It struck me yesterday that anything we perceive as difficult is very easy to people who already know how to do it. So, many of the things you know how to do and think are easy, are actually difficult to all of the people who can’t do them. You may not know who those people are (because you associate with people like yourself), but they’re out there. The true blessing is when you enjoy doing the things you’re good at enough to talk (or write) about it, and/or show other people how to do it. For example, if you’re great at washing your dog and hate it, that’s a bummer – hopefully you can pay someone else to do it once in a while. But if you love it, now you have a marketable skill to all the people who don’t know how to do it or hate it and can afford you. I’m just putting that out there in case someone reading this loves doing something they’re good at and hasn’t considered it may be their calling.
Tony took kalacz (Hungarian cake) to his potluck today, and last night I was showing him how to use the rolling pin and realized I should do a video someday on using the rolling pin, which I never would have thought of had I not had the opportunity to demonstrate it. Today I’m going to make spaghetti sauce, which I have never covered because I thought everyone knew how to do it already. But since I don’t know “everyone,” I really don’t know what they don’t know, right?
Dinner on today’s menu plan was really supposed to be “leftovers.” The problem is, nothing was left over. At the beginning of the week, I miscalculated what we’d have left by Friday. On the way home from work, I called my daughter and she did a freezer and cupboard check, and we came up with an easy standby – spaghetti. Besides canning the tomatoes in late August, I also packaged some sliced in the freezer; either kind is perfect for cooking into sauce.
As far as fresh herbs, the basil died so I’ll use some frozen, but the parsley and oregano are still going strong after many nights below freezing. If you didn’t can or freeze tomatoes (but I’m sure you did), you can substitute 3-4 chopped fresh tomatoes, a jar of organic pasta sauce, or a combination. I also throw in a bunch of chopped fresh mushrooms with the vegetables if I have some – even a small can is good if you like them.
Spaghetti Sauce
1 lb ground grass-fed meat or 1 chopped eggplant (peeled)
1 T avocado oil
1/2 C chopped sweet onion
3 crushed cloves garlic
Sea salt and ground pepper
2 pints homemade tomatoes, 28 oz can crushed tomatoes, etc.
2 T fresh chopped basil (or 1-2 t dried)
1 T fresh chopped oregano (or 1-2 t dried)
Heat oil in a large pan. Add the meat (or eggplant), onions, and garlic; stir, season with salt and pepper, and brown. If you’re using meat chop it into small bits as it is cooking. Add tomatoes and spices. Stir and cook on medium until it boils then turn down to simmer and cover. Simmer an hour or as long as you can.
