Leftovers! Behold how a rectangular plate makes everything pretty!

So I had some leftovers to use.

A mixture of fire-roasted tomatoes and tomatoes with jalepenos left over from making chiken Tikka, some of the base mix of egg & evaporated milk left from making mac & cheese and a small piece of sirloil steak found lurking in the freezer.

Also invited to the party

Veal stock, spaghetti, 2 half-full bags of shredded cheese and a shallot. I put the pasta onto boil, sliced the steak and chopped up the shallot.

I melted a little butter in a pan and seared the steak

Remove the seared steak from the pan

Then add the chopped shallots to the pan

Then I added a splash of veal stock to deglaze the pan

Then I added the tomato mixture

Then I chopped up some Romaine on its last legs and a tomato and tossed them with some balsamic vinagrette

Once the spaghetti was boiled, I drained it, put in some butter and then tossed in the egg and evaporated milk mixture and the shredded cheese. I stirred.

By this time the tomato and veal broth mixture had cooked down to glaze.

Then I put the sauce on a plate and put the sliced steak on top.

Then added the spaghetti

And the salad

But the key is the rectangular plate.

Pasta: Fit for a 'ho. Spaghetti ala Puttanesca

Spaghetti Puttanesca is super-quick and very delicious. Plus it's fun to say Puttanesca, which means in the style of a whore. I've read that the name comes from the fact that hookers used to cook it to lure in customers or because it's spicy or because you can cook it up quickly in the time between tricks. Or maybe because it's so darn easy.  It's ready in the time it takes spaghetti to boil. So get a pot boiling. This makes enough for 2, but easily doubles for 2. How much pasta you use depends on how much you like. So boil as much as you like per person.

Then put a little olive oil in a skillet and sprinkle in some red pepper flakes, turn the heat on low.

Now get to work on the garlic and anchovies.

Mince a couple of cloves of garlic

Now the anchovies. No leaving them out! Even if you think they're gross, I want you to try this. What I do is buy a tin, open it and use two of the filets for this and freeze the rest in a Ziploc bag. The only people who get a pass on the anchovies are those with a written excuse from their doctor verifying an allergy to fish. Otherwise, I want you to drop two filets into the hot oil.

Give them a stir and you'll see that they completely disolve within a minute or two.

Now dump in the garlic. Only let it heat for a few seconds. As soon as you smell it, it's ready. Now's the time to dump in an 18 ounce can of chopped Italian tomatoes. Or if you're feeling like you want something really hot and spicy, a can of Mexican tomatoes with jalepenos.

Let the liquid start to cook off on medium heat while you get two awesomely delicious things ready.  Olives and capers.

Use Kalamata olives with a kick. A bout a cup of them. Not the black Mission olives that go on pizza and tacos. If they're pitted, just rip them up into rough pieces. If not, smash them to pit and tear into rough chunks. No finely chopping. You only have the time between tricks to get these ready.  Then to the olives add capers.

Use a tablespoon or two or if you're me, half a jar.

By now, most of the liquid should have cooked out of the tomatoes.

Now, turn off the heat and dump in the olives and capers.

Give it a stir

Your spaghetti should be ready. Drain it and then add it to the skillet.

Toss to combine and serve.

This is the only time you will ever hear me say this: Don't add cheese. Now enjoy.

Piggy Pops! How to Make Bacon Lollipops & Amaze Your Friends

This, my friends, is what the devil uses to tempt vegans:

I saw a recipe for bacon lollipops online, but they involved frying the bacon in a pan and then pouring on maple syrup and I wanted something a little different. You start out with slab bacon. That's one big chunk of unsliced bacon. It has a tough bit of pig skin on the back that you will want to remove. It's easy though, it pulls right off and gives the dogs something to play with. Dice it up into big evenly-sized chunks. As you can see, I failed miserably at the evenly-sized part.

I will typically glaze bacon that I bake in the oven with a mixture of brown sugar, cayenne pepper & black pepper. But my husband Tim suggested I borrow a trick from our Coca Cola ham & use Coke. It has to be real Coke, no diet. It can however be Cherry Coke if that floats your boat. Let's stop a moment a preheat our oven to 425 degrees.

Ask ourselves why we aren't more careful about fingerprints on our black appliances and then line a large baking sheet with foil and place a rack (like the kind you use for cooling cookies) in it.

Okay, we're ready. Now to the glaze. Pour one can of Coke into a heavy bottomed sauce pan.

Now, let's add about half a cup of brown sugar

Some cayenne pepper. Judge the amount on your heat level preferences. And also a healthy dose of black pepper

Now bring to a boil and cook, stirring occasionally, until half of the liquid is gone and the mixture is syrupy.

Let the syrup cool for about five minutes, then add the bacon in and coat with the syrup

Now place bacon on the rack in the baking sheet. Try spacing them evenly. This is an example of how not to do that.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes at 425.   Just a note about the glaze. If you don't want to fuss with it, you can coat them in a mixture of brown sugar, cayenne & black pepper and they will be delicious. But the coating won't be quite as lollipop crunchy.

This is the finished product. Now add colorful toothpicks to make them Lollipops

Lolly, lolly, lolly.... get your bacon pop here....