I haven't written because....
1. I've been very busy...and busyness gets on my nerves. It cuts into the time I normally blog and scrapbook.
and
B. Not much has happened that I can blog about - at least right now. It annoys me when my brain is so busy but the information needs to stay within the confines of my brain until further notice.
But lest you think I got sick or went missing (I'm sure you were so worried) - I thought I'd post about something...anything.
So I'll write about spaghetti sauce.
Last night I came home from work very hungry. Sometimes having a slow day at work makes me hungrier than the days when I am busy. I didn't want the standby of salad or deli meat or chicken nuggets, but I wanted to eat before any major cooking dish would have had time to cook.
So I made spaghetti. Not only is it filling, it's a great fake out for my head - making me think I've cooked when really I haven't. I pulled the beef out of the freezer and started defrosting it, I put the water on to boil for the spaghetti, and the beef had JUST started sizzling in the skillet when I realized a terrible thing.
I was out of spaghetti sauce.
I am NEVER out of spaghetti sauce. If anything, I usually have about six jars of it. Spaghetti sauce and ice cream. Two things you'll always find in my house. (Not together, of course.) Immediately I panicked. What to do? I thought of switching the plan and making sloppy joes - since the beef was already going. But I had two problems there - no hamburger buns AND no can of sloppy joe sauce. Didn't I just go grocery shopping?
Somewhere, I was convinced, I had a recipe to make spaghetti sauce. I could almost see it on the page of a Quick Cooking magazine. But I have about seven years' worth of those magazines and did NOT have time to pilfer through them all. Fortunately, I remembered it was in one of the very first issues, and I found it quickly. I had all but one of the ingredients, so I decided to go for it.
Pulled out the one can of tomato paste in my cabinet - and found that it expired in 2005. Woops. Any other weekend, I might have risked it, but this was too busy a weekend to start out with food poisoning, so I pulled out a jar of pizza sauce and a can of diced tomatoes and decided that combo would have to suffice.
I threw in all the other spices and tried valiantly to wait for it to simmer the allotted 20 minutes. I cheated a bit there and started eating after just 10 minutes, but let me tell you - that was some GOOD sauce! :)
So that's been my big adventure. Hopefully more REAL adventures are soon to follow.
9 comments:
Do you mean you actually look at the expiration dates of your canned goods? I figure, if it's in the cupboard, it's fair game--unless the can looks beat-up and I have no recollection of when I bought it. Also, I didn't eat the can of pineapple that ruptured and sprayed / oozed goo all over the shelf and the other cans and turned black and I never noticed, because I wasn't cooking because I was never home because I was always working. But that's cleaned up now and I'm back to cooking with all those potentially expired cans of tomato sauce and paste.
It's good to see you back, even if it's for an adventure that did not turn into a disaster. Happy-ending adventures are the kind to have. :o)
Pretty pitiful, huh? Actually I don't always look at the expiration dates. I just happened to notice that one on the top of the can as I was about to open it. And the last thing I wanted to do was lose my weekend to food poisoning!
This can of pineapple, though....that sounds pretty scary! Good call on pitching it. :)
I usually have tons of spaghetti sauce as well...always stock up on that.
Apparently I did a LOUSY job of making a grocery list this month. Out of spaghetti sauce and today I discovered...out of plain potato chips too! No wonder I had so much money left over!
OK, am I the only person who makes spaghetti sauce from scratch???
I tried Prego spaghetti sauce when it first came out, and it was too sugary, so I went back to making it myself. It's really not that hard.
LOL - well I never had made any before. I guess I didn't realize you could! Do you have any good tricks to what you make?
And here I was going to call you Chefgirlrbekah! not anymore :) haha
Bekah,
The main thing to remember is not to scrimp on the herbs. If a little is good, more is better. You can tell that most restaurants scrimp, because their spaghetti sauce tastes like tomato sauce straight from the can.
Meat browned with onions & garlic (use the jar of chopped garlic). For every 16-oz can of tomato sauce, use a 6-oz can of tomato paste (I usually use 2 cans each, and then it lasts a long time). Throw in a splash of red wine (or in a pinch, some dill pickle juice or red wine vinegar). This cuts the "tomato sauce" flavor. I usually use the inexpensive jug wine with the twist top & flat bottom and feel like a lush when I run out and have to go buy some more. Add vegetables (I like mushrooms and sometimes green bell pepper)and herbs.
For the herbs, pour each kind separately into the palm of your hand (a big pile for the basil & parsley, and a small pile for the rosemary, thyme, tarragon, and dill seed), hold your hand over the pot, then crush the herbs with the heel of your other hand and drop them in the pot. Stir, simmer, eat.
Note: My ex-husband didn't like oregano, so I got used to making spaghetti sauce without it, but most people use it in their sauce. That would be a big pile (JFK half-dollar size or larger). The small pile is about quarter or Suzy-B-dollar size. You get used to which combination of herbs you like & don't like. Then you can buy the large size container (6 inches tall) of the big-pile herbs, so you don't have to go to the store for them every two batches of sauce.
Oops, my comment is getting longer than your post...
Phats - I'm so sorry to have disappointed you with my store-bought spaghetti sauce. :( But didn't my whole MEAL last time you came over count for ANYTHING??
Skyepuppy - this is GREAT! I'm going to copy it over and when my current stash-o-sauce runs out, I'm going to try it your way. And hopefully I can avoid the lush behavior.... :)
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