Spaghetti Carbonara, aka around here as "the cholesterol poster child's nightmare," has been relegated to Sunday brunch "once in awhile." This is a Carbonara-loving household as far as the men in this family go, and while everyone could pretty much throw caution to the wind in their younger years, I am thinking that Matt is the only one engaging in enough physical exercise on a regular basis to justify eating it more than once a month...heretofore Alex championed it for dinner at least once a week. It is now the end of the innocence concerning the virtues of Carbonara as a nutritionally sound dinner offering once a week or so. You can see from the photo Alex was a very happy camper around here late this morning...and that was only his first of two servings.
Mark first stumbled upon Spaghetti Carbonara when reading Calvin Trillin, back early in our marriage and has eagerly suggested it at least twice a month ever since then. Trillin has been leading a campaign to establish this dish as the national Thanksgiving fare, replacing the turkey, or maybe in addition to it, for years and years, his premise being that if Columbus discovered America and they first set foot on land, the first meal would have been, according to Trillin, something like Carbonara as the Italians would have had dried pasta, smoked bacon or ham, Parmesan cheese, garlic, and eggs on hand. He may be right. At any rate, each Thanksgiving eve, as a salute to this campaign, we serve Carbonara here at the Gerth house. It's a tradition. I tried to make a case for maybe it being once or twice a year like a big turkey dinner, but that went over like the proverbial lead balloon. Smaller plates/helpings perhaps? Also a losing vote. Lightening it up with some low fat products? They would be on to me in an instant with that and I couldn't bear to see the disappointed look on their faces. I guess it will just remain one of those guilty pleasures that come with the end of innocence...however, I am sticking to the twice a month offering...some things a wife/mom just needs to take control of at some point. And, if you have not read any of Calvin Trillin's books, get thee to a library or bookstore soon and have at it...he is a great read...New York humor from a transplanted Kansas native...if you want to read about his Carbonara campaign, start with The Tummy Trilogy: American Fried/Alice, Let's Eat/Third Helpings. And now, Mark brought home an old movie favorite of ours, Hitchcock's The Trouble With Harry, so we are going to enjoy a couple of hours of peace and quiet while the boys are out of the house and otherwise engaged. I highly recommend it.