Cooking: Pasta Bolognese

I love how the recipes are many and varied, and the menus are well thought out. When I normally cook, it's usually some simple Chinese stir-frys and something around 3 dishes (plus rice, and on a super special night, some kind of soup). Even then, somehow TFM's 3 courses just seem like a bit much to tackle all at once, so I decided to take this one piecemeal (pun!).

This was course 1 of Menu 2 (Pasta bolognese, Mackerel and Potato stew, and chocolate cookies), and the recipe for the Bolognese came from the "Sauces" section. I think the assumption here is that many of these sauces might be prepared ahead of time, then frozen for later use. I worked from home on a Friday, and took a long lunch to shop for and prepare this course. The recipe can be found here (measurements on that site use the metric system, my verison of the book does not)

Here's how it went down:

All ready to go, page open to the Sauces section, shopping list
complete

I used baby carrots, since that is what I had on hand

85/15 Organic Ground Beef, and a Traditional Italian Sausage
(see shopping notes for more info)

Browning the veggies. Unfortunately, I only have non-stick pots.
Instead of oil, here I added a small quantity of the meat
 and cooked the vegetables in those juices. 

Mushrooms! Sliced Button.

All assembled. The directions ask you to simmer for 90 minutes.
 This is minute 0 

Around halfway through, around 45 minutes of simmering done
-- see bubbles for proof of simmer :) 

90 minutes!
Note that the meat is super tender and has broken down from
chunky chunks into velvety ground. The color has browned
 slightly, and the flavors meld together

See how it turned out!