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Why don’t I want to like Gwyneth Paltrow? Maybe it’s something about feeling inadequate in nearly every category of human function. It’s like Gwyneth can’t just act in a few roles, she has to win an Academy Award. She can’t just socialize, she has to hangout with the likes of Stella McCartney, Jerry Seinfeld,and Cameron Diaz. She can’t just do a few sit ups in her living room, she has to have a personal trainer at her home Pilates studio. She can’t just sing in the shower, she has to have a plum role on Glee. She can’t just be a wife, she has to marry a gifted rock star. She can’t just cook, she has to cook with Mario Batali in Spain. She can’t just write a blog, she has to dominate the blogosphere with her GOOP (literally and figuratively). She can’t just post a few recipes like the rest of us, she has to publish a cookbook. No,US Magazine, Gwyneth Paltrow is not Just Like US. And that’s why I want to hate her. But I can’t because, if for no other reason, her cookbook, which was a Mother’s Day gift from my sister, is on the money. Healthy, smart, approachable.

By the way, don’t you love the support that moms give to each other on Mother’s Day. My Facebook was aflutter with mom-on-mom well wishing. Texts, cards, viral emails, hugs, winks, nods; we all took time to appreciate each other like members of a secret society who knew that as delightful as our mornings appeared at Mother’s Day brunch, it took begging, yelling, bribes, dressing kids while in heels that no longer accommodate our tennis shoe wide feet, putting on makeup in the car while the husband turns a corner to make the light sending the concealer flying (oh god anything but the concealer), and the kids are playing a game of “who’s a bigger jerk” in the backseat. Then again, the amazing Maria Shriver and her family were also at brunch, so I suppose that lost concealer of mine isn’t so bad.

My sister and I chuckled that men would never wish each other happy father’s day, much less send a gift. Do you get the feeling that men think that if they were to even exploit Father’s Day for a second, the jig might be up? Like when your parents would forget you were in the room watching television way past your bedtime and you said something by mistake, “time for bed, Sherri.”

I must have been a very good mother, or maybe I was a very good sister, because she also gave me the Sheryl Crow cookbook (I would have named Crow’s Feat) along with the fabulous GP tome. I’ve been eager to try out many recipes from both books, but turkey bolognese caught my eye at the first glance.

I’ve modified this one a tad, but held true to the method, which is slow cooked requiring even four hours of simmering time. Don’t despair, I too was in a hurry, so I prepared it two ways. First, I cooked the sauce in about twenty minutes, combined it with cooked rigatoni and served. Kids loved it. Then, I simmered the remaining sauce per the recipe, and it too was de-lísh (from the Paltrow book meaning even though I’m prep-school educated, I can communicate with peasants).

As with most pasta dishes, you will use a few decent prepackaged foods.

Canned tomatoes without additives are nearly as nutritious as fresh tomatoes because cooking doesn’t reduce tomatoes’ special component lycopene. Pasta, right, who in crunchtime can make their own pasta? Okay, Gwyneth has a page on that too. And our longtime secret ingredient – sausage. We love that sausage (and you gotta be picky here) is packed with flavor and seasonings so you don’t need to use much. We’ve discovered a new porksausage producer offered at Whole Foods whose meat products are clean, lean, gluten-free, and delish. GP’s recipe called for turkey sausage and ground turkey, but we opted for half the meat she suggested and used pork to try out the new product. Prepare it the way you like best

I’ll hand it to Mrs. Chris Martin. The cookbook is another accomplishment in the overflowing Paltrow trophy case. But, there’s one thing she can never have on me – a sister.

Winning!