Sunday's Skillet Sketties - Mambo Italiano!

My husband and I love Italian food, and it is so easy and cheap to make good Italian at home. So once in a while, my husband makes something he calls "skillet sketties," which is just spaghetti made on a skillet on top of the stove.

I am the chief chopper and dicer (also chief dish and bottle washer, later), so I am the one who cuts up all the veggies, which may typically include green peppers, onions, and garlic; in fact, lots and lots of garlic, usually. He sautees the veggies and adds the sauce and lets it simmer. Oh my goodness, it smells so wonderful!

He makes the spaghetti noodles themselves - angel hair pasta, this time, delectable, straight from Italy! - in a separate sauce pan on top of the stove, then drains the spaghetti and dumps it into the skillet and mixes it around with the sauce. On top: parmesan cheese. On the side: buttered toast, or garlic bread! Also accompanied by: a very nice salad (not shown). Mangia!

Now, do you want to dance all around the kitchen? Okay, let's dance!!!

The soundtrack song is Dean Martin, with Mambo Italiano.

Bonus story, added later: this is a CURSED pan! Cursed by my father!
I had to come back and tell you about the curse on this pan. It was years ago. My husband and I had just bought the pan, which is a Red Copper pan, when we were on our way to visit my mom and dad. We get there. My husband, excited, pulls the brand new pan, still in its wrapper, out of the trunk, and shows it to my dad, Lee. Now, the pan cost maybe $20, and I used a $5 coupon on it at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, so we got it for around $15, which I guess seemed like A LOT to my old-school daddio. So we are by the car, showing the pan to my dad, and enthusing on its advertised properties, when my dad says to us, "Well, I hope that pan will be EVERYTHING YOU HOPED it would be." But while shaking his head through the entire short speech, in an ironic tone of voice. Now, translating the "Lee-speak," what this means is that he thinks we paid way too much for this pan! And that it will eventually disappoint us, even at (or especially at) that price. Overall, what this means that he actually sort of hopes that the pan will fail and TEACH US A LESSON. Proving to us the age-old adage that he's been spending his whole life trying to get us to learn: "A fool and his gold are soon parted!" (He may just as well have said, "A POX ON YOUR PAN!!!") Guess what, the pan's been great! So far so good. And so much for my father's curse! This one's for you, Dad. Nina Simone, with I Put a Spell on You.