angie baby's baking co.: Sunday Dinner

Growing up Sunday dinner was a big deal. It wasn't until I was in college that I realized that not every family had a huge Sunday dinner with all of their family. My mom and gram would start cooking in the morning, and continue after church. Then my extended family would come over and we would feast together. It was loud and it was delicious. We fought, we laughed, we cried, and we ate! Sunday's are my favorite. They are a day of rest and most of all family.

Now I live too far from my family to have a proper Sunday dinner, but I still try to do it up. Even if it's just for me and my husband. My mom and gram did a good job of including me and teaching me how to cook. I loved being in the kitchen with them. Once I was older, I took over and did a lot of the cooking myself. I remember the first few months after I was married, I always made way too much food for just the 2 of us. It was because all of the recipes I knew by heart were for at least 8 people. Now, I have learned to modify them and I'm a little better at portions. I still slip up a lot. I hate wasting food. Sometimes, I have to get creative with leftovers (which might be a good topic for a post someday).

This past Sunday I went all out. I was very excited about trying a recipe from my newest cookbook, Urban Italian by Andrew Carmellini. It's amazing. I told my husband that this book will change our lives. It's filled with a ton of fabulous dishes. For this meal I started with a leafy lettuce with his roasted garlic dressing, followed by homemade rigatoni using his pasta dough recipe tossed in a spicy shrimp sauce (modified from his recipe for a spicy clam sauce with linguine), and finished with raspberry involtini cookies from his book. Of course, what's a good pasta dinner without bread? I found a nice fresh crusty italian loaf from Whole Foods. The meal was indulgent and awesome. We opened a bottle of local red wine, and dined like kings. I had a fun time cooking the meal, and an even better time sharing the feast with my guy! It was a good night!