Last night I decided to make pasta for the fam–this is something I rarely do since I don’t eat pasta all that much, but every now and then it’s good to make an exception.

First, I left school promptly at 3:45. Now that the sun is out, this dismissal time is such a treat. Once home, I surrounded myself with all my Italian cookbooks, but I couldn’t find the recipe. I knew it was “matriciana” something. Finally I found the proper name of the recipe–Amatriciana coming from the northern Italian town of Amatrice. It was at this time that I went to my all time favorite online recipe depository: Tastespotting.com.

I checked out a couple of variations of this yummy bacon and tomato based sauce, but I settled on Poco-Cocoa’s and read through her variation.  (That’s the great thing about Tastespotting; it links you to other fantastic bloggers.  Poco-Cocoa’s one of them!)  I took one look at her photo and knew I wanted to make what she had for dinner!

After reading how she made it and drooling over her photo (as seen up above), I headed across the street to the market.  I couldn’t find bucatini, so I settled on regine.  (I would not use regine noodles again–they are so stiff and worm like.  They ended up bouncing all over our plates.)

Since I read it once, I didn’t follow Poco-Cocoa’s recipe exactly. Here’s what I did.

1. With scissors cut up a package of bacon and start frying;
2. Halve 2 cups cherry tomatoes;
3. Dice one onion;
4. Prepare some garlic (to your preference–I used four small cloves);
5. Once the bacon’s about half way cooked you can add the onion;
6. A few more minutes later, add the garlic;
7. When the onion is soft and starting to brown and the bacon is cooked through, add the cherry tomato tools;
8. Go to the fridge and look for some leftover white wine–I think about 1/2 cup was added;
9. Just keep simmering for awhile and then you can turn off the stove;
10. When you’re ready for dinner, boil some water and put in the desired amount of noodles. I used 3/4 a package of pasta.  Although typically this pasta is served with bucatini (a real thin long tubed pasta, any pasta will do;
11. Garnish with grated Parmesan cheese and fresh cut parsley.

Buon appetito!

It is sooooo awesome having family in Asia. LOOK!

We had a great time meeting up with our dear friends Mary Kelly and Giovanni Bello in Bali. We stayed in a little villa in a town called Seminyak. Unfortunately the Krembs’ didn’t get much sun time since they burned themselves on the very first day! Dumb! We should definitely know better. We enjoyed the rice patties though, tons of Bali shopping, and chill time at our little villa pool. And, we even had a chance to catch up with friends made from our time in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: the Zavitz!

Vincent really hit it off with Krista and Chris' son Keegan.

Even though I flew all day on my birthday this year, it was still remarkable. So remarkable in fact that a week later I’m inspired to blog about it!

First, on Saturday morning, the 20th, Gigi comes in the room and says, “Mommy, happy birthday. We have a surprise for you. You are to stay in bed.” It was so cute. It’s worth recording–in fact I may have to do on my new birthday toy….

So, I stayed in bed. That’s not too hard. First I received my coffee. Then Vincent came in with some incense. Next Gigi came in with the huge March Vogue. Vincent came in again asking if I’d like classical music or Balinese. My menu order was taken. Before you knew it I had a wonderful tray brought it with fresh fruit, an omelette, bacon, Orangina, toast, little treats like a bar of soap and Balinese wooden utensils, oh and of course some chocolates! It was such a wonderful way to wake up: Breakfast in Bed! And the gift keeps giving. I can have it at least once a month. The gorgeous bed-tray made it back to Beijing!

Here they come with the my birthday breakfast in bed!

The kids made sure to explain all the little details.

When we got back to Jakarta for one more night with Jen and Brian, we had a wonderful Turkish meal at Anatalya. When we got home, there was a birthday cake awaiting us:

On the actual day of my birthday I had two neat surprises: one, the flight attendants all signed a card for me and gave me a box of chocolates!

And better yet, during our hour and a half layover in Hong Kong, Kevin bought me this!

My birthday continued on Monday when during lunch the entire library staff at ISB had made a special lunch for me:

Our trip over winter break to Hawaii for my brother’s wedding was fantastic! I was anxious for the trip, but once we all got together I knew I had nothing to worry about. The wedding festivities were beautiful, sharing a condo with the Collins’ was a breeze, the weather was glorious all week long, and the Hawaiian mentality was catching.

They have a term with accompanying hand gesture that solves all: HOWZIT! It basically means how’s it going, but it also means all is goin’ well. It’s like a nice chill term for everything’s gonna be all right.