Meal No. 4031: Linton Hopkins’s Bucatini Carbonara

The pickings at the grocery store last Thursday were understandably slim, following our intense and enduring winter weather event from the previous weekend. It was my first time of venturing out, and apparently the same could be said of many of my fellow shoppers (plus: it was senior discount day, so there’s that). Although I was able to add a salad to our dinner plates, I had to fall back on something I could produce from pantry staples that night: Linton Hopkins’s bucatini carbonara. Lordy, it’s so silky and wonderful, rich and pleasing. I still had a version of Thousand Island dressing to help along the future prospects of the spring mix I’d grabbed fresh. Jonathan, our guest at dinner, very thoughtfully brought along a really nice red wine, which paired perfectly. Good company, good food, good wine, good conversation. Oh, and maybe a dessert also manifested before the evening got away from us, so more on that in tomorrow’s blog post.

Please note: It's outrageous to this summer-loving senior that 20°F that morning was an improvement.

And while it wasn't as much about the weather as it was distance when I needed to have a virtual meeting that morning, I was reminded that that's what school has been like for a lot of students across our area since schools were closed all week. Weather-related interruptions to the school calendar always cost us, but we all know ain't nobody coming to school on Saturday, on spring break, or after the posted end of the year.

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Adapted from "Bucatini Carbonara," by Linton Hopkins. In Food & Wine, July 2009.

A Sheetload of Ice

The grand sleet event of late January that offered us an accumulation of close to maybe three inches of mostly sleet, which compacted down into a 1.5-2 inch sheet of ice all over every ground surface (yard and driveway and steps and sidewalks!), had a lasting impact because temperatures remained very much below normal. Schools were out the whole week and I was lucky that I'd had no scheduled work trips. I thought I'd let a standalone blog post capture a piece of this story...or should I say a kazillion pieces?

After initially carving a path to walk more safely from the street to the back door, and clearing off the front steps and sidewalk as well, I wanted to get as much of the driveway cleared as I could.

The bright sunshine of last week helped even while it was still too cold for my efforts to get boosted by any rapid melting. Instead, I had to rely on gradually chipping away with a flatblade shovel, wedging underneath where I could, and hoping that a large enough section would break up or lift up. The wheelbarrow helped but unfortunately the tire isn't holding air for very long.

Digging in the front edge, pushing in gently, lifting a bit, waiting for the rewarding sound of cracking ice, and either happily grabbing up a huge chunk or aggressively shoveling the bits and fragments...

I mean: I did finally get the car out, and I reckon not quite half of the parking lot was freed of its icing.

One of four massive piles of these ice slabs is pictured here, tucked behind a dead cherry tree but easily accessed from the upper lot area. Another sizable pile of this icy debris sits in the kitchen herb garden; a couple of smaller piles are nearby. At the street, on one side of the driveway entrance is a similar pile of these chunks and on the lower side is a pile twice as big. Here's a shot of that taken once the snow had begun last Saturday morning:

Meal No. 4030: Ultimate Cream of Tomato Soup & Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

As our inch-and-a-half (or maybe two?!) of accumulated sleet from the weekend's winter storm remained fully in place everywhere, and while the city seemed mostly shut down, we took a real plunge Monday night very nearly into single digits. With four planned for a fine Holly Avenue gathering of neighbors for supper, I was pretty set on having soup. This time, it was cream of tomato soup, along with grilled cheese sandwiches on either homemade Japanese milk bread or peasant bread. We certainly had our fill and seconds proved to be a powerful temptation to make it so.

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"Ultimate Cream of Tomato Soup," from Cook's Illustrated, November 1999. Recipe can also be found online at Cookography.com.

"Easy Same-Day Peasant Bread," from Jenny Rosenstrach of the CupofJo.com blog. [Published 02 February 2022] Adapted from Alexandra Stafford of AlexandraCooks.com. [07 November 2012 / Updated 15 November 2025]