Who Knew?

See this Riley Moose (from Hanna Stamps, paper by Basic Grey)? He looks like a confident cook, doesn't he? Why is it then that I always thought spaghetti sauce came from a jar? Oh sure, I have been to the gocery enough to know that it could come from a can, too, but the can stuff seemed far inferior to me.

I found a favorite web site, Confessions of a Pioneer Woman. It's won some type of Best Blog award, so apparently it is a favorite of a lot of people besides me. Well, Pioneer Woman has recipes on her site. I decided to try out her recipe for the best ever lasagna. You brown 1.5 pounds of ground beef and 1 pound hot breakfast sausage. Then you add 2 cans of tomato sauce and 2 cans of diced or whole tomatoes. I did that, and I saw that I had made a very thick and tasty spaghetti sauce. (I'd probably add some tomato sauce if I served it as spaghetti sauce at home.) Well, what do you know, it was a whole new world opened up for me, homemade spaghetti sauce! I finished the recipe and made the lasagna, so I can tell you tomorrow how it turned out.

I just finished reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver. I found it a thrilling adventure. She lives on a farm and her family plants for the year, cans it, and eats only local food they have made themselves or purchased at the farmer's market. This means, no bananas, lemons, or other food that took lots of petroleum to travel to their hometown. They buy locally ground flour to make their own bread and even grow their own chckens and turkeys. Wow. I wish someone would grow my food and cook it for me. I was very impressed and it gave me alot to think about, but I am not sure I can quite live like that. While I love the thought, my reality would be much different. A great read, though.