Getting Soft...

While I was cleaning out the office last night, I came across a business card I picked up after biting the shite out of a steak at Pete Miller's in Wheeling, Illinois with Jo, Perry, & Renee a couple of weeks ago. This reminded me of something: I do NOT like my vegetables and pasta al dente.
You see, I ate a pretty nice rib-eye-bone-in at Pete Miller's. No complaints about the steak here. However, they served up a side of green beans that were kind of crispy. I'm sorry, I'm going to go against the rest of the world (excluding my dad) here, but vegetables should be soft. I know...I KNOW...vegetables retain more of their vitamins if you "undercook" them, but I take vitamins - COOK MY VEGETABLES UNTIL THEY'RE SOFT (not soggy)...THEY TASTE BETTER!!!
The waitress came by and asked how everything was. I told her: "You ask people how they want their steak done. You should also ask people how they want their vegetables done." She offered to take the beans back to have the chef "soften" them, but I opted for the crispy vegetables instead of soft vegetables with spit in 'em...thank you very much.
I say pasta should also be soft. Once again, I'm going against most of the civilized world here. Everybody, that is, except for my mother-in-law Jo - and she's an Italian-American for God's sake! Here's my formula: if the package says eight minutes to al dente, I boil it for eight minutes, turn off the heat, and then leave the pot on the burner for another minute. Soft and slippery pasta...YUMMY!!!! I have got to begin remembering to tell the waiter when I order pasta that I like it beyond al dente. It really bothers me when there's a bite to pasta. Al dente means undercooked dagnammit!!! Has the whole world gone insane???
SOFT...PEHMEÄ...WEICH...DOUX!!!!!! Thanks for allowing me to get that off my chest.

I'll be over for dinner tomorrow evening at 8:00 p.m.!