The Joy of Cooking

Sometimes I think the best part about knowing how to cook is just being able to create something.  I enjoy Meatloaf, not the food although I like that too, but the singer.  Some of his songs go on way to long, but I can imagine him sitting there playing the Piano and not wanting to stop just for the joy of it - Anything for Love and Everything Louder than Everything Else come to mind.  I also have some good friends that can play the guitar, passing the lead back and forth to each other without a word.  Just playing for enjoyment for themselves and those listening.

I can strum a guitar to a limited set of songs and can't play the piano at all but when it comes to food my creative abilities kick in and I can create if not a masterpiece at least something enjoyable and tasty.

This is not really going to be a recipe per say but the process I went through on making dinner last Saturday.

I started with some canned tomatoes I had from my garden, I grew some San Marizinos and wanted to see how they were.  I opened the jar and poured them into a pan with a little white wine and set them to simmer and reduce the liquid a little.

Next I poured some olive oil in my trusty cast iron pan and let it heat up.  Last summer I had some left over sliced peppers and onions from the church fair that I had bagged and froze so I took a handful out and chopped them a little more and added them to the oil.

Meanwhile I had found some dried morels in the pantry so I crushed those and added them to my tomatoes to reconstitute and add some flavor.  Once my onions started to brown I added my tomatoes so I was down to one pot.

I had a gift card from Sur la Table and back in august I purchased a Miracle Grow Aero Garden and had quite a bit of basil, both Thai and Genovese, so I made a pesto with some Manchego, pine nuts and olive oil, which I stirred in to my tomato sauce.  In the back of my fridge I found some half an half that hadn't expired yet so I poured it into a pan and let it reduce by half and then poured it with everything else.  Finally with my trusty immersion blender I gave everything a thorough mix, leaving some recognizable pieces of tomatoes and morels.

A quick boil for some artisan pasta and then mix it all and sprinkle with some parmesan cheese and dinner was ready. 

Of course during all this there were a couple games of chess with William, he won 1 out of four games, listening to Jonathan practice piano and raking, bagging and tilling some leaves into my garden... a fabulous fall day.

Now, Get in the Kitchen and Cook Something!