cooking with dad: handmade soba

I love noodles. If I had to rank Japanese noodles from favorite to least favorite - I'd say Gold: ramen, Silver: somen, Bronze: udon and then in 4th place: soba. (Can you tell I've been watching the Olympics?)

When mom said, 'Dad's making soba for dinner' I thought, okayyy... what's the big deal? The big deal was that it was going to be made from scratch. For seven people. For dinner. With a rolling pin. I think my dad's soba just bumped udon out of its Bronze medal position. Maybe even somen's Silver.

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aimo e nadia's spaghettoni with spring onion and hot pepper

Last year, Mr. Mari and I went to Milan and Marrakech with his sister and her husband. What an amazing trip! One of the standout dishes of our trip was a very simple and elegant pasta dish from il Luogo di Nadia e Aimo. It seemed to have only spring onions and hot red pepper as ingredients - very deceptively simple. When we returned to the States, we all set out to recreate the dish. We got close but no cigar. One and a half years later...

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chicken + mushroom + asparagus over egg noodles

Day 1 Dinner: I made roast chicken for last night's dinner and had an entire half remaining. This is my take on chicken and cream of mushroom gravy over egg noodles. Serves 2 plus a lunch to go.

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