ragu

 I woke up earlier today and could tell as soon as I opened my eyes that it was going to be one of those days where I’d have to work a little harder. Not super hard, but I did wonder if taking some cbd oil would be called for.

I was lucky though - Carm sent me an engaging article about travelling through Italy to find the perfect ragu. I immediately perked up with the challenge. How could I create something even slightly satisfactory to Carm. 

Here’s a snippet of what he wrote to the person that sent the article: “it reminded me of my mum who would spend Thursday's and Sunday's over a big pot of ragu slowly simmering on the stove for hours until the fragrance permeated our entire home.”

I know my pitiful attempt at meatballs will not rival his mom’s, and the sauce is a bit of a kludge, but maybe he’ll be transported for a minute.

All day I planned to go snowshoeing - by the time I finished making the meatballs and ragu (it took hours!), it was snowing… I crashed on the sofa… then, with a mighty effort I did it! The snow was lightly falling in big beautiful clumps creating a hush that can only be experienced on a snowy day. It was lovely! Adia disappeared back to the house for a bit and then, zoom! She went crazy in the deep snow - how can that pure joy not rub off a bit :-)

I don’t know how it happened, but only 3 songs played on the stereo before we pushed ourselves away from the table groaning. Supper was either tasty, or so awful we had to eat fast to get it over with. Actually it turned out pretty good - not at all like Carm’s mother’s but a respectable stand-in.

"It's in the nature of Italians to live life with a positive tone and to celebrate the invitations that come along in life. Italian food is so conducive to all of that.”

~Lidia Bastianich