the ZuppeQueen Chronicles

It is no secret the ZuppeKing loves his pasta; especially spaghetti and most especially thick spaghetti… and definately not angel hair spaghetti. The ultra thin stuff just seems too whimpy and gives me the creeps.  There is something quite magical and comforting about a simplistic bowl of al dente spaghetti with a light touch of a rich red sauce.  Or, even better plain spaghetti with a sprinkling of fresh oregano, salt, pepper, olive oil, and lemon… and a few olives. Greek style.  To me that is real comfort food. 

The word spaghetti literally means “little strings”.  To be sure, there are lesser forms of pastas found in strange shapes with strange names such as farfalle (butterfly), campanelle (little bells), fiori (flowers), limache (snails), rotelle (little wheels), gemelli (twins), or the ” it’s got to make you wonder how they were named” pastas called strozapretti or literally “strangled priests”.  There are tubes such as bucatini (meaning little hole), macaroni (straight and bent like an elbow), penne (shaped like quill pen tips), trenne (triangle shaped penne), or rigatoni (meaning ridges on tubes).  I could go on but suggest you visit the Wikipedia and search for “List of Pasta” where you will find over 130 different kinds of pasta listed with descriptions.

The ZuppeQueen loves to tell our Town Creek Bed and Breakfast guests the story of when she and I first visited Greece a few years back and we happened in on some relatives of the ZuppeKing living in Athens.  There we were, three male cousins about the same age, me from America, they from Greece (but not raised together) and their families.  We were almost strangers really but very definately we were family. So, the relaxed friendly converation came naturally and comfortably. 

Now, some things seem to be innate to Greek men and often so much a part of me that I forget other people find them slightly odd such as my passion for spaghetti “done correctly”.  So the out of the blue, Cousin Stelios (who had lived in the USA while attending college in Florida) suddenly asks the ZuppeQueen how she felt about spaghetti.  He did not ask about ”pasta” but spacifically about “spaghetti”.  I immedately understood where he was going with this serious question.  The ZuppeQueen had one of those rare moments where words escaped her (though it seemed like minutes it was more probably 2 seconds).  Still, she did recover from the shock and burst out laughing in amazement at the question which, was in fact a question that would seem odd to most non-Greek men. 

Soon the whole crowd was laughing.  I suspect the cousins (speaking limited english) were laughing in an effort to seem as though they too understood the joke that had the ZuppeQueen in hysterics though they did not.  Turns out that after some discussion by the three cousins, the ZuppeQueen discovered that in fact each of my two male cousins had similar and quite natural passions for spaghetti just as I.  We also each had our own particular styles of preparation which only we could cook to perfection and to our liking.  And the topper was that we were perfectly willing to eat “our” spaghetti almost every other day of the week.  Well, the ZuppeQueen was beside herself at the discovery her husband did not have some sort of weird spaghetti fetish and was quite normal for…. well, Greek men.

Here is the ZuppeKing’s secret for perfectly cooked spaghetti.  I will skip the sauce recipe since we all know the sauce is secondary compared to the pasta.  Even freshly cooked spaghetti drizzled with olive oil and black pepper tastes great.

Its always best to begin with a higher quality spaghetti such as Barillia (the best pasta has been formed through metal dies giving it a surface texture that grips sauce).  Now here is the big secret… lots of boiling water (salted to taste).  I would never consider making spaghetti of any serving size in less than 3 or more quarts of rapidly boiling water. 

The two important points to know here are (1) there must be enough retained heat in the boiling water so that the rapid boiling never stops when the spaghetti is added; and (2) there must be enough boiling water (rolling boil) so that the pasta constantly tumbles as it cooks after it begins to soften.  You really should only have to stir the pasta once just to insure none is sticking to the bottom of the pot.  The boiling action is necessary to quickly cook the outside of the pasta and seal the starch surface of the spaghetti.  This ensures the pasta will be al dente rather than gummy.  The pasta is cooked when you can bite it and it is very firm but you feel no crunch.  Another test is that pasta right out of the pot should tightly stick to any flat surface such as the wall or ceiling when you fling a strand.  And no, guys, the floor does not count as a flat surface.  And, if the ZuppeQueen is reading this blog - “I never try this test at home”.  If your pasta is gummy either the quality was not good, the water was too cold, or there was not enough water in the pot, or you are eating pasta out of a can.

Quickly drain the pasta and dump into a hot frying pan coated with extra virgin olive oil, add just a bit of red sauce and toss until all of the the sauce sticks to the pasta and is not in the bottom of the pan. Enjoy.

2007 is going to be a great year, at least from my perspective.  My New Year’s resolution was to do more fishing in 2007 so New Year’s Day that is just what I did.  Go fishing.

A good friend and avid fly fisherman Jon Morse [ Jon owns a top quality Fredericksburg Texas bed and breakfast named A Place in Time to which we often refer our customers when our own Town Creek Bed and Breakfast is already booked] called and suggested we start the year out by fly fishing.

I quickly agreed with Jon’s thoughts because the ZuppeQueen had very smartly told Santa to leave me a new pair of Orvis waders and Battenkill Reel under our famous hanging from the ceiling four feet off the floor Christmas tree.  Plus I had been worrying for a few days that my new toys were collecting too much dust. [Being a business and quality technology consultant helps me to quickly grasp why having the right equipment makes all the difference when trying to have fun. The same skillset also helped me to intelligently rationalize to the ZuppeQueen why fishing equipment was a smart investment in my continued excellent mental health].

Most people do not realize that Texas has many great places for fly fishing.  The Fredericksburg Hill Country area is one of those spots.  For example, passing just outside of Fredericksburg to the south is the Pedernales River.  To the south a few miles more is the Guadalupe River, and to the North a few miles is the Llano River.  Jon is a member of Hill Country Fly Fishers Club and has smartly garnered highly coveted trout fishing privileges to the HCFF [http://www.hcff.org/ ] Lease on Crabapple Creek.  The fishing lease is just 10 or so miles from Fredericksburg and Jon did not even blindfold me on the 15 minute ride so I got to enjoy the beautiful Texas Hill Country scenery.

The water in Crabapple Creek that day was clear and cold with good flow.  Even better, the fish were definitely in the mood for sampling flies though the day was cloudless and bright.  Actually, the weather could not have been more pleasant for fishing.  Three casts into the day and I had my first strike.  It was a solid hit.  Ok, the truth is I got too excited at my good fortune and overplayed the fish it got away (thought I tried to convince myself the fish was never really hooked but was just merely taunting me).

During the next 2 hours I did hook several fish.  The great thing about fly fishing is that it matters less the size of the fish because the light weight of the tackle make each hooked fish a thrill on it’s own. The 11 inch rainbow trout that I did land was just as much a fight as the 19 inch rainbow trout I did not land (ok, blow by blow… the big guy made 4 or 5 spectacular leaps in the air.  These were not just those old flip-flop leaps either.  These were deliberate running torpedo like leaps two feet in the air landing with not much splash which said this guy was definately angry about me spoiling his day. It became obvious the big fish tired of toying with me when he suddenly made a final leap of defiance not ten feet in front of me. 

In that split second we looked eye to eye.  I saw it coming and tried to shut my eyes so he could not look inside of me but it was too late.  He saw my fear that he was going to break my favorite fly rod and he knew what to do next.  Which was speed upstream 40 myards burning the drag on my reel then making a hard right turn into a heavy brush patch.  Where he proceeded to snap my 4# tippet as I held on helplessly and out of control of the situation).

Ok, the truth is my heart was pounding a lot harder with the big fish than the smaller fish and I am definitely going back for a second go round at the big guy.  Jon, are you reading this? The entire fishing trip was great fun and a great start to 2007.

Happy New Fly Fishing Year to all from Town Creek Bed and Breakfast in Fredericksburg Texas.   
 

Though most Fredericksburg Texas Main Street retail shops close by 6:00 PM, evening life in Fredericksburg is usually anything but sleepy.  One of the most common evening activities in Fredericksburg is relaxed dining with friends.  Aside from availability of great food, the eclectic mix of locals in this little town always seems to make dining with friends anything but boring.

Last Thursday’s night “meal” email invitation was for “dinner” with our friends Dan & Mary on their farm a few miles east of Fredericksburg.  Dan raises outstanding Fredericksburg Peaches which he sells at his roadside stand on Hwy 290 and he also raises unusual Belted Galloway Cattle on his farm.

I have to admit I knew the gathering was going to be interesting even before the ZuppeQueen and I dressed or the party. The previous day, a frantic email had arrived from Mary correcting the first invitation inviting us to SUPPER rather than to DINNER.  Of course, I had to immediately consult the Wikipedia* to see why it was so important that we have “supper” rather than “dinner”.

Turns out, Supper is the evening meal - ordinarily the last meal of the day, usually the meal that comes after Dinner.  The term is derived from the French word “souper” [ I.E. zuppe, zuppa, or suppe… a hearty soup] but is not required to be soup or stew.  Ok, I learned something new and I had not even shown up for the eats yet.  Yes, I knew the evening was going to be great fun.

Let me say first of all that Dan is of Pennsylvania Dutch decent.  Dan prepared an outstanding traditional family supper, served family style of course for 11 people.  Apparently, Pennsylvania Dutch suppers are the Ying and Yang of the culinary world as the normal meal consists of sweet balanced by salty.  A full blown all out supper would have up to seven sweet and seven salty foods.  The supper Dan and Mary served included sweet gherkins, bread & butter pickles, spicy picked vegetables, two kinds of smoked sausages, Swiss cheese, dried beef and cream cheese rolls, and Dutch pretzels.  That was only the appetizer.

The main course consisted of barbequed (sans sauce) shreaded meat on small rolls, green pea and lettuce salad, tiny beets, and a traditional dish consiting of hard-boiled eggs colored with beet juice. However, the highlight of the evening were the magnificent whopping-big whole apple dumplings all gooey with a butter and brown sugar sauce!  The scrumptious dumplings were served with potato chips and salty Dutch-style pretzels to balance the sweet flavor.

Despite the thick clouds covering the moon and the moisture laden wind storm rolling in from the Gulf of Mexico we had an outstanding fun evening.  It was all due to great friends and a great Pennsylvania Dutch meal.  Perhaps, we will get some much-needed rain out of those clouds this weekend?

*Wikipedia is a multilingual, Web-based, free-content encyclopedia project. The name is a portmanteau of the words wiki and encyclopedia. Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers, allowing most of its articles to be edited by almost anyone with access to the Web site. “Wiki wiki” means “rapidly” in the Hawaiian language.