Success is Delicious...

Tonight was my second time making a Giada recipe and it was much better than my first. As i stated in a previous entry, I'm going chapter by chapter in Everyday Italian so tonight was

chapter Two: Everyday Sauces. The chapter opens with Marinara sauce! Giada explains that traditional marinara sauce is not the same as you would get with your mozzarella sticks at Applebee's (OK...she didn't use those words exactly, but you get the point), instead it's very light and is full of vegetables. Who knew?

And what was more exciting about tonight? I had dinner guests!! My best friends Katie and Matt joined me for dinner tonight so I had to put my game face on for this one.

In addition to trying a new recipe tonight, I tried a new gadget: the electric frying pan. This thing is fantastic. I did NOT have to Rachael Ray my way up the stairs AND my apartment now smells of wonderful Italian cooking which reminds me of home. The only time I had to leave the room was to make the pasta since we don't have any hot plates or burners. We'll work on that.

Now onto the sauce! I began with half a cup of EVOO. I heated this in the pan then added two cloves or garlic and two onions, each finely chopped. At this point, one of my roommates sat down in the living room and told me "It smells like deliciousness in here." I knew I was on the right track at that point. As these cooked, I chopped two stalks of celery. I then had to peel and chop two carrots. For the third time since living here, I attempted to peel a vegetable and forgot to take the plastic covering off the peeler. Of course, my first reaction was that the peeler had somehow lost all sharpness, and then I looked down and discovered my mistake. I am the reason that they make those plastic safety guards.

Anyhow, once chopped, I added the two veggies to the pan along with some salt and pepper. The recipe calls for half a teaspoon of each, and I thought about actually pulling out the measuring spoons to be exact, and then I realized I'm Italian and measuring really doesn't matter.

As you're reading this, you're probably thinking "wow, this all seems to be going pretty smoothly," right? Well, mostly right. I'm the "clean-as-you-cook" type so as the veggies cooked, I wanted to clean up everything that I no longer needed to use. I reached for the cutting board, looked to the left of it, and found an onion that was perfectly in tact. Then it hit me. I had only added ONE onion to the sauce. Quickly, I peeled the onion, and chopped it (this onion did NOT want to be peeled and did NOT want to be finely chopped. It put up quite the fight. I did win in the end though, seeing as I am the superior being in this scenario) then let it cook up with the rest of the pan.

Onto obstacle number two. I had two cans of stewed tomatoes that I needed to be opened and added to the sauce. The recipe calls for two 32 ounce cans of crushed tomatoes, but Aldi didn't have crushed tomatoes, and I couldn't pass up the deal of 49 cents for each can of stewed tomatoes. I figured they really couldn't be that different. Now as I've mentioned before, my can opener is a pain. You know those times when you want a child to come with you somewhere and you grab them by the hand and they turn into the "boneless child" and just kind of collapse into the ground? Well that's what my can opener does. You sink it into the can and think it's all going to be fine, then as you crank the handle, it gives up and just ruins the can shredding the label in the process. After much effort and elbow grease (I think I may have even broke a sweat), I got the two cans open and added them to the pan.

The next step in the recipe is to let the sauce simmer for an hour. I decided this was the opportune time to clean up. After I was done, I glanced over at the sauce and noticed it still hadn't thickened yet. It also wasn't very red (but it was very colorful and pretty. I'm starting to sound like Ina Garten, how bad can that be?). I decided to let it cook more as I rinsed the cans from the tomatoes. I looked down, and discovered why the sauce wasn't looking quite right. The recipe calls for two 32 ounce cans of tomatoes. I used two 14.5 ounce cans of tomatoes. I taste-tested it and it did taste good, but hardly like marinara sauce should. I stood there at a loss, wondering what I would tell my dinner guests. I promised them marinara sauce, not vegetable stew and my concoction was definitely resembling the latter.

It was then that I remembered that my mother (thank God for her!) had bought me a ginormous, yes ginormous, can of tomato puree. The sauce was saved!! I added about a cup of the puree along with some Italian seasoning (in place of the bay leaves that I don't have) and let the sauce cook more. I also finished cleaning up and because my can opener hates me and cuts jagged edges on my cans, I cut my thumb in the process of cleaning the cans.

Once the sauce was almost done simmering, I decided to head upstairs to cook the angel hair pasta that I was going to serve with the sauce. I once again forgot how long it takes for a pot of water to boil on an electric stove. I sat there for what seemed like forever waiting for it to boil. However, contrary to popular belief, I watched that pot the entire time, and it DID eventually boil. And they say a watched pot never boils...

Angel hair pasta cooks up in no time, so I had no trouble with that...other than the fact that I can't measure how much pasta to cook and ended up making much more than needed. Matt and Katie arrived shortly after the pasta was done and we all ate at my kitchen table. I'm pretty sure that's the first time it's been used. And it did force me to clear the table before they came over. Did I mention that our kitchen and living room area still isn't completely unpacked?

Both Katie and Matt told me the meal was great and after eating, our friend Savannah came over and bonded with us. The night ended with Savannah going back to her friend's room and the three of us watching My Best Friend's Girl over in Matt's room. Funny movie, but definitely not one to watch with your parents.

As usual, it was a fantastic night overall, and there are PLENTY of leftovers for those nights when I don't have time to cook. I have a tournament this weekend, so there won't be anything new (or any Domino's thank GOD) till Monday. But check back then when I conquer my third recipe: Lemon Spaghetti! Yum-O :)