The simple chef: Throwing out the rules

Hi, I'm your host, the simple chef, and since I previously told you the two rules for being a simple chef, I am now going to tell you how this week I threw those rules out the window. It happened when I found myself standing in my closet, I mean kitchen, looking at my wife's computer screen. You may ask why I was looking at my wife's computer, the reason for this is because my wife had just walked out the door to go for a run and I was suppose to be making dinner, the recipe for dinner was from an infamous place known as Pinterest, and that is not something that happens on my computer. Hence my wife had left me with the recipe displaying on her computer, Creamy Garlic Pasta.

No you careful students of the simple culinary arts will immediately say "use rule #1, follow the directions of the recipe exactly, to the minute and teaspoon, and all will be well." Well, all would be well if the recipe was on a box and inside the box was nicely packaged ingredients that the recipe called for, this however, was not the happy situation in which I found my simple self. In point of fact the reason I was still staring at the computer screen instead of standing at the stove was that not only were the ingredients not inside a box, most of the ones listed on this place known as pinterest were also not inside my closet, er I mean kitchen.

This is where we break rule number two, because, as you faithful students of simplicity will recall, the act of using whatever ingredients come to mind or hand, or both, is never to be used in conjunction with a recipe. So here I find myself, orange apron on and ready to cook and my rules have flown out the window. But being the resourceful individual I am I quickly recovered and went to work. Chicken stock became a can of chicken broth from the bottom shelf (I briefly considered making my own from bullion cubes, but lets not be extreme), and linguine substituted nicely (well functionally might be a better word) for angel hair. I chose a large pot since the place known as pinterest neglected to give me a size, and olive oil and butter I actually found. Minced garlic in a can is really the same thing as cloves anyway so I gave a generous amount of that to my concoction and sprinkled about an unspecified amount of parsley. Mozzarella is practically a cousin to parmesan anyway so that was fine. And in the end if the sauce was a little to thin that just meant there was plenty left over for my ramen the next day.

And that my friends is how things got a little more complicated for the simple chef.