mmmm.

so things around here have calmed down. put away the guest bed, did (most) of the laundry, picked up the approximiately 1,239 tissues littering the  house, car, my desk at work....and the three, yes three empty tissue boxes from last week. it's been a long journey, filled with freezer burned bagel bites, cereal, and boxed macaroni (with hot dogs, obviously). not that i'm complaining, i do love me some mac and dogs, ask anyone.

so after this verryy long stretch of getting myself together and making my dwelling fit for others (because really, if you're house is so gross you wouldn't want a close friend or relative taking too close a stock of the situation, it's time to clean. you deserve the same cleanliness as your guests, or cat or whatever..) i finally cooked a meal! it was different. i used many more dishes than i would have done say, a week ago.

i will compare it to something akin to missing your workouts for almost two weeks (because hey! i did that too, and this morning's dive back into fitness was not pretty, nor very coordinated. i'll pretend it was because it was 6 am) when you work out fairly regularly for a month or so then stop completely for half that time...getting going again is hard. like, i did half of my normal workout and let's just say i didn't give it my all, or even my half? i was dying, gulping water, stopming around and bending over, hands on knees WAY more than is necesary. i think it's harder to get back into a workout routine if you've only slacked a little than it would be if you started from scratch with nothing under your belt. it's like your body knows what it SHOULD be doing, what it is capable of and is so confused by your inability to get yourself to that previous peak that you just kind of stumble around in a twisty haze.

this was similar to my last two nights of cooking. while both meals turned out fine, i did dumb things that made no sense. i got out some but not all the ingredients, or i didn't chop the right thing or couldn't remember what directions i read long enough to complete them and used 4 different spoons in my attempts to get the food from pot to oven. mannny dishes here, and i don't have a dish rack (really need to get one!) so my dishes sit in a weird, very precarious pyramid on my drying mat. that stays full of dry dishes until i have already washed the next batch and have no where to put them.


so anyway, i made cashew chicken salad last night, and tonight made this pot of deliciousness:

baked spaghetti

i found the recipe at How Sweet Eats. and it was awesome.


(please ignore the fact that her pictures are amazing and mine is...well. substantially less melty, which is what makes it look so divine. i added parsley!)

serves 4-6

you will need:


    3/4 pound whole wheat spaghetti
    1/2 onion, chopped
    3 cloves garlic, minced
    1 tablespoon olive oil
    1 1/4 pounds ground beef (I used 93% lean)
    1 teaspoon salt
    1 teaspoon pepper
    10-12 fresh basil leaves, chopped
    2 cups of your favorite pasta sauce
    1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
    1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

as usual, i decreased the quantity of everything, and measured like...nothing. but it was still great!


preheat your oven to 350.

boil spaghetti about 3 or so minutes LESS than the box says, because it will be cooking the rest of the way in the oven. drain it and set it aside.

heat your olive oil up in a pan on medium high heat, add onions (i also added chopped fresh mushrooms here because i needed to use them--very good) and saute for several minutes, until softened. i also just realized i did not use any garlic, i just plain forgot. see what i mean about not cooking for a while?! madness.

anyhow, you would add the garlic to the pan and saute for a minute at this point, then add the ground beef and the salt and pepper. the let meat brown up and then drain the fat off, because if you don't, well that's just gross. trust me, i've been there. some people don't drain the fat off, and it is not a desirable situation to be in people.

take that bowl of cooked spag (i always find it fun/funny to say this instead of spaghetti.) and add the meat and 1 cup of whatever tomato sauce you chose. also the basil. i did not have basil, and therefore stirred in a dollop of pesto. because i am a master chef who is cool under pressure and limited supplies. (ignore the fact that i did not add the garlic, which in fact i did have. irrelevant)

find a baking dish, i used "the green bean dish" which, obviously, is the dish my grandmother made green beans in every year at thanksgiving and christmas for forever. it is a round dish that is 3-4" deep and 7-8" in diameter. spread a layer of the spaghetti mixture in the bottom, top with some sauce, parmesan and mozzarella cheese (i had fresh, so i froze it for 20 minutes while i prepped everything else and sliced it very thin, and i recommend this. because fresh mozzarella is the most amazing cheese ever.) the freezing is to harden it enough to get those thin slices, because it is a very soft cheese. in case you don't use it or didn't know you could do that.

add another layer of spaghetti and repeat the above process. pop the dish in the oven for 20 minutes (you could also broil for a few minutes at the end to make your cheese brown and bubbly) and then dig in and make sure your elastic pants are close by. also a napkin and some garlicky garlic bread, which sadly i did not have. but it would be yumyumyum!