Baked Spaghetti

The other night I was a little desperate as to what we were going to do for dinner. My back, as everyone knows has been causing me problems and so I had not gone out yet this week to get groceries. So I went to the pantry and stared at the cupboards - feeling a little like Mrs Hubbard. However, I found more than a bone and gathered up the tomatoes, a single onion and a box of pasta. I then threw together the following sauce and, in short order, the whole family was filing by the kitchen door sniffing and asking what was that delicious smell. I had the sauce simmering in about 20 minutes and left the rest of the meal in the capable hands of one of my older children. I had been baking most of the day and my back really wanted to rest. When my two teen aged daughters and I were coming up for a menu for the upcoming week - we decided to use this recipe to make baked Spaghetti. The only change my children suggested after sampling the baked spaghetti was that I make a more sauce. Next time around I will try four cans and leave the spices as they are and see if they are happy with the results or if I need to adjust the spices to accommodate the increased volume. If any adjustments need to be made I will include them here.

Sauce:

2 medium large onions (or about 4 cups/ 900 ml diced)
2 table spoons garlic
fry in 4 tbsp olive oil on medium heat (8 on my stove) until translucent

Add the following spices

1 tsp parsley
1/2 tsp thyme leaves
1/2 tsp crushed rosemary
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp celery salt

Add 3 cans of diced (or stewed) tomatoes (of the 28 oz variety) One of these cans typically has basil added. Once I add the three cans - I soup out the basil - but one could leave them in if they wished. (I am looking forward to the day when I have my own tomatoes put up and can then use them instead of canned.)

Then I puree it with my little hand held blender.

Turn the burner up and when it starts to bubble - turn it to simmer and cover.

While it is simmering - prepare your pasta of choice.

You can stop at this point and serve with your favourite rolls or bread and/or a salad and you have a delicious homemade dinner that took about 30 minutes to prepare from start to finish.




For Baked Spaghetti I prepare 4 bags of egg noodles of the wide variety ( 12 oz 340 gm bag) I like to use disposable pans as 1) the cheese hardens when baking and cleaning it is difficult and 2) I do not currently own two pans large enough to hold the complete recipe, something I hope to remedy soon with something that can stand a strong scrubbing to get the cheese off!

When the pasta is ready - I drain it, mix it with the sauce and divide evenly between the two pans (13.88"L X 9.63 W X 2.88" D ) and then we evenly divide a bag a 32 oz (8 cups) of mozzarella cheese over it. I bake at 350 until the cheese is well melted. (About 10 - 15 minutes.) I serve it with a green vegetable, usually broccoli and and, if available, rolls.

Serves 14 - 18 people and can possibly go a little further if there are lots of rolls/garlic bread and salad or green vegetables to stretch it out.

Photos of the preparation...

Onions with the garlic just added.

Just added all the spices to the onions.

Ready to puree with my hand held blender.

Pured and ready to be brought to a light bubbling and then left on simmer.

Steaming and ready to be mixed with the sauce that is still simmering on the stove.

Split into the two pans and waiting for the cheese.

Blanketed with the cheese, the children like me to mix some of the cheese in as well, but I have not done that here. Once I have done that - it not so white with cheese.

About 10 - 15 minutes later the cheese is nicely melted and the broccoli is ready.

Bon Appetit!

Cost:
Onions: less than a dollar (.50)
Garlic: less than a dollar (.50)

Tomatoes: 1.19 a can (3.57)
Pasta: 1.09 a bag (4.36)

Cheese: just under 8 dollars.

Approximate cost was about 17 dollars and we had a whole pan left over that we will be able to use tomorrow. There were 10 people eating at this meal. Add in the 4 dollars for the broccoli we had on the side and we ate for about 2 dollars a person tonight and we have leftovers available.

Ignore Read more!

No Pics!

Sorry - this meatloaf was so good that there was not time to take any pictures. Maybe next time I whip it up.

Ingredients:

2 lbs ground burger (used the 20/80 mix although I prefer the 10/90)
1 box Lipton Beefy Onion Soup Mix ( 2 pkgs)
1 cup (already steamed) brown rice
1 jar beef gravy or about 1 - 2 cups left over gravy.

I put my rice to cook in our ** rice cooker/steamer, a device we have had since Gabriela was an infant so it is 17 years old and still going strong - knock on wood.

Once it was ready and cool enough to handle I mixed 1 cup of (cooked) rice to 2 lbs of (raw) ground beef and then worked in two bags of the Lipton Soup mix.

I was working on memory here. The first time we ate this meatloaf was 24 years ago and I have not made it in years or more accurately in over a decade so there were several children anxious to see what this mysterious thing called meatloaf was going to look like, never mind taste.

Once all the ingredients were well mixed I patted it into a loaf pan and poured a generous layer of the gravy over it. Inserted it into a preheated oven set at350. Set the timer for 30 minutes as I had no clue how long it would take to cook.

We rolled into the oven, strategically placed here and there, 12 potatoes that had been duly poked by Gabriela, the chef's assistant for that night. Not only had they been poked, but they had been generously rubbed with olive oil, salt and pepper. Next time I think I will add the salt and freshly ground pepper to the oil and then rub it on the potatoes and see how that works.

Then I hopped online to see if my estimation of 30 minutes was a good one and determined it might be better to give the loaf a good 50 minutes to bake in peace before I started poking and prodding it to see if was ready.

On the ding of the timer we pulled out a steaming hot loaf and carefully, but quickly placed the pan upside down on a cookie rack set over a tray to catch the fat. I had read of a great idea (after I had already placed the pans in the oven) that one website suggested and that was of buying some cheap loaf pans, poke holes in the bottom so that the fat drains out while baking - into another larger pan of course.

By then even the largest of the potatoes were ready, the salad had been thrown together and placed on the table. The hungry crew gathered and in no time at all there were only a few slices of the loaf left and these were eagerly consumed the next day at lunch time by the ones smart enough to remember before anyone else that there was left over meatloaf in the fridge.

Now I can imagine you all sitting here scratching your heads and wondering what size of loaf pan was this, that it fed this crew and had a few slices left over. Well here is my confession - I actually made two loaves but as most people will not be needing to feed a crew of twelve on the average week night, I only posted the recipe as for one loaf. It was an incredibly easy recipe to make, and easily duplicated so that I actually had two loaves in the over in under 20 minutes from start to finish.

The only thing I might change is to use only one bag of Lipton soup mix per two pounds. When I try that, I will let you know how it fared. And of course, had I had left over gravy that would obviously have been my first pick as a gravy!

I never cared for meatloaf as a child, in fact I detested it as a child as well as an adult so when a friend brought this to the door as a care package meal after Jennifer's birth, I gulped and put on a big smile and graciously thanked her, while wondering how many meals it would take Hugo and 15 month old Aimee to finish off this huge loaf! Perhaps sensing my discomfort, though I was hoping she did not as it was so gracious of her to have brought us a meal, she quickly explained that her meatloaf was not like most others. Intrigued I asked what made it different. She explained about the rice and the gravy and I was hooked. This I had to try - esp if it had real gravy on it.

Later that night we feasted on Cathy's meatloaf, mashed potatoes and green beans. It was an instant hit with the "whole" family, that is the three of us that had teeth and could chew. It became one of Aimee's favourites, especially with green beans.

Time marched on and as my confidence as a cook grew along with my repertoire of recipes, this one eventually fell to the wayside and was forgotten, I don't know if even Aimee remembers it. But a few nights ago, we were sitting around the dining room table talking and something triggered my memory so I told the kids all about meatloaf and they were curious to try it. They had read about it often in books and wondered what it was.

Now they know... and they loved it. If you try this recipe, let me know what you thought and how your family enjoyed it. While doing my research online to help me to determine how many cups of rice to mix in with the beef, I came across several interesting ways to make meat loaf - including adding in grated potatoes and carrots. I might try that some day!

(** Note: I do not know the brand of my rice cooker but this one, being sold at Target, looks the most like ours and falls into about the same price range that we paid 17 years ago. One of Hugo co-workers, originally of Vietnam, had his mother find us one in Montreal, and he picked it up while visiting her and brought it back for us and cooking rice has been a dream ever since!) Read more!

Our first bakers Monday!

And I am cheating by linking to an older post called Janet's Bread. Today (Sunday the Solemnity of Corpus Christi) we enjoyed a lovely day at a park after Mass. There, another family from our parish joined us in a feast of whole wheat rolls, and watermelons.

We toyed with the idea of hitting the transportation museum as well, but as I had lesson plans calling to me, (incomplete lesson plans) we headed for home and now at 10:07 pm, I am finished three children's lesson plans with only four more to go so I am cheating with an older post about one of my most favourite recipes - Janet's Bread. So without further ado I bid you to click here and enjoy, for the first time or as a repeat!

Diane - I am working on that review - but for some mysterious reason Prince Caspian, as in the book, was re-read several times the past month and suddenly no-one, not a soul, knows where it has disappeared to. So tomorrow I will be pleading with Saint Anthony to assist us in this endeavor and, as I am a quick read, I hope to have the book devoured in short order so that I can do a good job comparing the two! It has been a few years ( quite a few) since I read the book so I feel I need to refresh my memory in order to better answer some of your questions regarding it. I am quite looking forward to it. If you have not read any my other reviews I will put a link up tomorrow sometime so that you can see the type of review I try to accomplish when I do one! Read more!

Anna's house...

...of clay will appear later as the photos I took were a dismal failure.

While I was typing, googling and scribbling little known facts about authors and Anna was digging in the ground and the boys creating battles galore, little ones were building train tracks and blissfully fighting over each track - Gabriela was cooking up a storm in the kitchen. She provided some very nourishing, not to mention delicious, tucker for supper tonight.

Using mostly the left overs, she made the following recipee along with two batches of Rich Tea Biscuits, from Company's Coming; Muffins and More.

For the fun of it, I have left the soup recipe with the amounts we require in order to have enough for our family.

Bacon and Potatoe Soup

INGREDIENTS

• 25 thick slices bacon (Note: to keep costs down, we omit the bacon.)
• 2 tablespoons and 1/4 teaspoon olive oil
• 2 cups and 1 tablespoon chopped onion
• 2 cups and 1 tablespoon chopped carrots
• 4-1/4 stalks celery, chopped
• 16-2/3 cups low fat, low sodium chicken broth
• 16-2/3 cups cubed potatoes
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 cups and 1 tablespoon shredded Cheddar cheese
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt

DIRECTIONS

1. Cook bacon until crisp in 3-quart saucepan, remove and drain well on paper towels. Discard bacon grease and wipe pan thoroughly with paper towel.
2. Meanwhile, prepare vegetables. Add olive oil to saucepan and add onion, carrot, and celery as they are cut up. Saute until onion is soft but not brown, about 3-4 minutes.
3. Stir in chicken broth, potatoes, and pepper; bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, covered, until potatoes are tender, about 10-15 minutes.
4. Stir in cheese, heating just until melted--do not boil. Chop bacon and add to soup. Adjust seasoning to taste by adding salt, if desired. Serve at once.

(Note: to keep costs down, we omit the bacon. Also should you wish to make this soup adjusted to your family size click here. ) Read more!

JANET'S BREAD

I woke up sleepy, as usual, my back aching, as usual and I groaned at the thought of rising and putting breakfast together for my clan. Then I remembered the lovely loaves of homemade bread sitting downstairs under a clean towel - waiting to be devoured with butter and other delightful spreads. How could I have forgotten that yesterday I had helped Anna , for her first time, bake my bread recipe - 'Janet’s bread'?

My bread recipe ‘Janet’s bread’ is so much more than just a recipe. It is a hoard of memories that go all the way back to my first years of marriage and our first baby - all from during my years of University. In our second year of school Hugo decided to take a course in astronomy and it was there that he met Jim, Janet’s husband. Jim and Janet were a bit older than Hugo and I and already had two children, with their youngest being only a month or two older than our Aimee.

It happened that one of the assignments in Hugo’s astronomy course required signing out one of the university’s telescopes causing them to be in high demand. Jim and Hugo decided to sign one out together and have our little family over to Jim's tiny home allowing Janet and I to meet as well as Aimee play with their two young daughters. I was nervous about meeting Janet but she was so warm and welcoming, when I arrived, that my shyness quickly melted. The children hit it off right away and while Aimee crawled about behind them, Janet put coffee on and I sat down at the kitchen table.

The coffee pot perked away throwing off it’s heavenly scent and I watched Janet professionally tend to her many loaves of bread sitting on the counter. I think, if I remember correctly, there were eight loaves and a few dozen rolls sitting there rising. Their bread for the week. I was amazed. My first and only attempt at baking bread had resulted in a single loaf that felt and weighed more like a door stop than bread. After rolling it across the floor a few times for the cat to chase and enjoying a good laugh at my pathetic attempt to bake bread, Hugo and I had thrown it out - wondering if we should post a caution note on the bag for the garbage man so that he not break his back in the attempt to lift it.

I asked Janet how many times she had had to double the recipe to get this many loaves.

“Oh,” she blithely remarked - “this is just one recipe.” I refused to believe her and continued to tease her that it was not possible to get so many pans of bread from just one recipe. Jim came in rubbing his hands together, anxious for mugs of coffee to take out for himself and Hugo so as to help warm themselves in the cold November night. Hearing my teasing, Jim assured me that indeed this was just one recipe and that Janet made it every week. My eyes, I am sure grew in wonder but soon my tummy was growling as the smell of the baking bread began to warm the air.

It was not long before piping hot golden loaves were pulled from the oven only to be quickly and efficiently replaced by more loaf pans by Janet. Giving the loaves just barely decent time to cool we quickly sawed huge slices off and rolled hunks of butter onto them with butter knives. Her children stopped playing long enough to consume a piece each before resuming their rambunctious play with my baby daughter. Aimee was watching their youngest with delighted eyes. Here was a child her own size walking upright and unassisted. Aimee took her first steps at five months, yet had continued to cruise along the furniture, dropping to her knees to cross from chair to couch and couch to table.

Janet generously offered to give me a copy of recipe but I exclaimed that I could never bake such fluffy white delicious bread. “Phsaw, she said - “you just come by next Saturday. The girls can play and you and I will bake bread together. Looks like Jim and Hugo know how to keep busy so we won’t need to take care of them except to keep their mugs full of coffee.”

After tasting Janet’s bread when he and Jim came in to thaw out for awhile - Hugo quickly agreed that we did indeed need to come back next Saturday.

We were back the following weekend and Janet and I rolled up our sleeves while Aimee tottered behind Janet’s daughters. Having seen someone her size run about she had been inspired and between the two visits had bravely let go of the couch and walked to the chair and from the chair to the shelves - never to look back.

I watched Janet expertly rise her yeast and deftly add the flour to her base. Then in amazement I watched the bread grow and grow and more than double it’s original size. This process was repeated four times through out the day while we feasted on the last of the previous Saturday's baking along with steaming hot spaghetti for lunch, coffee and friendly chit chat. Finally Janet pulled out her pans for the last raising and I sat, astonished to see how tiny each ball was that sat forlorn and lonely in what looked like, in comparison, humongous pans. I could not believe that such a tiny roll of dough was going to become the enormous loaf of bread such as we had just consumed at lunch time.

At the end of the day, we headed home generously loaded up with rolls as well as a loaf of this delightful bread and an invitation to come back often, which we did. And so when I cook up a batch of Janet’s bread, I am never just making bread. I am visiting our old 2 bedroom apartment in the married residence, thinking of old friends, remembering cold November nights and my daughter's first unassisted steps. Sometimes I even share some of these memories with the children as they watch me knead, punch and rise the dough. But I have never, ever been able to make my batch stretch into 8 loaves AND rolls too. I think the closest I have come is 4 loaves and 2 dozen rolls. (This could be because I have never been patient enough to wait through four full risings!) Still it is my favourite bread recipe and always will be.

Janet’s Bread

Ingredients:

Boiling water
Tepid Water
Sugar
Salt
Shortening/Butter or Margarine
Yeast

After putting water on to boil prepare a small bowl of
1/2 cup of tepid water in which you dissolve a teaspoon or two of sugar (or honey)
Sprinkle over this bowl of tepid water 1 - 2 Tablespoons of yeast.

When the water come to a boil
Pour 3 cups of the boiled water over the following ingredients (that have been placed in a large bowl):
1 heaping tablespoon of shortening (or butter or margarine)
1 handful of salt
3 handfuls of sugar (or ½ cup of honey)
Stir until all ingredients are dissolved.

Once the yeast has risen (usually in about 10 minutes) check the large bowl that has the boiled water in it and see if the water has cooled to tepid temperature. If it has not, add enough water until it is tepid.

At this point you add the yeast to the larger bowl and stir it in.

Then you begin to stir/add in flour until the dough begins to come away from the bowl. (This has, for me, varied from 8 cups to as much as 16 cups) When you first begin to add flour you can substitute some of the flour with wheat germ and,or whole wheat flour. I have played around with this a lot - always with delightful results)

Allow the kneaded dough to rise once to just barely double its size in a large greased bowl - covered with a damp towel. After punching it down allow it double or a little more than double its size another full two times. For the fourth rising allow it to rise in the greased bread pans while you preheat your oven at 350.

As the loaves come fresh from the oven, lightly brush with butter for soft, tasty crusts. Enjoy your first slice with a cup of your favourite hot beverage and dream old memories. Read more!