Practice Makes... More Practicing!

Well... here I am. Making my grand domestic entrance.

I should begin by confessing, I'm a terrible cook. Absolutely... not good. I never saw any interest in it, never wanted to learn and really just enjoyed eating good food and was convinced I'd never be able to produce my own.

And I am still pretty much... convinced of the same, however I also have learned that there is great joy and fun in cooking - if you are doing it with the right person.

I am beyond lucky to have found a wonderful man... who is also a fantastic cook. And this fantstic man, this wonderfully... delicious man, not only can cook and is not only a perfectionist (to the point where only ONE meal has not turned out DIVINE -- and that was the horrific 3-hour greasy meatloaf disaster)... but kind enough to allow me to cook with him. So I am learning. Slowly and surely, I am learning. I may not be allowed to fly on my own yet (after all, he still wants to have dinner - and isn't quite trusting enough to risk the gamble of my cooking...

So we've begun the tradition of receipe-searching and cooking these meals that usually take a few hours to prepare... because we chop everything and really just make it an event.

It's fun to do and something that sometimes exhausts us so much... that we collapse with full bellies pretty soon after the meals. Which is fitting, considering the cooking barely ever starts before 8 or 9 and usually gets finished up around midnight. lol

Oh well, meals can be especially delish...
Even at midnight.
Especially if your lunch was twelve hours ago.

Here is one of our most recent discoveries, which I absolutely ADORE:

Penne with Sausage, Eggplant & Feta!

Ingredients
4 1/2 cups cubed peeled eggplant (about 1.5-2 pound eggplant)
1 pound bulk pork breakfast sausage
(I used Bob Evans Zesty Hot Sausage to add a little kick...so good!)
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
A box of penne - add an extra handful or two if you want.
1/2 cup (2 ounces) crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Preparation
Cook eggplant, sausage, and garlic in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat 5 minutes or until sausage is browned and eggplant is tender. Add tomato paste and the next 3 ingredients (through tomatoes); cook over medium heat 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Place pasta in a large bowl. Add tomato mixture, cheese, and parsley; toss well.

Notes
We altered it a bit and cooked the sausage fully first, then added the eggplant & cooked it with the sausage. We also didnt add the feta cheese and once everything was mixed, put it all into a casserole dish and melted mozzarella cheese over it using the oven. Later, we had feta to the side so whoever wanted to eat it with feta could add it to their pasta. Jason ate it without the feta, I ate the bottom part of the casserole and just used the feta, no mozzarella, and his roommate ate it with both. Everybody enjoyed it :)

And it made bunches, so there was enough for seconds & some lunch the next day. Even better reheated!