Italian Throwdown

This weekend, in the land of foodie adventures, I decided to take it back to the first reasonably complicated thing I learned to make. That's The Family Redsauce...which I learned in conjunction with The Family Lasagna (see earlier post). Since I have an upcoming knee surgery that will leave me laid the fuck up for a number of weeks, we were brainstorming things that could be made ahead and preserved to eat, over time. One of which is some red sauce that we can freeze, then thaw for like, spaghetti or whatever else. This was Thursday. Sauce was made, pasta was boiled, all was enjoyed.

Then, since this was the first time I was making The Sauce without making The Lasagna, Michael decided to get all fancy pants and make better-er meatball. Not just the regular ones that I usually make, but the fabled tri-meat, super tender, flavor-blasted ones that people talk about but never actually make. Because, you know, reasons. This was Friday.

So he did. And they didn't suck. In fact, they were awesome. Truly. Awesome.

Heh Heh...balls....

So then, inspiration struck to make fresh pasta. Why not? I had a pasta machine (thank you Stoney!) and a thing I'd never made. I started with a full "batch" then cut it into quarters, to make with various sauce interpretations. The first was the redsauce...baller. Then a small-batch Caccio e Pepe. Dude.  DUDE. Then a throwback to my childhood, and simple butter noodles. Then we were too full and feeling too fat so we decided to dry the last run, split all fancy-like into linguine and spaghetti noodles, seen here....

Theeeeeeeen we brought it all together on Saturday. Rather than MY family sauce (that we had mysteriously run out of), Michael decided to make HIS version. So he did, and it was good.

So good....

There are slight variations that make it different than mine, but still completely awesome. I truly can't decide which one I like more....I guess both, for different reasons....

Then I made some more fresh pasta, because of course I'm now a pro...

Pac-man pasta dough!!!

Add some sausage from the local butcher (rather than regular store bought, obvs), and some leftover meatball heaven, and we've got Saturday night's "Best Spaghetti I've Ever Had" dinner.

It's like sex on a plate.

I have to say....fresh pasta is totally superior. Not in the "it's good but not worth it, really" sense...It's Really. Fucking. Better. Really. If you're making it in conjunction with a sauce or anything else, then really, you've got time. And if you then subtract cook time for fresh vs. dried you come out even, but happier. It soaks up and clings to sauce like dried pasta never could. It also has this wonderful springy, light texture that you just don't get with the boxed stuff. Next time I make The Lasagna, I'm totally making my own noodles.

In summary...
1. There are two very amazeballs redsauce recipes in this house. Win!!!
2. The extra work for fresh pasta is absolutely worth it, especially if you're trying to impress...
3. Meatballs are amazing, no matter what.
4. I'm learning to love Italian Sausage in a way that I never previously considered.
5. I need a day and a half on the treadmill to get rid of this carb-load weekend....
6. I regret nothing.

Holy Shit it's 2015

That's fifteen years since I graduated high school. Fifteen years since Y2K. Fifteen years since I thought 30 was really old and a million years away.

In previous years, NYE was spent in various states of being completely hammered. However, this makes two years in a row that I have awoken on New Years Day without a hangover. It's like I'm becoming a responsible adult or something.

Michael has brought in the unique perspective of spending NYE in the manner in which you want the next year to be. So for the past two years we've made stupidly pretentious food, stayed away from the stupid drunks, and had a really nice evening in. I like it.

This year, I begged for his famous (to me) escargot with whateverthefuckIwanttotakeabathinit sauce. You guys, this stuff is good. Dare I call a food sexy? Maybe. So yeah....we had that, and some gorgeous filets. The next day we did black eyed peas and cornbread and greens...something my midwestern husband has never heard of. So of course instead of "yeah we should do this for tradition whatever...." it became "OMG WHAT YOU HAVE TO EAT THIS"....even though I've never been a big fan of any of it except cornbread.

Remnants of sexy sauce...two words...truffle oil.

So, right....resolutions and shit...Except I don't really buy into resolutions being a thing. I do believe in goals for a given year. So here we go.

1. Eat real food: We've got a rockin' new stove/oven and have committed to not eating outside the house for a few months. It's good to get back into cooking more at home and eating real, whole food. I'm still in my journey of fixing my relationship with food, and as long as we stock the house with not crap food, this will be a huge step.

2. Heal my leg: I had knee surgery in October, and due to the (non?) efforts of a less than stellar Physical Therapy staff, my quad has atrophied to the point of being embarrassing. I've started doing bodyweight squats, wall squats, and general strengthening stuffs. I had been lifting, but everything just died with the surgery. What sucks is that I know I need to have another surgery, and I really don't know whether to get it all over with or put it off for awhile....

3. Be a better friend: I'm well aware that in the last year-ish, I haven't seen many of you or hung out with the frequency to which we had become accustomed. This will get better. I know part of it is us being all up ins our own world, but a lot of my circle has gone through a similar thing. Turns out, a lot of us have gotten into this groove where we totally just love being at home and not getting schwasted all the time. It's not a bad thing. We just need to find different ways of hanging out. Right?

4. No (OK, let's be serious, very few) hangovers. Drinking like a crazy person has become less and less appealing in the last few months. Let's see what happens.

5. Not get any more pets. Or  maybe just one more kitten.....

6. Pay off a metric fuckload of debt. Seriously...I might say this every year. But it's really important because...

7. Find a hobby with which I can make some money, and maybe escape working for other people. Maybe it means cutting back on spending. But I'm determined to rescue my sanity this year. Seriously.

8. Level Up.

Happy New Year everyone. I hope this year brings all kinds of awesome for you. You're worth it, and you can totally make it happen.