Second Breakfast

My husband and I have taken to watching series TV (mostly Sci-Fi) on DVD in fairly concentrated batches (2-3 episodes/night). We started with Babylon 5, then Star Trek: Deep Space 9, then Sex in the City. All were quite good and fairly engrossing (well, SitC isn’t exactly engrossing, as its kind of repetitve, but I cried a little at the end when we finally learned “Big’s” name). Series that tend to be written towards a larger plot arc, versus purely episodic writing, are often really good if you can see the plot develop over time. Babylon 5 was particularly effective and enjoyable, as the writing was so original (for television), and the characters so compelling.

As my husband has also noted, we’re often late to the game when it comes to cool stuff, so we missed Firefly when it first aired, and were clueless when all of the fanboys started yelling bloody murder when the show was cancelled. However we rented Serenity and found it to be a really compelling and convincingly-drawn future, and a great story. So when we got our new Netflix account, we put the four Firefly discs at the top of our queue. We were not disappointed.

The fifteen episodes that were filmed are quite good. The characters are interesting and multi-dimensional. The world that the show is drawn in is nuanced and believeable (I particularly like the way language, both a slightly “backcountry”-sounding English and a hybird Chinese, is used). And the storytelling is good — each episode carries the larger plot arc, while also telling a number of smaller stories, a familiar mode, but well-done.

I’m sad that no more were filmed, and the “Serenity” movie leaves no room for sequels, as (spoiler alert) too many of the important characters do not survive. Whedon (of Buffy fame) is a great creative talent, and I’ll be excited to see what he does with Wonder Woman later this year.

Another improvised pasta dish, this is an easy way to use up stock veggies you have on hand. Mirepoix is a standard vegetable preparation used in a lot of sauces and stocks in European cooking, typically a 2:1:1 ratio of onion (or leeks), carrots, and celery, and usually plays an accompanying role. Here I’m using it as the central flavor theme.

Items

• 1 Lb kluski noodles, or other thick pasta
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2-3 stalks celery, halved lengthwise and chopped
• 2-3 large carrots, halved or quartered lengthwise and chopped (the goal here is to have pieces about the same size for all three vegetables)
• 3TB butter
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme, or 1 tsp fresh thyme
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable stock (be sure the stock doesn’t have tomato, as we don’t want the tomato flavors in this dish), or water.
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup finely grated Parmaggiano-Reggiano cheese
• 4 TB cream

Method

1. Heat the water for the pasta, and cook according to package directions. Meanwhile…
2. Melt the butter in a large sautee or chef’s pan over medium heat.
3. Add the onion and garlic, and sautee until the onion is soft, about 5-6 minutes.
4. Add the carrots and celery, and cook covered, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Add the stock, bring to a boil, and turn down heat, and cook covered, about 4-5 minutes until the carrots and celery are tender but not overcooked.
6. Remove about half of the veggies from the pan to a bowl and set aside. Add thyme.
7. Continue cooking the remaining veggies until the carrots and celery are quite soft.
8. Using a stick blender, puree the sauce in the pan. Add the cream, salt, and pepper to adjust seasoning.
9. Add reserved veggies back to sauce in pan, and keep warm over low heat until pasta is done.
10. Combine pasta and sauce, and toss to coat.
11. Serve with additional Parmaggiano-Reggiano cheese.

Serves 4-6.