Just cos

So here's a post just for my friend who has posted this very funny pic on Fbook:

Yes I must admit that yesterday I did crack a lovely bottle of extremely wooded chardonnay. However today, when opened the door of the fridge, I spied a little baggie of something that is a healthier kind of weakness.



My local Independent Grocers (yes people, IGA stands for something more than just "convenience store") has the most amazingly fresh, plump, crisp, young cos lettuce leaves and I never can resist a bagful whenever I am in there. Sadly the Hass avocadoes were a little overripe so my usual go-to of "Cos, avo, lemon juice, olive oil" soupy salad was a no-go.

As my hand reached into the fridge for milk for a post-dinner cuppa, it emerged clutching the bag of lettuce like an addict. So here's the craving recipe of the day, healthy-style:

Rinse young cos lettuce leaves.
Decide they are too pretty to slice up.
In a coffee mug, pour some olive oil, then a splash (roughly 1:3 or 1:4) of balsamic vinegar, ground salt, ground pepper and some dried thyme from your homegrown windowsill stash. Swill it around and then pour it in lines over the leaves.
Pick up the leaves by hand and eat them, letting the dressing run all over your hands and cover your phone with oil when you decide to take a photo halfway through:

crunch crunch crunch smile
prunehands!

I did also have a cuppa. Now, I spy some leftover chardonnay in the fridge, excuse me...

Vongole (or let's be honest, any shellfish) Linguine (or let's be honest, any long pasta)

Here's a time-travelling one for you. I recently had a conversation with my lovely bestie Woffles. I'm not entirely sure how we gave her that name between today and all those years ago in Year 5, but it is definitely spelled with an "o" as in the Woffles, the talking rabbit in the Enid Blyton books - not with an "a" as in the foodstuff; and it certainly suits her. Anyhow, I was out walking with her by the river and we were talking about my love of molluscs, in particular bivalves - I often go to the markets and buy the freshest live mussels or clams that I can find and work my dinner plans around them. A very useful recipe I have tucked away in my recipe file is this gem for Spaghetti Vongole - yet another Neil Perry / Qantas Magazine recipe. My preferred long pasta is Linguine with Vongole but Fettucine (good with mussels) or Spaghetti or otherwise works just as well. I also refer to this recipe when cooking shellfish and just use the first part of the recipe as a reminder of cooking times and accoutrements. I can't seem to find my picture of the first attempt (and thus most faithful to recipe version) but will look through my other computer just in case. In the meantime here's an adjusted, musselicious & pastaless version of the recipe:

I believe these were live Mornington Peninsula mussels purchased that day from South Melbourne Markets in honour of a parental visit... and quite delicious, if memory serves...