Bob

"Who is Bob?" you're asking. "What about Bob?" you'd like to know. Well, I can show you who Bob is not...

Not Bob, but my wonderful husband Josh.


Also not Bob, but my "hot momma," sexy cowgirl sister Allegra.

Definitely not Bob. This is Allen. In Nana's sunglasses. At Sticky Fingers BBQ in Charleston where he fed himself most of his mac n cheese.

So who, or what is Bob? Bob is Rachel Ray's newest cook book. She calls it her Big Orange Book or BOB for short. Well, I like Bob. A lot. I haven't finished reading it yet (yes, you can read a cook book) and I've only prepared one meal from it (sorta...it had Kissy written all over it), but it's good. A big thank you to Allegra for cluing Mom into my desire for the book and thanks Mom for listening and obtaining it. It's very good.

So the one meal I've made thus far is Sausage and Mushroom Ragu and Rigatoni. Very tasty. Made it for Wednesday's date night. No photos, sorry. The recipe called for 1.5 lbs of hot or sweet Italian sausage. My attitude is why choose just one. So I headed back to my meat counter with the intention of getting 3/4 lb of each. But noooo. Dominick's has started to carry additional flavors of sausage. Like onion and bell pepper. And garlic and cheese. So I came home with all the varieties. Mmmm. Did it make a tasty Ragu. If you can still call it that, as I used some of the gravy that I made earlier in the day instead of the sauce outlined in the recipe.

I'm not gonna post Bob's recipe as it involves more typing than I care to do now and since I know that 1/2 of my loyal readers already has the book. I will share my gravy recipe though (for my future needs and yours as well). This the best one so far:

3 big cans crushed tomatoes
2 cans diced fire roasted tomatoes with garlic
1 can diced tomatoes with garlic and onion
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 biggish can tomato paste
1c good red wine
4 bay leaves
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp dried oregano

I think it was the combo of the fire roasted tomatoes, the allspice and the good red wine that mad the difference. Although it's also the first time I used stewed tomatoes which yielded a chunkier sauce, which we like. Go figure. It was good!

Tonight's dinner plans involve a garlic marinated beef tenderloin (no preparation on my part, just open the package and cook), roasted broccoli and cauliflower with lemon and garlic (Dec issue of everyday FOOD) and a version of Rachael Ray's oven roasted fries that's not included in BOB and will by further modified by me.

I have other things to share, but that will be for another post.

TTFN,
Kissy