Have you ever considered how nearly impossible it is to do all of the things that we should/want/have to do in any given day? Most of the people I know dedicate 10-12 waking hours each workday to their profession, including travel time. Assuming 6-8 hours of sleep, that leaves precious little else for personal hygiene, eating, exercise, staying current on world affairs, having a hobby, talking to your significant other, etc. And, what’s even crazier, is that I’m here beseeching you to make homemade meals, buy local & organic, and add other inconveniences to your life in the name of good eating. It’s madness, but I will try to rectify the situation.

The ‘Weeknight Dinners’ category contains recipes that can generally be prepared – soup to nuts – in a half hour or so and require few, if any, ingredients that would warrant a trip to the store. Today’s recipe, however, is the mother of all lazy day dinners. Born from the remnants of the Beef Tenderloin with Crème Fraîche Sauce recipe, it is essentially the crème fraîche sauce over pasta.

This is one of my recipe all-stars, as it is breathtakingly easy, takes 15-20 minutes to prepare from grocery bag to table, and always produces a ripple of awe and gratitude, as people think that you’ve either slaved for hours, or are a Mario Batali-esque kitchen whiz (or, God-willing, both).

To illustrate, I once pulled this recipe out for an impromptu Girls’ Night In. I received the phone call at 6, my friends would arrive at 7:30, and I had nothing to serve. 45 minutes later I had returned from my neighborhood Whole Foods with mussels, onion, parsley, crusty bread, and white wine. I cleaned the apartment (or shoved the detritus underneath the couch), cleared off the kitchen table, and started prepping around 7:15. The ladies arrived, coats were hung, bums in seats, and dinner was served by 7:35.

[caption id="attachment_8" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Clean-tasting, salty, and plump, Moules Mariniere swimming in their buttery sauce."][/caption]