Today, for lunch, we had baked ziti. This is a favorite meal around these parts for a lot of reasons. I love pasta (mmm, carbs!), but Richard isn't the biggest fan. He tolerates baked ziti because it isn't all that saucy (mmm, sauce!).

As I was preparing lunch today, I was thinking back to the first dinner I made for Rich and myself after we got married. We had baked ziti that night, too. We had just moved into our first teeny-tiny apartment, with an even tinier kitchen. I couldn't figure out how to work the oven since I had never cooked on gas. I was so upset, Richard went next door and asked if we could use their oven to cook our dinner. The girls who lived there kindly agreed. The baked ziti turned out great- warm and filling on a rainy night.

And the oven? The pilot light was just out. Richard fixed that, too.