With Love from the Freezer

It's been such a long gluttonous run of restaurant food I can't help but acknowledge the notably low key meal that I had on Valentines Day. We had soccer practice from 7-9 and Katie and I debated busting our tails to get takeout from Eliza's post-play. But there were some complications: car troubles, people to drop off, wares to peddle, general what-have-yous. After pressing our sweaty noses onto a few Hyde Street Corridor restaurant windows and checking out some menus, we finally concluded that what we really wanted was frozen ravioli that Katie had at home.

The assembly was quick and painless. Katie had some thin asparagus which she threw under the broiler for a few minutes with a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper. She finished them off under a sprinkle of Parmesan. The ravioli (whose package I never took a good look at because I tend to trust everything Katie eats, cooks, or puts in front of me) I'm guessing was a four cheese/spinach blend. I sauced them under a mock-pesto that was concocted on the fly in their leeeeetle three cup Cuisinart.
The machine is so cute you really just want to pinch its cheeks...until you realize that it has no cheeks. There was about a cup of basil that needed to be laid to rest, two Roma tomatoes, a quarterish cup of Parmesan cheese, a few second pour of olive oil, a splash of balsamic vinegar, a little salt and pepper and voila! done. Katie procured a single slice of bread that was sitting in the pantry, we toasted that puppy up, cracked it in half, and got to eating. There is something to be said for food that comes from your hand and is simple. The only way I might have cared more is if we had made the ravioli ourselves but at that time (about 10:30 pm) I was beyond grateful for the tasty premade pockets. This meal was particularly Valentines Day appropriate when recognizing its manifestation as a love tribute to cheese. There was Parmesan on the asparagus, Parmesan in the presto-pesto, and a four cheese blend in the ravioli. My GI tract hates lactose but my heart thanks me every time. Ah love.

While I recognize that this is a slightly unorthodox post in both its length and description, I just wanted to acknowledge how pleasing it was to get free in a kitchen for a second and sit at a kitchen table in sweats and eat delicious food that hadn't been splatter painted with reductions or bronzed with glazes. Good reminder of why I'm drawn to all of this. Food is brilliant in its simplicity and comforting in a low-key presentation. By the way, this is not a picture of our food. Ours looked a hundred times better, but the image emphasizes my point. It takes so little to have a good meal, it's worth the extra time to give yourself that gift every now and again.