It all started when I noticed fresh littleneck clams in the seafood counter at my grocery store on Sunday. I seldom shop with a list that really needs attention, since I do most the shopping and cooking – I know what’s in our fridge. I read the circulars, checking the specials at my local places, and do the meal-planning according to what’s available. It’s nice to be able to cook various things.
So, when I saw the clams (which I don’t see all the time) my head and hungry belly conspired to make spaghetti vongole the meal I simply had to make in the next day or so. It’s an easy recipe to whip up, and knew I had all the other stuff necessary at home… lemons, garlic, parsley, pancetta, white wine… but the problem with buying fresh seafood has to do with timing – you have to cook it within a day or two of buying, and I already had a meal plan for that evening… so Monday had to be the night.
This isn’t a recipe the kids love, much. Clams can be a bit chewy, and overall, the flavour of this dish isn’t one they’re super fond of, so I need a different dinner for them. Given the fact that Martin and I generally eat after they’ve gone to bed most nights (which is getting later with the bedtimes being pushed further back as they get older) some nights we eat a different meal than the one the children had. Some meals don’t reheat as nicely three hours after you cook it. Sometimes we just want something more grow-up, that they’re not having. *shrugs* I try to make peace with this, but it ain’t always easy.
The problem with cooking on Mondays is it’s fricking Monday, and the last thing I feel like doing is making two different things. And when pasta gets added to this mix, this means two different pasta pots, and two different vongole pans… pasta is not my friend. (But oh, how I miss her.)
All the meal-planning is a bit of a pain in my butt.
I stood looking at the stove last night at 6 PM, trying to figure out how to work it, getting crankier by the minute. You truly must cook these clams tonight…. even if the children would eat this meal, you don’t have enough for four… and even if you did, if you cook this for the whole fam damily now, you’ll be stabbing at this once-lovely meal three hours from now, and it’ll look and feel less delicious which will make you want to cry… and no matter how you slice it, you need all kinds of separate pots for this meal… oh ack, self, what to do??!
I could have make eggs for the kids, but I’d just scrambled an egg for Oliver as a snack that afternoon. A different pasta? Grilled cheese, maybe?! Pans, pans, pans.
In the end, I made hotdogs and fries for the children (they weren’t even thrilled) and I put our dinner together around 8:30 PM, which was yummy (I guess), but it hardly felt worth the effort after the fact. Sometimes I’m so sick of cooking, nothing tastes good to me.
Okay, it was good…
Of course I love my family, and I’m happy to feed them. This has less to do with all the doing required, and more to do with just wanting to do for my own self sometimes, and not having to do for everyone else… but, that’s just what being the mum is.
Sometimes I just want spaghetti vongole for one. Maybe I just want someone else to take care of the meals… or maybe I just need a vacation.
You know what I mean?
The best part of this dish, aside from how delicious it looks, is how the name sounds like a swear word. Just sit there and eat it and vongole with you! Love it. Also why I love Pasta Puttanesca. Whore’s pasta. Some dirty dishes folks! (Ha, just made a pun..)
I’m with the “one meal” camp too. Surely this is why our kids have great taste!
Oh dude, we live in the same mean-camp. I’m not running a diner – they eat what I make, and that’s that, but in the case of this meal, had I made it for them, they wouldn’t have loved it (which is fine enough – they’d still eat it) but then *I* wouldn’t have loved it either, reheating it 3 hours later. (Fail.) I could have made it for them, and then make two more batches for adult dinner later. (Fail.) Or make them something they’d be happier to eat, and make two batches of adult dinner later (which is what I did – FAIL.)
The right thing is to make something ONCE, for all of us – which is what I almost do, of course. Sadly, it can’t be pasta vongole, unless it’s a weekend when we’re all home to eat dinner together. And still in two pans. (KINDA fail.)
I just wanted some pasta for dinner – the one I wanted. Me first, please. 🙁
Pfft. And what’s wrong with napping the afternoon away? I hope your kids and man know how good they have it. I know there are diet restrictions at your house and that’s another thing … but I tell you, 9 years of marriage and 8 years of mothering and I have NEVER NOT ONCE made more than one meal at dinner! And my kids wouldn’t dream of asking either. I’d be all wat’cha-talkin-’bout-Willis on their ass, yo! It may not be your fave, but I took time to plan and prepare a nutritious meal to help your body grow and if you don’t eat it, there is no desert and the next meal is in the morning. And sometimes that happens. And I’m okay with that. Because I’m MEAN!
And! If I made myself this thing for lunch, I might as well write off the rest of the day for napping… that’s DINNER food!!
Oh, Anny… it IS so nice to be able to eat at the same time – that’s more like weekends for us, due to when Martin gets home from work. But if say, super-spicy curried eggplant and okra was my favourite thing in the world to eat (it’s really, really not) I’d still have to make something for the others. Boo! I just want to eat my semolina-based pasta with my pants unbuttoned on the couch in peace sometimes, and leave my plate on the coffee table overnight and everything.
Maybe I need room-service. 😉
Ugh. I hear you. Thenagain we all eat together at 6:30 every night and I never have to make separate meals for kids or diet restrictions … and I STILL get grumpy about prepping serving and cleaning! Next time, why not just make pasta vongole as a treat to yourself while everyone is at school/work? And the heck with the rest of them 😉