Something other than pizza

For years before we were married, R's standard Sunday night dinner was Pizza. He would then eat leftover pizza Monday night and Tuesday night. Wednesday and Thursday were probably sandwiches, and on the weekends he'd go out.

These days we do still eat pizza, but not every Sunday night as his cholesterol is a bit high. (And I don't want to gain "married weight"!) We have a great place around the corner and it is always tempting to call and pick up, but I decided to cook.

We'd spent much of the afternoon running around looking for a lamp. We still have quite a few gift cards from the wedding, but after running from one end of the mall to another and back, along with stops at Crate & Barrel, Pier One, and Bombay, we came home with only the serving utensils to our stainless and a silicon pastry mat (for me, of course).

Dinner was a typical "clean out the pantry/fridge" concotion: a baked pasta dish with turkey, butternut squash, and some homemade tomato sauce that was in the freezer:


It looks like a ton, but that's a small casserole dish.

Tonight, I joined just about everyone here in town and made soup. I'm sure there was plenty of chili to be had, but I decided on Pasta e Fagioli. I didn't manage to take any pictures, but I filled up a 5 1/2 quart pot. Plenty for tonight and plenty more in the freezer.

As much as I despise her more than any other food network "personality," I used a recipe from Rachel Ray. I have never bought her cookbooks, but I have a copy in my MasterCook software. I used some smoked sausage (R needs meat) instead of pancetta, used a little more tomato than it called for, and let it simmer a lot longer. It was tasty, and was nice on this evening that finally feels like Fall.