Spaghetti Carbonara

Since it's the weekend I thought I'd write about something different.

I enjoy good food. I am the kind that will not hesitate to try places where people recommend there's good food, no matter how far. I will plan for it and eventually try.

But I don't just love looking for good food. I also love making them.

Cooking and baking (besides shopping of course) is therapeutic for me. 

Unfortunately, as ChairWoman, I only get to do this on weekends. But that's ok. Weekdays I get good food from mom whose an even better cook! (Ya ya I saw your eyes go green with envy..)

And this is amongst my favorite dish to make simply because my boys love it so much and...it's pretty easy to whip.

I learned this recipe sometime ago watching a TV program hosted by Chef Nik 

Yes the cute one (..but of course. Important motivation. Haha)

If I recall, his father is Italian and this is his Dad's recipe.

This picture could be better but my children were already pestering me to serve. No time for professional photography. That's how good it is! LOL.

Ingredients:

1/3 Pasta of the normal pack (best with Fettucine, Spaghetti or Penne)

Beef bacon (ones with some fat on the side)

Quarter bulb of a large yellow onion

A teaspoon of crushed garlic

1 bay leaf

Cooking Cream

(depends how much gravy and creamy you want it to be but I use about 500 ml)

3 tablespoons grated Parmesan

1 egg yolk

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Steps:

1. Boil pasta with a bit of salted butter. El dente. Drain. You don't want mushy pasta in cream sauce (ugh!)

2. Put olive oil in a pan. Put in bay leaf and beef bacon. Saute till brown and slightly crisp at the edges. Add yellow onion till soft.

3. Add garlic. Stir till fragrant

4. Add cream. Medium fire and let simmer

5. Add salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

6. Add pasta and mix

7. Now here's the difficult part. Add lightly beaten egg yolk and stir quickly over slow fire (avoid the sauce from curdling). Take pan off fire and serve

Absolute awesome and easy recipe.

Don't believe me? Ask this boy.

"Your career is a marathon…"

It is February! How time flies these days.. We've had a few long weekends since the end of 2013. While it's a bane on workplace productivity, it provides a good break from the 9-5 Monday to Friday routine and….my weekends are precious

They are family time. Time to create memories and to just do things together (and of course time for some self pampering too. DND!)

favorite family activity. oh we love our meat

baking is therapy

special birthdays. happy sweet 70 mak!

and sometimes, just being there to see the kids have fun

So work hard, play hard.

My journey in the corporate world so far, is a string of choices. There are those who asks, did you plan and know where you want to be in 5 years, in 10 years? You know, like that annoying interview question where they go, 'soooo….tell me..where do you think you will be in 10 years?' and if you don't sound at all ambitious and wanting to conquer the world, you're assumed as not.

No, I didn't know. But I worked real hard (and smart..we'll talk about this later. Working hard smartly) at each phase and was then always offered the opportunity to take on bigger and bigger roles, and move up, and at each turn, i made a choice to take it on...and here I am today, after almost 18 years.

Recently, I was offered such an opportunity again. And while out of habit, I never seem to turn them down..this time, I made a different choice. 

Someone wise told me this, "Your career is a marathon. You set the pace". And he is right. It's not a sprint, it's not someone else's journey. It's mine and I can set the pace, of course with the grant of the Almighty.

I know people who have made their choices, to completely move out from the corporate world, to refuse a promotion, to become teachers even though they could be this high flying auditor in the Big 3 or a top notch lawyer in Fortune 500 multinationals…so they can have more time for family, time for kids. I respect those choices and they tell me they have no regrets.

I also know people who were faced with situations where they didn't have a choice. Lost their jobs, ill family members they need to care for etc. But the happier ones seem to be those that make a positive choice of how they deal with the situation.

At the end it's our choice. What's yours?