So listen, how did you celebrate Groundhog Day yesterday? I mean did Billy, Willie, Sam, Phil or whoever see or not see their shadows and who really believes that stuff anyway? More important, how does that apply to a foodie who only thinks about what she's cookin' today?
The answer to that question's actually pretty easy. We Canadians are so literal - I mean we don't say garbage disposal, it's a garburator cause that's who makes 'em; tissue is Kleenex for the same reason and a paper napkin is a serviette because that's what it says on the package (in Canada anyway). Surely Groundhog Day must mean one MUST have ground hog for dinner. It seemed like a rather logical no-brainer to me.
This particular ground hog is combined with tomatoes, cinnamon and almonds to make a sauce of incredible flavor in a casserole of baked rigatoni with pork ragu and almonds. A Gourmet Magazine recipe, I prepped the sauce earlier in the day so I could enjoy the aroma while I was ironing (yeah, there's no fancy name for that kind of drudge work, is there?) I only made a couple of changes - limited the olive oil to 2 tablespoons and cut the almonds to a 3/4 cup. It's hearty, flavorful and well worthy of a Groundhog Day celebration - never mind that it's just a little bit different.
Mix the sweet nutty crunch of almonds with tomatoes and you've got a whole new kind of flavor going on - kind of exotic if you really want to know the truth and without even one spec of garlic in it, that had to be a first in our house. I was all ready to have to add a ton of spices to make it palatable, but not one extra thing was required... OK, just pretend I didn't see the red pepper flakes the big guy loaded on his portion, but those things don't count in our house causes he uses them instead of salt.
Now, as for six more weeks of winter - hey, makes no never mind to me. High temperature in Tucson yesterday was a sunny 70. What's to complain about?
Ahhhh - the joys of living in the south, ehh? Who cares if that big rat sees his shadow - it only matters to those guys up there any way. You crack me up that you ate "ground hog" yesterday!!! I wish I would have thought of that - I just might steal that and and give you credit for the rest of my life ( I do give credit where credit is due)!!! Wow - I look to the left and I see you have visitors from Germany, Salamanca, Tel Aviv, Sesto San Giovanni, and that is just international that I see!!! You rock!!!
Posted by: Lea | 02/03/2010 at 07:56 AM
Lea - No - you rock! I watch for you every day and here you are. You make my day kiddo.Thank you!
Posted by: June | 02/03/2010 at 08:10 AM
It actually took me a more than a couple of seconds to realize that you didn't really make groundhog for dinner...LOLOL!
Great looking ground hog recipe June. Six more weeks of winter here isn't sounding so wonderful though.
Posted by: Mags | 02/03/2010 at 04:38 PM
Mags - I draw the line at wild meat so you never have to worry about that from my kitchen, unless the big guy takes over.
Posted by: June | 02/03/2010 at 05:19 PM
That is kind of interesting how you call things. What do you call toilet paper? Charmin?
Love the hog here...very nice.
Posted by: noble pig | 02/03/2010 at 10:25 PM
Cathy - uhhh *sswipe, but only because we don't have Charmin. LOL Is this TMI?
Posted by: June | 02/04/2010 at 07:49 AM