Today is the first day I’ve felt inspired to write.

I have been cooking. Lots of good food. And sharing it with others. But for some reason I haven’t felt like writing about it. Or taking pictures.

I just wanted to be in the moment.

Creativity is just like any other muscle. If you work it too much, it gets sore and tired and cranky. So I just let it be that way for a little while.

But today after work, I found myself wandering the aisles of The Fresh Market. Picking up stuff and putting it back. Drinking the thimble of complimentary coffee. Hoping inspiration would strike me.

And then I saw it.

A box of frozen porcini mushroom raviolis with a hint of truffle oil.

My aimlessness was finally holstered. I had purpose.

So I grabbed a jar of marinara sauce and two white wine and garlic turkey sausage links from the butcher, and I got out of there.

While I’d much rather make my own pasta sauce from scratch, it’s a Thursday night. That just ain’t happening. But I took the sausage out of the casing and created little meat balls. I sauteed the meatballs in a skillet, and then added the jar of sauce. Plus a little more pepper and basil.

I cooked the noodles just a bit in a pot of water, and I let them finish cooking in the sauce to get some flavor-melding action.

Then I did something crazy. I put the raviolis, tiny meatballs and sauce on a plate, topped it with Parmesan cheese and threw together a fresh side salad of greens, cucumber, yellow bell pepper, radishes and my favorite vinaigrette.

I give you the semi-homemade supper. A delicious creation in half the time. Now if today was Sunday I would have taken the time to create it all from scratch. But it’s Thursday so…I’m just being a real human.

P.S. Annie loves little turkey meatballs when they accidentally fall on the floor during the plating process.