Sunday Dinner

I absolutely love Sundays in my house. Eric usually gives me the morning off to do whatever I like while he watches the kids. I come back refreshed and ready to snuggle up and read books, do art projects or whatever else the the day brings. I also have the leisure to make a more ambitious dinner than I would attempt on a weeknight. Eric is around to help watch the kids and Echo is usually excited to help me cook anyway. A few Sundays ago Echo helped me make fresh, homemade pasta (my first time ever to make it!). We topped it with our favorite sauce, puttanesca, and even had time to make a home made dessert! Then we got to enjoy a leisurely family meal (I even broke out a bottle of wine), catching up and and talking as a group (it's so much fun now that Echo is getting more chatty). Sundays are the most relaxing and luxurious days in our house, they are a such a great time to connect as a family.

The homemade pasta was fun to make but probably more work than I would normally want to do. It is a fun activity to do with an older toddler though, provided you can keep your cool and not stress out! Echo really enjoyed seeing how the pasta was made though since we eat pasta all the time. For dessert we made a truly decadent chocolate cherry crisp, soooo amazing with vanilla ice cream!
  

Now, so that this isn't just a post with pretty food pictures, I am going to share the recipe for our puttanesca sauce which has quickly replaced jarred sauce in our house, the whole family just loves it!

Ingredients
Three large ripe tomatoes, chopped
one large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, diced
2 tbs olive oil
1 tbs cappers, chopped (my family doesn't like the intensity of whole capers so I chop them up a bit)
20 calamata olives, roughly chopped
crushed red pepper to taste
4 tbs chopped fresh parsley

Saute the onions and garlic in olive oil until the onions are translucent. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook until they soften and some of the juices start to come out. Next add the capers, olives and crushed red pepper. Cook a few minutes more, until everything is heated through. If the sauce seems a little dry I like to add a bit of the starchy pasta water to it. Add the chopped parsley last and toss with warm cooked pasta.

This is an especially great recipe to make in the summer because of the gorgeous fresh tomatoes that are available. If you want to make it in the winter you can used caned diced tomatoes too, I've made it that way it it's still yummy :-)

Hope you all are getting to enjoy your own lovely Sunday dinners with family!