Yesterday, in order to help manage my brother's kids at home, I offered to cook them dinner. My brother was in and out and my mom was struggling to take all sorts of ingredients out of the fridge. The inside of the fridge looked like PURE CHAOS! So I started throwing out all the mysterious leftovers. Once I did that, I left to go to Safeway.
I was going to make Bucatini All' Amatriciana. I think thats how it's spelled. It's a Giada De Laurentis recipe. I think thats how you spell her name. Anyways, it's a type of tomato-pancetta based sauce with mozzarella stuffed meatballs. Very good! So I thought this would be a hit with the kids. What kid doesn't love meatballs?
I asked the seafood guy if they had pancetta while I was looking near the bacon stuff, but he didn't know and said he had to go ask the "meat" guys. He came back with professional help. The guy confidently escorted me to the deli meats area where I found thinly sliced pancetta for like $4-$5 for 3 ounces! I needed 6 ounces so that stung the wallet. I got the rest of the stuff and left for home.
At home, my best friend David was over, along with a couple other friends. My mom had left to go bring my aunt back to the house. So, I was thinking, "Crap, I gotta feed all these people!" The recipe I think probably serves about 4-6.
I prepared the sauce, made the meatballs, shoved them in the oven, and then decided to cook more pasta than the recipe called for so I could feed more mouths. I was worried that it would weaken the flavor, but I had to make sure everyone got some.
The kids weren't crazy about the pasta!! But they did like the meatballs! The pasta was a bit weak in flavor since I had made more pasta. That was kind of disappointing. It wasn't very popular at all. I'll have to just double the portions next time or something.
I remember feeling that I had to help out around the house to ease my brother's stress. Clean up, help with kids, clear out some junk.....
Today, I took my mom and aunt to the doctors. Eye doctors? It was the Opthamologist. I helped them fill out the paperwork and waited in the waiting room for them to be done. I was so tired. I felt like the room didn't exist and I kept nodding off into sleep and waking up.
Finally when they were done, I heard my mom getting into a little arguement with the nurse. I went to check it out. What they were talking about completely confused me! It was about my mom's medicare coverage. I had to have the nurse explain to me what was going on. My mom was being stubborn and kept saying she was going to cancel her stuff. The nurse wasn't being very patient with my mom because they were very behind schedule.
On the way home, since my mom was all worked up, she began ranting about my brother and his recent behavior. She thought he was blaming her for something when that wasn't the case at all. I tried to explain to her the stress that he was under and to try have a little more patience and understanding. I tried to remind her that we're family and have to be there for each other. That communcation was key for us to be able to understand one another. The whole conversationg got me pretty emotional, but in the end, I think she understood a bit more. I hope it helped.
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