Homemade at Last

Sometimes we get in a rut of tossing frozen meals in the oven or microwave and rushing to our offices to do paperwork. This has been our world lately, but not tonight. Tonight I declared a moratorium on job related activities and cooked something. (Hard to believe, right?) It wasn't fancy or difficult, but it was homemade, which made it better than anything else we could have chosen.

In an effort to save the time of considering what to make (i.e. stand in front of fridge with door open; stand in front of freezer with door open; stand in front of pantry with door open), I opted for a family favorite of pasta with roasted veggies. This is an excellent way to use up the vegetables I ambitiously purchased at the grocery but still haven't made anything from. Since they might go a little soft soon, I thought it prudent to dice them up, toss them with olive oil and Italian seasoning, and throw them in a 400 degree oven for about 25 minutes. (After all, I didn't want them to go the way of a potato I cleaned out of the pantry a couple of days ago. Let's just say that the only liquid form of spuds I care to indulge in is potato vodka.)

While the veggies cooked, I boiled some penne pasta which I mixed with a jar of sundried tomato and basil sauce before adding the roasted bits of bell pepper, onion, zucchini, and yellow squash. Finally, I stirred some stringy Mozzarella cheese for good measure. Even after everyone had a heaping bowl, there was plenty left over for tomorrow's lunch boxes, which is a decidedly good thing since I've been eating a hodge-podge of whatever Jeff finds in the fridge the last couple of days.

The only other homemade dish we've eaten in the last few days was a rip-off version of Cracker Barrel's fried apples that my mom posted on Facebook. (Here's the link: http://www.copycat-recipes.net/.) This site contains many favorites from national chain restaurants, and I highly recommend the fried apples. My mom tried to work out this recipe before finding it here without complete success. The apples were always good, but didn't quite taste like Cracker Barrel's. The obvious ingredients of lemon juice, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg just didn't meld correctly. It turns out the secret is to cook the apples in bacon grease (who knew?) instead of butter, although perhaps not as much (1/4 cup) as the recipe calls for. She and I both used only a small amount of the grease in a non-stick skillet, and we upped the sugar a little to make plenty of sauce. These apples are deluxe and make a wonderful side dish, snack, or topping for ice cream.

Needless to say, the consumption of an actual home cooked meal did wonders for my outlook this evening. I skipped the paperwork altogether and started watching an HBO mini-series about John Adams. Ahhh....