Spaghetti and Meat Sauce for tomorrow Lime Pudding Tonight

We enjoyed the roast pork tonight with potatoes and salad. So now for tomorrow's prep. I'm making the tomato meat sauce. I make a simple one, but you can add more peppers, some mushrooms, more onions, zucchini, yellow squash. The vegys disappear into the sauce.
Root vegys like potatoes and members of the cauliflower family don't really go well in this dish. I do add diced carrots since it's a sneaky way to get them into the family.

Red Meat Sauce

• In largish pot, put in 2 TBP olive oil and heat to medium. Add 2 mashed garlic cloves, 1 minced carrot, 1/2 thinly sliced pepper, and up to 1 minced onion. Cook gently( do not brown the garlic as it will taste terrible. ) until beginning to turn color.



• Add 1 lb ground beef and cover with 1 can tomato puree. Add enough water to cover meat.



• Simmer gently , partially covered for 30 minutes until meat and vegys are cooked through



• Set any portion aside that you are planning to freeze now, BEFORE adding the herbs. Freezing changes the concentration and flavor of herbs.



• Add herbs like oregano, rosemary, bay or thyme . If the sauce is too acid, add small amounts of brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon at a time or add lemon peel or cumin- I have no idea why the lemon peel or cumin works but it does take that sharp taste away.

Tomorrow I will cook the spaghetti squash in the microwave. If you have never had one, it's a strange vegetable. The inside is filled with long , delicious edible strings that look like spaghetti. It's a nice change from the wheat kind.

Lime Pudding

Limes were cheaper than lemons at the Weis market this week.

• Open 1 can sweetened evaporated Milk into a bowl



• Add the juice of 2 limes with a bit of grated rind to the milk and stir. The mixture will thicken almost immediately.



• Layer banana slices and this pudding into 4 fancy stemmed glasses for a pretty and fast dessert.

Fallafel Dinner and new Lemon Custard

So last night,as planned Fallafel and fancy rice for dinner. Cliced cukes with Rosemary for a salad. Lemon pudding was an afterthought.
The first thing I always do when cooking is put the water for rice or pasta to boil. That's what takes the longest time.

Frangrant Rice for 4

put 2 cups of water to boil. add 1/4 tsp salt
when boiling , add 1 cup rice, 2 TBSP chopped dried apricots or white raisins to pot , lower heat to simmer, cover and start timer.
at 10 minutes, add handful of snow peas into pot, 2 chopped scallions, chopped lemon peel
heat 2 more minutes, turn off heat but leave covered. Rice is done in 2 additional minutes,.

Fallafel for 4

• soak 1 lb dried chick peas in water overnight ( done last night)
• process plumped peas with 1 bunch of parley (or spinach or mint) in food processor
• place wet mix in bowl, add 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking powder and about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of bread crumbs
• add enough bread crumb ( or flour) to be able to shape 2 " patties
• Fry in 1/4 inch of oil turning when medium brown.

Lemon Pudding

Okay this turned out to be a weird recipe, but it works.

• Pour one can of sweetened condensed milk into a bowl
• Add the juice of 2 lemons, about 1/3 of a cup. Mix the 2 well

This mix will get firmer and firmer as you stir it. It's very lemony and very sweet at the same time. I saw this recipe as a pie filling in the 1970's Joy of Cooking and tried just the filling part. It's very very very rich. If serving as a pudding, I'd serve 1/4 of a cup with some whipped cream, maybe a bit of cream cheese or chopped mango on top. I'm going to play with this recipe since it was so easy. I wonder if it works with orange juice or does it need more acid that that?