Cooking Gourmet...

Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love to cook and bake. And boy howdy! Am I ever having a blast doing that here!

I was concerned about cooking on a gas stove- but I love it. I was concerned about cooking at high altitudes- but I really haven't found much difference to tell the truth.

Rich bought me subscriptions to Gourmet and Bon Appetit magazines and I go through them cover to cover. I cook things out of them regularly. Rich will often choose something he wants to try and then together we make it on the weekend.

The thing about the recipes in those magazines is that they usually feed a small army! However, though it increases the prep time and ingredients to have, the cooking time is the same, and then I have an extra meal or two for the freezer for those days that I am at a quilt class or otherwise occupied. So I love that they make a lot!

Today, I am making a dish called Sunday Ragu, with Polpette as an appetizer- though I have no idea why you would need an appetizer before this dish. Polpette are torpedo-shaped meatballs- and they are made from the same meat mixture as the big meatballs. I guess it is to tease you a little before the main event. The ragu is basically a bunch of different meats prepared, browned, and then cooked in the tomato sauce, then you take the meats out onto a platter and serve them with a side of pasta and the sauce.

I am including a bunch of photos because I don't believe I have ever cooked- or eaten- a dish with so many meats in it! There is a total of NINE pounds of meat! This will be at least three meals for the four of us, and a couple of lunches for Rich too. The frying pan holding this meat is a 5.2L pan...

The list of meats is: beef braciole (bra-chee-oh-lee), which is top round cut thin, pounded thinner, filled with a mixture of garlic, parsley, romano, and pancetta then rolled into little parcels; sweet Italian sausage; hot Italian sausage; pork shoulder; country-style pork ribs, and huge meatballs made from veal, beef, and pork.

This house smells SOOOO good right now! So, the sauce is simmering and now it is time to make cookie dough for lunches this week- chocolate chip cookies and also some almond biscotti. Later I will bake enough just for tomorrow. After a 3+ mile hike this morning and cooking so much of today, I am getting a bit tired.

Then I will sit.