• Sunday Gravy

    I think it might be time to share my Sunday Gravy with you.  I mean, we’re friends right?  You’ve been hanging in there with me through all the times when I have dropped off the radar and you’ve cheered me on when I’ve made my comebacks.  I think you deserve Sunday Gravy.

    Now if you’re not down with the whole Italian-American thing you might be asking, “What the heck is Sunday Gravy?” Don’t worry, I’m here to help with that.  Sunday Gravy is a slow cooked tomato sauce that uses meat as it’s base.  It’s not a bolognese and it’s not a ragu.  It is still, for me, primarily a tomato sauce and is served over pasta (fresh if at all possible).  Sunday Gravy should make the whole house smell like if you walked into the kitchen you would expect to find a whole clan of Italian Grandmothers stirring the pot.  It is rich and satisfying and one mouthful makes you feel like you’re wrapped up in Grandma’s hand crocheted quilt.  Really.  Sunday Gravy is that good.

  • Lamb Ragu

    Lamb Ragu ~ Living the Savory LifeI once entered into a pasta sauce cooking competition with my team at work.  We were to each make a pot of our own homemade sauce and we would be judged by our peers.  So I made sauce!!  And it was good!!  Really good!!  And I lost….  The sauce I made was a really fantastic red sauce with small meatballs.  Compared to the sauce that won, mine wasn’t particularly hearty and considering I was feeding a team of ten men, it was a big error on my part.  I didn’t cook to my audience.  I wanted my audience to love what I wanted to make.  Lesson learned eh?

  • Tradition and Italian Style Steamed Mussels

    Italian Style Steamed Mussels ~ Living the Savory LifeI’m a lover of tradition.  Whether it be a husband and wife taking a 45 minute Sunday drive every week to share their favorite breakfast muffin, a group of girlfriends meeting up for a weekend away from all corners of the country, or an annual family photo album (yes, our 2013 album is “still in the works”).Italian Style Steamed Mussels ~ Living the Savory Life

    Traditions make you feel a part of something bigger than just you; something to look forward to and something to treasure.  They connect you to others.  I have a lovely tradition I share with a friend I’ve had since early childhood.  It is something we both look forward to.  It first started when I was living in Seattle and she was (and still is) living in San Francisco.  I traveled a lot for my job then and when I could, I would route through San Fran stopping in to say hello to my friend I grew up with in Vermont.  We would have a night out for dinner, or perhaps a Sunday brunch,  but after high stress hectic work weeks, we were both just as happy to have chilled out evenings at her house, cooking in her fantastic kitchen and just having a good ol’ catch up.  There’s one meal we ALWAYS make.  You see, I CRAVE the salads she makes and she quite likes my mussels.  So we grab a bottle (or two) of wine, a beautiful French baguette, she makes the salad, and I make the mussels.Italian Style Steamed Mussels ~ Living the Savory Life