fusilli with tomato sauce

Everyday Tomato Pasta Sauce

An easy recipe for tomato pasta sauce, prepared with fresh garden tomatoes – no peeling or huge quantities required!

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Flapper pie

Flapper Pie – A Canadian Classic

Flapper Pie is a unique Canadian dessert. This creamy and tangy pie, made with a graham cracker crust, custard filling, and meringue topping, is easy to make and always a crowd-pleaser. How to make flapper pie at home – a few facts, and a printable recipe.

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How to Remove Carpet Underpad

How to remove carpet underpadding that has been stuck to hardwood flooring.

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Karma – What Goes Around Comes Around?

I am working today on some positive thinking, but sometimes things are mighty hard! Does what goes around really come around?

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window frame near doors in new house

Painting old Radiators

Painting radiators in our 130 year old house wasn’t difficult, just time consuming and a little messy. What paint to use and how to apply.

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Bread pudding

Bread Pudding

Bread pudding is a traditional and humble dessert made with everyday ingredients. A little about its’ history and two recipes for bread pudding. Banana Raisin Bread Pudding and Blueberry Bread Pudding (vegan).

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The Ugly Cat Door

The Cat Door Needed to Go

How to remove and fill in a pet door or cat flap. Nothing against cats – we just don’t have one!

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Crackle mirror

DIY Crackle Paint

How to make Crackle Paint with white latex paint and white glue. A story about refinishing a thrifty mirror with a crackle finish.

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Saskatchewan Canada Day Sign

Canadian Road Trip-Winnipeg to Ontario

This post is about our drive from Winnipeg Manitoba eastward along the TransCanada Highway through Northwestern Ontario and home to Southern Ontario. This was a 2 day drive for us. Maps, distance, times and scenery included.

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Elk in Jasper Alberta

Canadian Road Trip – Day 5 – Kamloops to Rocky Mountain House

Our Canadian Road Trip continues – Kamloops through Jasper to Rocky Mountain House. All about the drive, distances and views.

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At Times Like These

Pulling together in times of difficulty.

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Make Pasta Great Again – The Authentic Carbonara

A recipe and post about how to prepare an Authentic Pasta Carbonara with a printable recipe card.

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It seems like one of the first conversations we have almost every morning is “what are we having for dinner?” – and I know we’re not alone. Even in the best of times we like spending time in the kitchen entertaining and cooking over a good glass of wine – in fact I would say it is one of our favorite activities.

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Sometimes we share the kitchen doings and sometimes we go it alone, but the dragon lady and I approach the events from opposite ends of the spectrum. We just have different auras about us. She, much more easy-going and a go with the flow type is capable of making anything from scratch and happy to use what is available in the house. Scouring the fridge and cupboard to make terrific out of this world soups, stews and casseroles, never making the exact same dish twice – a real talent. This approach also transcends into wine selections with preference given to selecting a vintage generating the most Airmiles – which I consider to be sinful. My brothers say I am a tad snooty …Nooooooo.

An everyday wine collection.
Lillie’s stash of Airmiles generating wines for quarantine

I on the other hand am cursed with a perfectionist attitude which requires me to follow recipes to a tee and creates anxiety when going through the process. And truth be told I’m just not in the same league as the dragon lady. But having said that, I absolutely will bask in the glory when I get something right. OK so I digress.


During the very recent pandemic isolation period, I decided to explore dishes I have never made before focusing on simple but tasty dishes that do not require perfect measurements – ah old habits die hard.

Spaghetti Carbonara fits the bill and is a wonderful plate deeply rooted in old school Italian culture, and if you mention using cream in the same breath as Carbonara, the kitchen gods will frown upon you.

Authentic pasta carbonara
Authentic Carbonara

Here’s all you will need for a dinner for four (two of our university kids are home isolating with us). Prep and cook time of 20 minutes.

Authentic Carbonara Ingredients

  • 450g package of your favorite spaghetti
  • 3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk for extra creamy sauce
  • 7 thick sliced strips of bacon cut into small chunks – FYI Authentic Carbonara is made with Guanciale (cured pork cheek). You can substitute with Pancetta (salami made from pork belly meat – salt cured) or thick cut bacon as I did
  • Pecorino and Parmigiana cheese, about 1 ¼ cup, half and half or more if you like. I like the Parmigiana as it adds an additional kick of salt
  • Olive oil
  • About 1 tsp of fresh ground pepper – more if desired (yes, I cannot believe I said that)

THAT’S IT, NOTHING ELSE

Authentic Pasta Carbonara Preparation

Salted water
Boil the spaghetti in salted water

Boil the spaghetti about 8 minutes in salted water – kosher salt. While spaghetti is cooking, chop bacon and cook on medium heat in lightly oiled large pan. Bacon is done when crisp on outside but still has chew. Tip – put the bacon in the pan before it is hot as it will help render the bacon better.

cook bacon at medium heat
Cook bacon in lightly oiled pan at medium heat

While bacon and spaghetti are cooking whisk 3 eggs and 1 egg yolk in a bowl and add grated cheese and freshly ground pepper – use a lot of pepper. This dish is all about timing – ideally you want the bacon and spaghetti to be done at the same time. When bacon is done, turn off the heat. If there is an excess of grease you can use a spoon to take some out, but you want there to be grease. Let the pan cool for about 1 minute or so. Add the spaghetti and stir around the pan – the pan should sill be warm/hot but not sizzling as you do not want to scramble the eggs. Stir in the cheese and egg mixture. I also add about a half cup or so of the hot spaghetti water.  Stir the pan for about 30 seconds – Fini.

Portion onto plates, top with grated parmigiana and fresh ground pepper to taste.

Carbonara ready to eat
Portion Carbonara onto plates

This is a wonderful dish, ready in 20 minutes.  If we were sharing with guests – I would serve with a Barolo Cannubi – no Airmiles here!

red wine
Photo by Markus Spiske temporausch.com on Pexels.com

Below is a printable recipe card from RecipesGenerator. Please give it a try!

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Dark stained butcher block

Kitchen Reno – Dark Stained Butcher Block

Solid wood butcher block countertops – how to darken light wood counters with food safe stain.

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BBQ Ribs and Mashed Potatoes

Barbecued Back Ribs in Foil

My husband is cooking his specialty tonight – barbequed pork back ribs! They used to take a long time to make, but now he uses foil to shorten the process, and they taste just as wonderful, if not better than the original.

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