Ragu

I gave up sweets for Lent, which is making my evenings REALLY tough. I never realized how often I grabbed a piece of chocolate or bowl of (insanely delicious, Samoa-flavored) iced cream after dinner, and now I get this itchy craving around 9. So now I drink wine instead. Problem solved!

Today started out a little stressful. Jack and I were supposed to meet my friend Camille and her sweet girl, Ellie, for lunch at 11:30. At 11:15 I’m patting myself on the back for getting Jack & myself dressed, diaper bag packed with healthy snacks… I even showered and blowdried my hair (WHAT?). And then I get in the car. And then I realize that I don’t have any keys. My parents took Jack to the Arboretum in my car yesterday and I forgot to get the keys back… so they’re presumably in my dad’s pants pocket, in the hamper, at their house, 15 minutes away.

Awesome.

After a few freak-out phone calls, Brian proved himself yet again to be the best husband ever and left work to bring me a key… so an hour later we finally managed to meet Camille and Ellie. Whew.

We ate at Dive in Snyder Plaza. Remember, the place with the amazing mussels? This time I strayed and tried the chopped salad. Mussels just seemed a little complicated when Jack is bouncing from my lap to his high chair and sticking his fingers in my food.

The salad was comprised of several of my favorite things: Chickpeas, chicken, basil, mozzarella, red wine vinaigrette. It was just a little boring, and at $13 I expected a much bigger salad. It’s not like any of the ingredients were particularly fancy to justify the price. Oh well, lesson learned: Stick to the mussels. And that way Jack can’t swipe all my chickpeas, too.

For dinner I tested a recipe that I’ve been drooling over for a week: Braised Pork Ragu with Pappardelle.

After reading the comments section on that post, I decided to attempt it in the slow cooker (shocking, I know) rather than babysit the Dutch oven all afternoon. The ingredients are simple: Pork shoulder, canned whole tomatoes, red wine, fennel seeds, oregano and thyme (I used dried). Cooked on high for 4 hours, shredded and served over whole wheat “egg” noodles with parm and parsley:

It was just meh. A little bland. I was hoping for a heartier sauce, which was dumb because nothing in the ingredients list would indicate that.  You basically end up with really tender shredded pork in a tomato-y broth.

Okay I’m off to bed. Or to get more wine. Whatever.