pasta and puppies

After Gabriel and I bought the vegetarian cookbook two weeks ago, I've been dying to try out the new recipes. A meal that was supposed to only really take thirty minutes maximum, on paper, ended up taking me over an hour to cook.

I don't have a kitchen, so I have to head over to Gabriel's apartment-style dorm, but everything there is completely out-of-date. I'm not even sure what the stove uses, but it is boils water so slowly, and every time I wanted to use a pot, a plate or even a spoon, I had to make sure to wash it and dry it. When your boyfriend lives with three other boys, you can't trust anything you haven't washed yourself.

In addition, apparently, one of the boys doesn't know how to use a dishwasher, and threw the detergent packet directly into the dishwasher, instead of the little pocket the dishwasher has you put it in. As I walked into the kitchen, all I saw was soap suds spilling out of the dishwasher. Fun times. When I have kids, the first few things I'm going to teach them is everything they'll need to know if they live by themselves. 

Otherwise, the pasta did not go as I planned. I've never used pesto in anything, and thus I had no idea it would take the entire tiny jar of pesto to flavor one pound of pasta, but Gabriel had just spent so much on groceries and I felt guilty for using the entire jar, so I put in half a jar of pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, some black ground pepper, and some tomato sauce. But I did follow the original recipe and added green beans and potatoes! I was really worried it would taste bland, but once some salt and Parmesan cheese was added, Gabriel really liked it! Unfortunately, I mashed some of the potatoes into the noodles, so he commented that it was like a pasta risotta, which I guess, isn't that bad. I think, next time, I'll try something easier, baked tomatoes with risotta? 

There's just so much going on right now, my brain is so racked. I still have a couple summer applications to fill out, and so many midterms already coming up, it's ridiculous. But, it's all good when I have pictures of my puppy to look at (plus, he's turning one soon! He's getting so old!)