Truly Home Cooked (Dr. Girlfriend Knits)

For Christmas, Kevin and I asked for a Dutch oven. You know, the really heavy enameled cast iron kind. My mom and brother found a nice blue one for us at BBB, and we couldn't wait to get to use it.

Kevin decided that the inaugural usage should be some tomato sauce. All day Saturday (while we had no heat... don't ask), Kevin simmered and bubbled some deliciousness in our new pot. And then we ate White Castle for dinner (don't ask).

On Sunday, it was my turn to heat the apartment with cooking, so I baked up two loaves of French Bread from Peter Reinhart's "Artisan Breads Every Day." Reinhart's recipes use similar techniques to "Artisan Breads in 5 Minutes a Day," but some don't require rising before going in the fridge and others require periodic folding.

As the bread baked, I shaped some pasta for eating with that delicious sauce Kevin made on Saturday. For Christmas, my parents also got me the book "Encyclopedia of Pasta" by Oretta Zanini De Vita. The book basically details every type and shape of pasta ever made in Italy. While it gives information about ingredients and shaping, it isn't a cookbook.

Somehow I got pictures of the components of dinner, but never the full meal put together!!

Dutch oven at work...