6 Degrees of Pasta Cooking

It seems like we cook a lot of pasta. Variations on a pasta theme would be the symphonic version of our cooking experiments, or at least mine. That's because the pasta part is easy, and gives you a baseline from which to experiment with sauces and salads, appetizers and wines. I'm okay with that for now. We did, however, take a step forward by heeding the advice of others and buying a grill/griddle fixture for the stove, which I'm sure will come in useful (discussions of pancakes have commenced).

Here are some pictures from our recent meals we've prepared. You'll see some familiar things, but with pictures, everything can look fresh and new, ideally, which is the joy of cooking, watching a meal come together in rich color, taste, texture, etc.

In honor of Mad Men, here's a picture of a cocktail that Marina made, in front of two bowls of farfalle, cream sauce, heirloom tomatoes, and walnuts:



And then, because sometimes one cocktail just isn't enough:



Before you eat a lot of pasta and drink cocktails, you should have flowers around, just to prove that the city isn't so foggy that nothing vibrant can be found, even if this is the coldest summer since 1973--proving once again, in comparison with the record heat across the country and out east, that San Francisco is so darned contrarian:



And what are flowers without a little wine and some appetizers?



(This wine is produced close to my grandparents' house on the Sonoma Coast, where I spent the best parts of my childhood in California. It is produced in Cazadero, familiar to fans of Jerry Garcia.)



I liked this wine, but to be fair, my tastebuds have a default setting of liking wine.

My creativity is shifting from the world of salads to the world of presenting appetizers. For the one pictured below, Marina gets the credit for suggesting the combination, which was sliced tomatoes, mozzarella balls, balsamic vinegar, and basil:





Anyway, that's enough for now. Tomorrow I'll write about our dining experiences on our mad dash trip to Canada for our friends' lovely wedding in Canadian wine country, with a brief sojourn in Toronto beforehand.

In the meantime, what are some of your favorite and unusual appetizer combinations?