Dinner and a Musical

BEFORE I START A PUBLIC SAFETY MESSAGE FOR FLOW AREA RESIDENTS: Early morning on May 18 several homes in Wyckoff and Franklin Lakes were burgled. The burglar apparently broke into the homes through open windows. Make sure to keep your windows SHUT and LOCKED.

Tonight I technically made two dishes from Skinny Italian. That's because to make the final dish, I had to make the base dish. First I made the Quickie Tomato Sauce, which served as the base to Gabriella's Bolognese Sauce! To quote The Soup, so meaty. A pound of meat to be exact.

I made the bolognese because I thought something hearty would do well tonight. It's been miserable and rainy all day. I've been equally miserable. So I needed something heartwarming and comforting. It delivered.

There's the base. Very easy to make. And it has basil in it, which inspired me to buy a basil plant! Now I have fresh basil whenever I want it!

I did my shopping for tonight's dish at A&P and A&S (the delicious deli up the street). While at A&P I ran into a woman that graduated from college with me. Like me she is 23. Unlike me she is apparently engaged! I wish her all the luck in the world, but I don't think I could see myself engaged at this moment in my life.

At the Deli, where the employees there are so amiable, they were kind enough to give me a delicious loaf of Italian bread on the house!
And how was the actual dish? Well, it took forever! I got home a little bit before six and got all my ingredients together. I started prepping just before 7pm and I didn't actually eat until 15 minutes into tonight's episode of Glee. I actually didn't have the bolognese sauce simmering until about 7:40pm I had so much to do before I actually had all the ingredients stewing in that iron pot on the stove!

So I simmered the the sauce for more than an hour. With sauce I do believe it's a general consensus the longer the simmer, the better the sauce. Well the hour plus of cooking, the kitchen smelled AMAZING! And the dinner, which included cavatelli (as per Teresa's suggestion) al dente.
So after pretty much two hours of cooking how was the end result? Well, I settled onto the couch with a bowl, dug in and enjoyed my dinner along with an episode of Glee. I would certainly make this dish again, of course, I might hold off on making it until the weekend when I have a little more town.


Next meal will likely be cookin' this Saturday. I'll definitly be dishing my thoughts on the Real Housewives of New York on Friday, so check back then for an update!