What I'm Cooking!

♥ My first official "real meal" of the season: Rigatoni Bolognese!

New York has cooled considerably in the past couple weeks and I've actually been cold by the time I get into bed at night which I haven't experienced since April or so. But with this cool weather brings my renewed interest in using my stove top and oven again. The first big meal I decided to tackle was Rigatoni Bolognese. Anyone who knows me knows that I usually go through phases of eating the same food frequently for a few months until I get sick of it and move on to something else. Over the last year it has been burgers, steak, sushi, sandwiches, pizza and now it's pasta with meat sauce. This phase may have something to do with the fact that I've been watching "Everybody Loves Raymond" a lot and Marie, the Mom, is constantly making lasagna or bragioli. I've had bolognese at Cafe Minerva and Extra Virgin (both in the West Village) in the past couple weeks and I just can't get over how good it was! I used this recipe from Epicurious and it turned out amazingly well. I used one less onion than the recipe (because I only had one) and instead of white wine I used a cap-full of white vinegar and another cup of water. I was so excited about it that I made a big meal out of it for my boyfriend and I a couple nights ago, complete with a salad of romaine lettuce with avocado and Gorgonzolla cheese and garlic French bread and (reduced-guilt) brownies for dessert. I spent about $20 on the ingredients for the bolognese but I think technically it serves 20, so you can freeze some like me or just half or quarter the recipe.

Have you tried any noteworthy recipes lately? Do any of you go through phases of eating a specific kind of food? I'm curious to see what you've been cooking and if any of you are as weird as I am!