Tagliatelle with wild mushroom sauce

Here's another Lidia Bastianich recipe from Lidia's Favorite Recipes. I used different pasta and mushrooms than called for because that's what they had at the store.

Okay, so this doesn't look appealing, but it was good! Dave liked it better than aglio e olio, but that's just crazy talk.

Aglio e olio

Many Italian Americans will be familiar with this one. It's a simple dish, full of flavor.

I realize this just looks like a bunch of plain pasta, but it's not! The recipe is spaghettini aglio e olio, or spaghettini with oil and garlic, from Lidia's Favorite Recipes, by Lidia Bastianich. I substituted linguine for the pasta shape. In the photo, see if you can find the little slices of garlic and the flecks of red pepper flakes and parsley. The garlic flavor was outstanding but not overpowering. It doesn't look like much, but it was quick and tasty.

Doctor Who: The Dominators

The Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe arrive on Dulkis. The Doctor tells them that this planet is peaceful and they can get a good rest there.

Unfortunately, the Dominators have landed on a remote island with their robot enforcers, the Quarks. They're aggressive and soon start using Dulcians as laborers in their secret plan, but the pacifist Dulcian leaders won't do anything about it.

Quarks with a Dominator

Good thing the Doctor is there to save the day! This story is okay. The Dominators aren't compelling villains and the Dulcians are frustrating in their general unwillingness to do anything to help themselves.

THE RUNDOWN

Doctor: Second
Companions: Jamie, Zoe
Episode: #44, "The Dominators," five parts
Adversary: the Dominators

Classic Lines: a Dulcian, about Zoe: "This girl's got an inquiring mind. She can't possible come from Dulkis."

Tuck This Away to Impress Your Friends: The Doctor uses the sonic screwdriver for the second time- this time to get through a wall.
Next Up: "The Mind Robber"

Doctor Who: The Wheel in Space

The Wheel in Space is Zoe Heriot's first story. She and Jamie are my favorite companions! Unfortunately, this story is missing four of its six parts. The Doctor and Jamie arrive on an abandoned rocketship, and the Doctor is hurt. Then they get picked up by the Wheel. Zoe is tasked with showing Jamie around.

Jamie and Zoe on the bridge

Zoe is exceptionally smart. Jamie wanders off and sabotages the laser they were going to use to destroy the abandoned ship that happens to be the current location of the TARDIS. But they have bigger problems on the way...

Cybermen!

Cybermen are here! And they brought their cybermats, too.

I wouldn't touch that...

So now the Doctor is feeling better and they're coming around to the fact that he and Jamie aren't horrible saboteurs who want to stop the space program.

Jamie, Zoe, and the Doctor

Zoe is showing off her smarts, and she and Jamie are already getting along nicely. But then the Doctor and Jamie figure out that the Cybermen are on the abandoned rocket. Oh no!

Then the Cybermen are on the Wheel, and they want to invade Earth. Good thing the Doctor is there to stop them!

After the Cybermen are defeated, Zoe asks to go with the Doctor and Jamie. The Doctor wants her to be certain, so he shows her the Daleks on the TARDIS screen as the episode ends.

THE RUNDOWN

Doctor: Second
Companions: Jamie, Zoe
Episode: #43, "The Wheel in Space," six parts
Adversary: the Cybermen

Classic Lines: the Doctor: "Logic, my dear Zoe, mearly enables one to be wrong with authority."

Tuck This Away to Impress Your Friends: Jamie gives the Doctor the alias John Smith when asked for the Doctor's full name. He saw it on a piece of nearby equipment. The Doctor goes on to repeatedly use this alias in the future.
Next Up: "The Dominators"

Chocolate cake with dark chocolate ganache

The latest new recipe I tried was chocolate cake with dark chocolate ganache from Baked Explorations.

It was actually supposed to be chocolate coffee cake with dark chocolate ganache, but I didn't have coffee extract to put in the frosting. Also, isn't that a little confusing? This isn't a coffee cake. Anyway, as you can see, it's a three-layer chocolate cake covered in buttercream and then you pour a chocolate glaze over it. I'm going to call it glaze and not ganache because there's no cream in the glaze. It's chocolate, butter, and corn syrup. That's not ganache to me.

I suppose the negativity I feel toward this cake is coming out already! I didn't like it, even though my husband and parents did. I know why. I've had hits and misses with Baked recipes. The cakes I don't like have had shortening and butter in the cake and flour in the frosting. So did this one. I will be avoiding recipes with both of those techniques in the future. I just don't like them. It's purely personal preference. Lots of people do like them.

I didn't have any issues making the frosting, like I read online that some people did. Just make sure it's cool enough before you add the butter. Even though I didn't like this cake, I'll continue to try recipes from this cookbook because for the most part they've been great.