First Post/Pasta Night!

Hello Blogosphere!

I have been thinking of starting up one of these things for a while, and I finally caved and took the time to figure it all out.  Hopefully I'll discover all of the ins and outs of the Blogger platform as I go along.  So far so good!  

As of now, I don't have a specific plan or focus for the blog.  I tend to have a lot of random thoughts and opinions on a variety of topics, so I'll probably be all over the place.  Food, movies, television, sports--you name it.  Not that anyone cares, because I'm pretty sure the only people who will be reading this regularly will be my parents (hi Mom and Dad).  To anyone else interested enough to read on, I hope I don't bore you to death!

SO--tonight I attempted to make dinner for my family and boyfriend.  Usually I prefer baking, but I'm trying to expand my horizons.  At the start of the new year, I vowed to learn how to cook and to cook more often.  Earlier this week, Joe and I took a cooking class at "Sur la Table."  The class was super fun and the dishes were pretty simple.  The chef/instructor taught us how to make four different sauces with minimal ingredients.  I thought I mastered the recipes and wanted to show off my new skills to my family, so I picked up the ingredients to make one of the sauces earlier this afternoon and got to work.

What felt like HOURS later, I finally finished making a baked penne dish with zucchini, onions, sweet Italian sausage and fontina cheese.  Fortunately it was delish, but it definitely took a lot more time and patience than I remembered.  I guess the dish is easier to make when all of the ingredients are pre-cut and the pasta is already cooked for you (duh).  Joe said it tasted pretty close to the version we made in class and no one ended up with food poisoning yet....so I'm happy. 

the sweet italian sausage

sauteed zucchini and onions

the heavy cream, oregano and fontina sauce

the final product!

The recipe isn't exactly diet-friendly, but it's the weekend.  Thankfully, there were not a lot of leftovers.  Plus, I already made hot cocoa cupcakes with marshmallow frosting for dessert.  What's a few extra calories?  There's always Monday!