivation could not have come at a better time...and to mark my 30 years, an even more precise celebration, down to the day and down to the minute. 8:08.