On family dinner.

To me, family is everything.
Ev. Er. Y. Thing.
My family is why my heart beats and what makes me smile.
There are few things in my life that I cherish as much as our family dinners.
You see, in my close, connected family,
one of the ties that binds us is comprised of what is in front of us; what is on our plates; what we are putting into our bellies.
We love us some food.
I may have mentioned this before, but when either my dad or I have enjoyed a particularly stunning meal,
we call each other for what we call the “Food Run Down”.
We go, course by course, detailing the marvelous foods we’ve just tried.
And, don’t even get me starting on our Thursday morning post- Top Chef -phone calls.
We love food.
We love each other.
Love love love.
Family dinners have become all the more precious to us as of late, as they have become a bit more infrequent. Hectic schedules, new commitments, and many other new ch-ch-chaaaanges have made our family dinners a bit more hard to come by.
I don’t have time to sit, slaving over the hot stove, preparing an elaborate feast.
I have baby lips to kiss, and husband shoulders to embrace.
And then I found it.
The key to family dinner happiness. Buitoni. *
Say it with me. Buitoni.
Buitoni=Family dinner bliss.
Buitoni believes in using simple, high-quality ingredients to create extraordinary meals. They have over 40 varieties of all-natural pastas and sauces. With a commitment to simple preparation, the brand recently added a new line of Premium Frozen Meals for Two.
Oh, and can you guess where I first heard about this magical brand called Buitoni? Where else? On Top Chef.
In case you’ve been living under a big ol’
oh,
I don’t know,
meatball,
Buitoni is the $200,000 grand prize sponsor of Bravo’s “Top Chef All-Stars.” My favorite show. Obsessed. Just like the cheftestants are being challenged to create world-class dishes on the show, Buitoni is challenging its Facebook followers to test their own culinary savvy for the chance to win monthly prizes in the Masterpiece Challenge.
And now, here it goes. The food run-down:
For Shabbat dinner, we made Wild Mushroom Agnolotti.
The preparation consisted of boiling it. For 4 minutes. That’s it. Left me with plenty of time for lip kissing and shoulder embracing.
But, was it good?
No.
It was amazing.
Truly.
Absolutely, completely delicious.
Ineverexpectedinamillionyearsitwouldbesogooddelicious.
In fact, it was so darn good that it warranted an immediate Friday evening call to my dad,
for the food rundown, of course. All I had to do was fix a nice mozzarella salad, sautee some spinach, and serve the delicious Wild Mushroom Agnolotti, and I was set.
Bellies were full,
hearts even more so.
That Sunday night, my husband and I were in the mood for a quiet dinner at home,
so I elected to make the Buitoni Shrimp Lobster Ravioli with Garlic Butter Sauce.
Again, all I had to do was boil it. It was a cinch.
And, it was delicious.
My favorite Top Chef cheftestants were right; this stuff is really, really good.
And, it left so much time for the fun stuff.
The family dinner lovin’ stuff.
The food-rundown, full belly, baby kisses stuff.
Buitoni gave us the family dinner back,
and for that, I will be eternally grateful.
And, for that, I will be making sure to have a Buitoni meal in my shopping cart the next time I go to the grocery.
Or two.
Family dinners are just that important.
So, the food rundown is this:
Family is excellent.
Baby kisses are superb.
Daddy shoulder embraces are the tops.
And, Buitoni is a wonderful, delicious, nutritious and easy way to be your own Top Chef,
one family dinner at a time.