Just Because...: The Reappearance of the Cooking Mojo...

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

The Reappearance of the Cooking Mojo...

Friday afternoon, I left the 9to5 early and was able to drop by my fave farm stand: Maters & Taters. I departed with my normal veggies, but added a few extras into the mix (fresh ginger, some asparagus, butternut squash, etc.) See, I have a problem where I will do the food shopping, but when I get home from work, I'm dead drained tired and the last thing I feel like doing lately is whipping up a culinary masterpiece. Either lately I've been doing takeout, grabbing a Lean Cuisine or making something simple, like a sandwich. I know I know. I have a gorgeous kitchen, have my pots and pans and knives which I had to have (and I could have bought those CL shoes with the cost of everything) and hell, let's not even go into the appliances I *had* to buy when I moved into this lovely abode.

I have shamed the cooking gods. Seriously, the Food Network should just ban me from watching because no matter how much I want to cook, I just can't find the get up and gumption to do it. There has been no pep in my step.

Well, that was until tonight. See, Michelle talked about a lovely sauce she made the other day and that inspired me to pick up a batch of mini plum tomatoes from Maters & Taters. I'm not a fan of the jarred sauce. I will use it in a pinch, but most of the time, I prefer to make my own (and my vodka sauce is delish! Trust me on that one!). Not bad for an Irish wench, huh? I joke that I must have been Italian in a former life as I'm a huge fan of anything Italian: shoes, pasta, spices, handbags, art, men, etc. I actually want to go to Italy on a future vacation. Who knows what can happen. But I digress.

Tonight, on the drive home (I got out around 6ish), I figured "eehhh.. let me just pick up something on the way home". Then I thought "eeehhhh... I don't want to cook - I'm tired"... then I remembered that the tomatoes might go bad if I don't get my crap together. See I'll buy something and then don't use it at times. It's a waste, I know but I have this emotional thing where I have to have a full pantry and fridge. Flashback to the whole divorce debacle, I guess. But back to the problem at hand.

Well, I did go pick up something - my Dunkin' Donuts hazelnut iced coffee - 2 of 'em (1 for the morning and 1 for tonight), a muffin for the a.m. drive (pumpkin muffins - yum!) and figured "ENOUGH LAZINESS LYS! TIME TO COOK". So with that, I prepared to enter the kitchen. I washed the dishes, cleared off the cooking area, put a pot of water on the stove to boil, and then got to work.

I was too lazy to go look up Michelle's recipe but remembered enough for a little variation. I preheated the oven to 425, covered a baking sheet with tinfoil and sprayed it with olive oil, washed the pint of plum tomatoes (which turned out to be perfectly ripe), tossed the tomatoes with a bit of EVOO, salt & pepper and popped them into the oven for about 12 min. until they began to burst. Then, I took the tomatoes out, let them rest for about 5 minutes while I took two garlic cloves, the cooled tomatoes, a bit of dried oregano and basil, salt, pepper and a bit of hot pepper flakes for a dash of heat into my NEVER USED food processor (had to have, never broke it in), pulse the above for a little bit, stream in some more olive oil, pulse again and viola! Fresh Roasted Tomato Sauce...

While I was whirring the sauce, my water was boiling some 5 cheese ravioli that I had the in freezer (gotta love Costco) and then it was time for plate assembly.

Ladle a bit of sauce on the bottom ala Emeril style, gently spoon the pillows of pasta-y goodness onto the plate, ladle a bit more sauce and BAM!

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present, 5 Cheese Ravioli with Roasted Tomato Diablo Sauce... Thanks Michelle!

Labels: Cooking, Recipe

Posted by Lys :: 9:22 PM :: 3 comments

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Just Because...

Wednesday, September 26, 2007