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My spaghetti can beat up your spaghetti
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I have been moved beyond words by the graciousness and kindness of my neighbors and friends the past two weeks. My house burned down Monday September 14th, 2009 at 2:20am, and from that time on, we have been inundated with messages of love, compassion, hope, kindness and encouragement - not to mention all of the donations people have given us of clothing, food, and money. I am sorry to say that "Thank You" will never be enough to express the depth of the gratitude I feel.
It is strange to think that I will never spend another Christmas at that house, that I will never pick tomatoes from the enormous bushes we had in our backyard, and that I will never lie on my bed daydreaming of recipes and flipping through the pages of what ever the new issue of Bon Appetit was that month. All of the time we spent complaining about how cold our home was in the winter, and how it looked so run-down make me ashamed now, because even with all of it's faults I would give anything, do anything, to have my home back the way it was before.
I have been scrambling to think of all of the things I had ever cooked in my kitchen. I went in to my house to try and salvage some things a few days ago and found that all of the scars my kitchen carried had been erased. A house grows the same as a person does, and even bricks and mortar are not immune to cuts, scrapes, and bruises. One of my very favorite scars was a huge reddish brown stain on the ceiling above our stove.
It was Christmas, and we were thawing a few containers of sauce that we had made for Thanksgiving. Usually around the holidays we make spaghetti sauce in bulk so it's not unusual to have 4 or 5 containers in the deep freeze for use at a later date. My house had a tendency to be on the cold side, so we left the containers in the sink and on the stove top to thaw over night. One thawed, and one did not - but we didn't know that. My mother tipped the container of sauce that had been left on the stove, into the pot on the burner and filled it halfway. She then took the jug out of the sink and noted the contents sloshing around and assumed that those had thawed out also. She tipped the container and realized too late that bottom half of the container was still frozen, so when it slipped out and into the pot of sauce that was already there, the entire contents exploded on to the walls, the stove, the ceiling and my mother. I will miss that scar. So much so, that I vow, as soon as we have a new kitchen to cook in, I will fling tomato sauce on the ceiling so I never have to be without it.
The Sauce to End All Sauces or My Spaghetti Could Beat Up Your Spaghetti
2 large cans of crushed tomatoes
1 regular sized can of stewed diced tomatoes
1 large Vidalia onion chopped fine
3 stalks of celery chopped fine
3 tbsp olive oil
2 pounds of lean ground meat (92% lean 8 % fat) cooked and drained
2 frozen chicken breasts
3 tsp parmesan cheese
1 can of beef stock
1 tsp garlic
3 tsp basil
1 tsp parsley
1 pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
1 large carrot scrubbed (optional)
Salt and Pepper to taste.
You will need a very large soup pot and a frying pan. In the frying pan, brown and drain the ground meat. While the ground meat is cooking, place the olive oil, celery, and onion into the soup pot. Once the onions and celery are translucent add the can of beef stock, the tomatoes and the ground beef all at once. Fill one can of crushed tomatoes up once with water and pour into the pot. Add the garlic and stir slowly keeping the fire low. Next add the parsley, basil, red pepper, salt and black pepper and stir again. The last thing you put in the sauce is the frozen raw chicken breasts. We throw them in whole and let them thaw and cook in the tomato sauce. While the chicken is cooking the sauce should be up on medium high heat - hot enough to bubble, but not boil. Put on a lid and walk away from the sauce for about thirty five minutes to an hour. That is plenty of time for the chicken to cook all the way through. Turn the sauce off, take the chicken breasts out and set them aside to cool before cleaning and shredding them. What I mean by clean is taking off all of the gross bouncy and rubbery bits and throwing them away. Once the chicken is shredded put it back in to the sauce pot and add the parmesan cheese. The carrot is optional for sweetening purposes. I usually will put a peeled carrot in to the sauce while the chicken is cooking. Once the chicken comes out, the carrot should also.
The most important step of the sauce is the resting period.
Sauce always tastes best when it sits for at least an hour. Don't forget to throw some at your ceiling first, then spoon on to your favorite noodle and enjoy.
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