Sunday Afternoon

It was a late lunch. We had penne pasta with a homemade meat ragu sauce-- not "Ragu" the store brand. I grew up having "Ragu" on spaghetti. I thought it was normal and good to have tomato sauce from a jar. I never knew that there were people out there making homemade sauces. It never occurred to me. My mother, of Irish descent, made her own gravy for the meat or poultry we were having. I suppose that some people would find that to be impressive and I suspect that those same people probably think that gravy comes out of a jar. When I was 16, I begged my mother to switch to "Prego" because of its better taste. Hmmff. I've come a long way from my jarred sauce eating days. Now I'm married to an Italian and I therefore make my own sauce. Of course!!!!!

The second course was Birdseye French Cut String Beans and some cheese. My husband upon seeing the plate asked, "What is this vegetable. Why did you cut them that way?" I replied by saying, "No, honey, they came that way. Those are Birdseye French cut String Beans and they're delicious!" What he should have asked about was the cheese next to the string beans: three pieces of Asiago with capers on top. He didn't think twice about that as he wolfed it down, each and every caper too as if they belonged there! So weird.

For dessert, we had crostata. It's like a raspberry tart. I made it myself. I used Polaner raspberry Jam but I did make the dough. We were so full after this late lunch that we didn't eat dinner. We just had some warm milk and biscotti at 7:30pm (no photo).