A Simple Meat Sauce

Bright sun, light wind, -5

The first thing I do when I start cooking is fill my kitchen sink with hot sudsy water.  It’s great for a quick hand rinse as well as an incentive to wash those messy pots and bowls as they accumulate on the cupboard.    My goal is to have my kitchen cleaned up at the same time my food is ready.  I must admit, this doesn’t always work out! 

Today, I decided to make a good meat sauce that would go with any kind of pasta.  I started off with about a pound and a half of ground turkey, but chicken, pork or beef are just fine too.  I added an onion, some chopped celery, garlic, and a light touch of oregano, sage, and chili powder.  Once the meat was cooked, I poured it into a bowl, set it aside,  then sautéed  6 slices of finely chopped bacon in the same pan until crisp.  I added a handful of fresh mushrooms and a bag of baby spinach.  The mushrooms sautéed nicely in the bacon drippings and once the spinach had wilted, I reintroduced the cooked meat to the bacon mixture, added a can of diced tomatoes, a jar of tomato sauce and simmered gently for 10 minutes.   As a finishing touch, I used my immersion blender to thicken the sauce; this has to be done very carefully or tomato sauce can end up all over your kitchen!  Trust me, I know.  I’ve done it!  I don’t blend the entire dish, just enough to create a rich, meaty sauce.  Today’s pasta happened to be capellini, a family favourite.

 For an extra dash of flavour, I added chopped fresh garlic, parsley, and just before serving, some grated parmigiano reggiano. 

This dish is quick and easy and can change on a whim, depending on what’s going on in my pantry.  I don’t always add bacon, nor do I always have fresh spinach, but they definitely added a lot of colour and flavor to this dish today.  From beginning to end, it took a half hour and that included cleaning up my kitchen.  

Now, back to my Giles Blunt murder mystery.  Who the heck done it, anyway?

A Lasagna Kind of Day

Dull, overcast, -5, lots of snow on the ground

I knew I was going to make lasagna.  It was that kind of day.  I grabbed Brian before he headed out to move snow with the tractor - and handed him a big block of mozza along with the hand shredder.  He made fast work of that project, happy to be excused from kitchen duties so he could play outside.

I turned up my favourite oldies radio station, tied on my white apron, and began the process of peeling, cutting, chopping, and cooking all those wonderful ingredients that come together to make a tasty, satisfying meal on a winter's day. 

Making lasagna is a good excuse to use up bits and bites of this and that in the fridge.  I stacked up various cheeses that were bordering on drying out and added them to the grated mozza.  A small container of sour cream went into one of the layers.

I had to cook the ground beef in two rounds as I had too much to cook at once.  I transferred the cooked meat to a large bowl, while I sauteed onions, garlic, celery, green pepper and mushrooms. While this was cooking down, I tossed in a large bag of curly spinach.   Then came the canned tomatoes and a jar of spaghetti sauce.  I let this simmer for a bit, then gradually added back all the cooked beef.  It was a huge potful!

Then the easy part - layering the meat sauce with the cheese and pasta, (I used the oven ready kind, no fussing with this pasta),  adding lots of parmesan with each layer.    I made enough for one large 9x13 pan, and a 9x9 pan that I'll give to my son, Christian when he comes over tonight to help Brian with barn chores.  I know he'll love it - who doesn't love lasagna?

Once the pans were in the oven, the cleanup begins.  Mom once said to me "Barbara, you're a good cook, but you use too many dishes".  At the time, I took it as a backhanded compliment, but as I think back, she was right!  (Funny how mothers often are.) 

So, supper is ready, kitchen is cleaned up, and the "oldies" are over for another Sunday.  I'm going to get bundled up and go outside for a while.  There's a bunny trail that runs from our pine trees to our deck, and over to the bird feeders that I want to check out.  If I'm lucky, maybe I'll spot one of the little fellas.  They always put a smile on my face.

Welcome to my Blog!

I've wanted my own blog for a long time, and finally decided to "just do it"!  I enjoy communicating by letter with friends and family (a passion for family history has inspired me to connect with relatives from far and near) and I thought this would be a good place to share some of my stories, old and new.  I'll be posting tales of farming escapades along with photos of pets and farm animals.  My love of food and cooking is well known,  so I will be sharing tried and true un-recipes; "a little of this and a little of that" and I'm ten months into a healthier lifestyle, so I'll be spouting off about that too!  


I expect this little blog will just evolve.  I know I'll have fun writing it and I hope anyone who comes across it will enjoy it too!