January 4

How I Celebrated

There have been two things with spaghetti that I wanted to try. One was making rainbow spaghetti and another was to try cacio e pepe (thanks to the Food Network shows being on Netflix). I know it probably would have tasted different (better?) if there wasn't food coloring in it. It sure would have looked better. All of the elements in making it come together made it a bit tedious. I was worried about the noodles being overcooked because first of all I left them in the water while I prepared the baggies with the food coloring. Then they had to soak more water with the food coloring. Then they were supposed to be simmered in the sauce. Not only that, I knew that cooking all the noodles again together would make some of the food coloring come out and run all the colors together. To avoid this, I tried to make the sauce first, but while I rinsed the noodles, the cheese started to cool and congealed together again. SO when I tried stirring in the noodles, there was just a big lump of parmesan that soaked up the extra food coloring. Not cute. Still tasty, still fun. Happy Spaghetti Day!

Diet Helpers 

• Sugar Free

  Spaghetti the pasta noodle is sugar free. Look out for sugar in the sauces. Here is a nice recipe for a sugar free sauce.

• Gluten Free

  Spaghetti pasta is typically made from wheat, so you will have to buy (or make) gluten free pasta.  

• Vegetarian

  Pasta is usually pretty easy to have a vegetarian version, just make sure you don't have a meat sauce.

Recipes

If you want to try something a bit more intense than my usual store bought spaghetti noodles and sauce (simple and cheap), here are a quick few:

• Food.com
• All recipes list
• Food Network's Paula Deen
• Taste of Home

Follow Molly's board January 4 Recipes on Pinterest.

History

Besides the normal wikipedia link I always paste, how about this blurb from National Day Calendar:

"In March of 2009 the world record for the largest bowl of spaghetti was set and then reset in March of 2010 when a Garden Grove California Buca di Beppo restaurant successfully filled a swimming pool with more than 13,780 pounds of pasta."

Merchandise

Feast your eyes 

Follow Molly's board January 4 Merch on Pinterest.

Restaurants

• The Old Spaghetti Factory is one I am familiar with
• I have also dined at the Olive Garden
• One time Nate and I tried to have a special place to be regulars at, but the Sunshine Pizza Exchange is no more (sad face). Too bad 'cause I dug their spaghetti.
• Here is the Daily Meal's list of the 20 best Italian restaurants
• And for my local LA peeps, here is LA Weekly's 10 great restaurants for pasta.

Other Things to Celebrate Today

• Oatmeal Month
• California Dried Plum Digestive Health Month (Prune Breakfast Month)
• Hot Tea Month
• National Soup Month
• Bread Baking Month
• Candy Month
• Egg Month
• Meat Month
• Wheat Bread Month
• Fat Free Living Month
• Be Kind to Food Servers Month
• Pop Music Chart Day
• National Trivia Day
• Tom Thumb Day
• World Braille Day
• World Hypnotism Day