Sunday recipe again - Already? where did the week go?

It's Sunday and today I'm giving a simple recipe for Pasta with meat sauce. You can use a jarred sauce but it's easy enough to whip up a home made one, and you can control the flavours to your liking that way.

But first the weekly news. The SU has finally connected with his family back home. I have been after him for some time to get email addresses and to use chat to speak with them. The problem is that they live in Gaza and power and other things are sometimes intermittent and often unreliable.

However, we've finally made a connections with everyone. He has 2 sisters, both married and his mother remaining behind in Palestine (or Israel I guess). We had thought they were living in Israel proper, outside Tel Aviv and not in the Territories and definitely not in Gaza, well we were wrong.

The SU connected with Older sister (OS) first, she and her husband and her brood were all excited to see Uncle SU, some of them for the first time in their lives. That first day he chatted with OS and OS Husband (OSH) for several hours, both of them on webcam. He gave them a tour of our condo, tried to show them the view from our window to the downtown core but it was late afternoon and the sun was blasting in our window, leaving only glare on the cam when he tried to show them.

From that conversation he finally got YS (Younger sister's) email address and was able to connect with her and through her his mother, as they live together.

YS and YSH (YS Husband) do not have a webcam yet but he put our cam up and let them have a look, he gave the tour to them, his mother loved all our plants, YS was jealous of our department store carpet, as all they have is straw mats (all they can get - ironic since they're so close to some of the best carpet makers in the world).

Today they are supposed to be purchasing a cam (they can't get food, water or adequate power but a webcam they can get - go figure). So tonight I may get to see my mother-in-law for the first time. Not that she's knows I'm her son-in-law but they come from a different place with different mores, so we'll have to bring them along slowly.

YS and YSH said the whole family is tired of living there, tired of all the fighting and tired of all the deprivation and they want desperately to come to Canada. The first to come is supposedly Mom-in-law to stay with us for several months (I guess to see how she likes it here). I thought she was much older but it turns out she is only 61, so still young and vibrant and she can make a life here, if she wants one. YS and YSH and OS and OSH will have to apply as refugees, in all likelihood and come in that way. We don't have a time table for any of this and we don't know for sure if it will happen, but I think it should. At first the SU wasn't keen on having them here (due our lifestyle and there most probable lack of acceptance of same) but now he's kind of excited that they may be coming.

One funny thing YSH asked: Do we have beer in Canada. Hello???? Does a bear shit in the woods.

The rest of my week was uneventful, I'm pursuing some opportunities on the job front. Always seem to be pursuing but not catching. I have a head hunter working with me now and she was very impressed with my credentials and some skills testing they gave me, which I aced, so I have a champion in her. We'll see if does my any good. In the meantime, I'm working on designing some sample lesson plans, in a couple of different formats to demonstrate my abilities in that area and provide them as a portfolio of work when I apply for jobs.

Recipe time:

Pasta and Meat Sauce.

Ingredients:

3-4 medium sized tomatoes, quartered
1 medium white onion, peeled and diced
1 lb of Lean ground beef
1 Green pepper, chopped coarsely
10-12 Button Mushrooms
1 tsp Italian Seasoning mix
1 tsp Oregano
1 tsp Basil
1 tsp Cumin
1 tsp Garam Marsala
1/2 tsp Sugar
1 Jalapeno pepper (or pepper of choice - can used dried if you like - deseed to reduce heat)
Salt and Pepper to taste
1-2 tbsp of Tomato Paste
1/2 package of Pasta of your choice
2 tbsp Olive Oil
Salt
Cooking Instructions

Before beginning the sauce, place a large pasta pot, filled with water on the stove and bring to a boil.

In a blender, place the tomatoes, peppers and mushrooms and pulse.

A note about mushrooms: In all the cooking shows I've seen and recipe books I've read they say never to wash your mushrooms, as they loose flavour when they get wet. Do you know what they grow mushrooms in? I'm sorry I'm washing them. If you're going to use them immediately in cooking I don't see an issue with running them under some warm water to clean them up.

If you want more body in your sauce, leave the peppers and mushroom out of the blender and just puree the tomatoes, if you want smooth sauce, puree all of them together.

In a large saucepan, place 1 tbsp of cooking oil, allow to heat on med-high, add the onions and all the spices and allow the onions to cook down for a few minutes (to become somewhat translucent).

Add the ground beef to brown the meet, leaving the onions and spices in the mix.

If the peppers were not added to the puree, add the peppers once the meat has begun to brown. Pour the pureed mix over the browned meat and onions, reduce heat to a simmer and stir the mix together. If the mushrooms were not part of the puree mix, add the chopped mushrooms now.

Taste the sauce and season with salt and pepper to your taste. The sugar is optional, it will reduce the acidity of the tomatoes, if you like that flavour leave it out, if not add the sugar and stir to blend it in. Stir in the tomato paste until dissolved, cover and allow the sauce to simmer until the meat is cooked and the sauce has thickened.

Once the water is to a rolling boil, salt the water. Add in the pasta and cook until done, 5-7 minutes for El Dente (for dried pasta) longer for soft pasta.

Drain the pasta, but put about 1 soup ladle full of the pasta water into the sauce and stir it in.

Add the cooked pasta to the sauce while still in the pan (or if the sauce pan is too small to accommodate place the cooked pasta back in the pasta pot and pour the sauce over it), blend and serve the freshly grated Parmesan cheese and good bread.

Enjoy.