Creamy Carbonara

2018 was a year of repair and replacement for us.  Let me just run down the list really quickly for you of the things we repaired and replaced this year:
1 Hot water tank
1 septic system
1 septic alarm - TWICE (don't ask)  
1 irrigation system
sod around 3/4 of the house
Most of the plants (and trees) around our house
2 Refrigerators (One replaced and one repaired)
air conditioner in one vehicle
2 Dryers (plural - we bought one and replaced another) 
Tires on 3 vehicles
1 Laptop

Since we own 4 vehicles, we actually expect that at least one of them will be at the repair shop at all times.  What we didn't plan for is our thirteen year old house to actually starting implode this year.  From what people tell me, it's not unusual for a home to have a midlife crisis around this age.  Maybe houses age quicker than humans - like in dog years.  If that's the case, it's no wonder that our 91 year old home needed some extra care and love this year.  

Suffice it to say that this was an expensive year for us.  Did I mention that we also had two kids in college in 2018?  BUT, despite our catastrophic house failures, I feel like we are entering 2019 with a home that's even better and stronger than before.  

We weren't always the picture of positivity when we had to face these epic house projects but we did our best to make lemonade out of our lemons.  (And trust me when I tell you that most days, it felt like we lived in a lemon.)  Thanks to the bulldozers that tore up most of our yard during the installation of our brand spanking new septic system, we were able to rework a lot of our landscaping into something that was more manageable.  It took four months of living in a field of mud but now that our grass is in with our new and upgraded sprinkler system - we couldn't be happier.  

​One thing that we did learn this year was to appreciate the simple things about our house.  Hot showers, cold food, clean laundry.  I was forced take an involuntary sabbatical from my dishwasher and washing machine for 6 weeks which meant a LOT of hours spent at the laundromat.  You've never seen anyone so happy about doing laundry than the day I finally got to use my washing machine at home again. 

We ate a lot of simple meals while we were on water restriction too.  You know - hand washing dishes and all.  This creamy carbonara is one of our favorite simple meals - even when we're NOT on water restriction.  

Creamy Carbonara
3 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup pecorino Romano cheese
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
8 ounces 
1/4 cup diced pancetta (or bacon)

Stir together eggs, cheese, salt and pepper.

Cook pasta to al dente.  Drain over a bowl to catch cooking liquid.

Reserve 1 cup liquid.  Return remaining liquid to pot. 

Place stainless steel bowl on top of pot to create a double boiler.  Add egg.

Stir continuously until thickened. 

Stir in enough of the reserved liquid to adjust consistency. 

Add drained pasta to bowl.  Heat liquid on high.  

Cook pancetta in skillet until crisp. 

Remove pancetta with a slotted spoon. Stir drippings into pasta mixture. ​

Before you start to jump all over my case - I know that I messed up this recipe - in a big, big way.  I scrambled the eggs!!!  Rookie mistake.  I also know what I did wrong.  I should have lowered the temperature of the water under the eggs and added the reserved pasta water to prevent this from happening.  I also should have added the pasta to the egg/water mixture initially instead of waiting to stir it in until the end.  So to all of you who actually read through my blogs to the very end -  congrats - these are the real keys to NOT scrambling the eggs in your carbonara like I did.  You're welcome. 

Ciao! 

Click here for a printable version of this recipe