My Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

An easy meal that I can always rely on is spaghetti with meat sauce.  It’s simple, hearty and delicious!  

So, in a perfect world, I’ll have a batch of homemade sauce but if not, my jar of choice nowadays is Victoria’s Marinara.  It satisfies my personal taste buds. I also alternate with Paesana, which also works for me.  The Pregos, Ragus and some others just don’t do it for me anymore.  Maybe one day I'll experiment again with something else but for now, if it ain’t broke…     

Everyone has their own method and here's mine:

Ingredients:

• Small onion diced fine
• Handful of garlic (the more the merrier personally) crushed, sliced, pressed -- just however you like!
• 1 T. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 2 T. Italian Seasoning
• 1 t. Ground Oregano
• Fresh Pepper
• 1 Cube of Chicken Bouillon (Optional but I like this for some reason and when I use it, I don’t need to add any salt.)
• 40oz jar of Victoria’s Marinara or Paesana
• Small package of ground beef (Less than a pound more or less)

In a dutch oven (that I’m madly in love with) I brown the beef on med-high heat.  I use a wooden spatula that cuts easily through it because I don’t like big lumpy chunks of meat.  Once it’s cooked through and no longer pink, I set aside to drain.

Back to that pot I'll now add two tablespoons of the meat drippings to sauté the onions first.  When they become fragrant and a bit translucent, I'll add the garlic.  After a few minutes, I add the entire jar of sauce and everything else above (except for the meat) and give a good stir.  Once it starts to boil, I'll reduce the flame to low and leave it alone for about half an hour. 

By this time, a large pot of salted water (placed on a burner from the beginning) should be ready for our spaghetti.  Then, I put the meat back in the sauce and stir often as I taste test.  Once it begins boiling again, I'll turn off the flame and cover.  

That’s it!  When it's time to plate, I put a generous amount of meat sauce over my spaghetti and dig in.

As a left over meal on the following day, I like to boil new pasta and then add that to my reheating sauce pot for serving.  I like to combine it all, the second time around.

OTHER HABITS:

Sometimes I want slices of avocado or tomato on the side.  On other occasions, I need a Caesar salad.  If I have any garlic bread handy, I'll dip that in the sauce, yum.  Also, as much as I love fresh Parmesan cheese with everything else, I prefer the powdered version here.

OTHER IDEAS:

For Penne, Ziti or Rigatoni, I do a stove-top version of a baked dish by adding some shredded mozzarella and Ricotta cheese.  How much all depends on how cheesy and creamy you like it.  Everything melts fine enough for me and I don't need to turn on the oven or clean up an extra pan.

Don't you just love spaghetti?  Do you need something on the side with it?  Do you prefer powder or fresh Parmesan cheese? Last but not least, must we bake Ziti?

Tell Self-Rising Flower all about it!
  

TRIED: Chicken Florentine

This dish was a lot of fun to make and my first attempt was with the recipe from the lovely I AM baker website.

So, I did not have fresh parsley (unfortunate) and in place of dry white wine, I had mostly vermouth and some cooking sherry.  I have no idea if this combination should be avoided, but it is what it is.  Next time, I will try it again with the proper ingredients in order to compare flavors.  Nevertheless, we enjoyed this meal a lot.   

For some reason, I really wanted this on a bed of rice although the recipe calls for the chicken to be placed on the spinach.  Instead, after I sauteed the spinach I chose to combine it with the chicken and sauce directly in the pan.

 

I baked a sweet potato and was also in the mood for a plum chopped tomato on the side. Guess that's a personal taste bud thing but I loved it, just like that, along with the sight of all those colors on my plate! (I will say that keeping the spinach separate is ideal for more creamy saucy goodness with the chicken so I'll follow the recipe appropriately on my second try.)   Maybe in the future I’ll have it with spaghetti but either way, I devoured every last bite! 

Are you a fan of Chicken Florentine?  What about creamed spinach and/or spinach dip in general?  I love both so I had a good feeling this would be an overall hit and it was.

This one is definitely going in my go-to category for quick and easy family meals.

Self-Rising Flower!

Just to clarify. I’m not a trained chef or exceptional cook. I have good days and bad in the kitchen and sometimes they’re even great! Not sure if it’s my mood, desire or energy level at the time because it’s pretty much hit or miss whenever I’m preparing meals. While I'm not a natural, I'm eager, experimental but also, inconsistent!

Then there's the fact that I'm a klutz too.  I drop or spill things and use way too many utensils at once. I’m visibly frazzled trying to produce something edible and yet, there are times I possess the confidence and ease of a pro.  By the way, I did have a steady run long ago, when I cooked regularly and thus, successfully fed myself along with company.  Even so, I limited myself to only things I knew how to make at the time along with the usual seasoning.  It was the same for everything and although comfort foods are great, there was no variety. 

Eventually, I started ordering take-out and trying new restaurants frequently to taste meals that were perfected by others.  It was convenient and I didn't miss the dishes, that's for sure.  And, there was always a reason to make a reservation, something to celebrate, or spontaneous after-work invitation.
On the weekend, everyone and their mother had to meet for brunch too or else life just wasn't worth living. 

Well, that was fun while it lasted and expensive. Once I became a mom, home cooked meals became a priority for me. It’s economical and will only help me get better at something I consider to be a survival skill (unless you can afford to keep eating out or hire a trained chef to make everything for you.) So, thank goodness for the internet.

You can look up whatever you want on a whim, right from your smart phone no less. I did this with a child attached to my hip during many long nights, when it was too risky to move him while he slept right on top of me. Then, on the following day, I’d try one of the many recipes I found. I’m quite pleased with the fact that to date, I’ve learned to make random things like chicken pot pie, baked apple pie, banana cake, apple sauce, Chimichurri sauce and creamed spinach, to name a few. I'll be posting those soon!

One of my goals in life is to make a variety of delicious things for my family to enjoy.  Hence, this blog.  Why the name?  Self-rising flour was in the first recipe I had ever used for baking a cake from scratch.  I didn't even know it existed before then.  The change in spelling simply reflects that I'm always growing and I needed an outlet for my cooking experiences.

Also, when you’re struggling to make better lifestyle choices, it’s a positive toward any healthy goals you may have to actually cook the food you eat. But, this is not about that. I welcome all meal ideas, but I’m most excited by those that involve anything from scratch, simply because it’s fun for me to understand the process. For example, Roux trumps a can of condensed soup nowadays.

I will say however, that even the processed and instant stuff is a great exercise in getting familiar with a dish until you’re ready to do it without help. This was the case for me when I was curious about Shepherd’s Pie. I'll confess that so far I've settled for the box kit for this, but when I dare to go there, I’ll give Alton Brown’s version a try. His recipe calls for ground lamb but chances are I won’t have that any time soon. By the way, if you don't know who he is, watch Good Eats some time. He’s inspired me to can homemade jam but uh, baby steps.

In the meantime, what new dish have you learned to make?  Please share!