Tonight's dinner reminded me of my first Home Ec class in high school. I had cooked and baked a little at home but not a lot by the time I reached Grade 9. I grew up in a house where Mom cooked a nice dinner every night, where we all sat down together at the table to eat and where we'd complain if dessert was only "cookies, fruit or ice cream". We were very spoiled with great cooking and baking around our house. There was no real need to learn this domestic art. But now, I was going to learn to cook and bake by someone whose job it was to teach me. A real professional...
I was sadly disappointed. The first class was all about how to warm up TV dinners and make them "special" by setting a nice table. We actually were given handouts that diagrammed placemats and napkins so we could make our husbands feel they were having a home-cooked meal. I would have been better off in shop class.
So why did tonight's dinner remind me of Grade 9? Well, because a busy day led to spiffing up a store-bought package of cheese tortellini. It wasn't bad but as my Mother says "tomorrow we need to have a proper dinner". I made a quick vodka tomato sauce while the pasta was cooking. Three cups of crushed tomatoes, 2 shots of vodka, 1/4 cup of cream, a handful of fresh baby spinach leaves, chopped fresh basil and oregano plus salt and pepper to taste. All warmed up, spooned over cooked pasta with shavings of fresh Parmesan on top. Dinner in 15 minutes. Not bad considering...better than a TV dinner.
Julie
To be honest, I've eaten maybe 3 TV dinners in my life, they look pretty bad. Not the frozen entree gourmet ones, but the other, in a tin pan kind.
ReplyDeleteI love Vodka sauce, and we haven't had that in a while.
Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams
Silly me, I hit the button too soon.
ReplyDeleteI meant to say that you made that dinner look wonderful, it's a bit of a tweak, and it worked wonders.
Jen
Sorry I missed that home ec class (just kidding), I would have thought that I was with you but evidently we didn't meet until grade 10 and as I recall we had some weird home ec classes in grade 10 also! lol (I know you know what I mean)
ReplyDeleteHave a good one! If this comment actually works, I hope you will be as impressed with my tech skills as I will be.
TTFN
Do both shots of vodka go into the sauce or is one for the cooks martini?
ReplyDeleteGuess who?
For a quick dinner this looks good to me. I never could see how TV dinners caught on and for the life of me I can't imagine why they would be included in Home Ec.
ReplyDelete