It Only Hurts When I Blog

Greetings, Blogregation! It's Sunday and the last day of my vacation. Back to work tomorrow, folks!

I hope you're having as nice a weekend as I have had.

My friend Debbie and I floated around the pool at the health club for a couple hours yesterday - it's a tough life but someone has to do it.

Then I got gas (paid $2.57/gallon - cheap!) and went to the grocery store. I still need to go to Sams Club and Walmart sometime this week. I'm headed back to the pool in a few minutes, I have a couple pounds of vacation-gain to burn off, sorry to say! ;-(

Okay Joe, here is my mothers recipe for 'Macaroni and Tomato' - aka American Chop Suey. My son requested it specially, and he loves it.

The photo above is close - it looks a lot like the real deal, but the photo shows too much hamburger. Please note that the macaroni in the photo still looks white, not drowned in sauce.

Macaroni and Tomato is simple and hearty, without too much sauce. Adapt to your taste, of course...

1/2 small onion, diced
1 tsp or more of vegetable oil
13-14 oz (a little less than a pound) ground beef, 85% lean.
(My mother calls this 'hamburg', not 'hamburger, by the way)
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes with the liquid - the unseasoned kind. Traditionally this would be made with a quart jar of tomatoes canned from the garden, but I don't expect you to have those.
1 8oz can tomato sauce
2.5 cups dry elbow macaroni - Muellers if you can get it
Salt and Pepper

Cook the 2.5 cups of macaroni according to the package directions. Cook it till it's done but don't overcook it, or it will 'get fat' at the end of the Macaroni and Tomato assembly process (as my mother put it). Let it stand draining in a colander while you are making the sauce.

In a large frying pan, saute' the diced onion in a little oil till it softens, then add the 'hamburg' and cook it through, crumbling into olive-sized pieces. Do not drain, as you are using lean meat. Then add both cans of tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste, and let the 'sauce' simmer 5 minutes or so uncovered.

The last 5 minutes, add the cooked macaroni and heat it through, don't boil it. Don't add the macaroni all at once - depending on the size of your pan and how much sauce you like, start with half the macaroni - stir, survey, taste, and add more. There should be enough macaroni so that it tastes light and freshly seasoned, but if you add too much macaroni, it will taste a bit bland. Adjust the seasoning with more salt and pepper to taste.

Remove from the heat when it's done so the macaroni doesn't 'get fat'. ;-) This is also great reheated. Serve with a salad and bread and butter or garlic bread. When I was a kid, I would only eat it wrapped up in a slice of bread and butter - the way I ate everything. ;-)

Gotta go swim - TTFN! More Newport pictures tomorrow!