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.

Tonight's Chicken Casserole and Egg custard.

Dinner went off without a hitch, which is good since we were hungry! Dinner was in 20 minutes. Chicken casserole in the oven at 350, some raw carrots for the veg and a quick stove top custard for dessert.
Okay, dessert was not part of the plan but... it's really nasty outside and custard is so homey.

Egg Stovetop Custard
in top part of a double boiler mix over boiling water

• 2 cups of milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup of sugar
• pinch salt
• tsp of vanilla or other flavoring

Whisk constantly for about 6 to 10 minutes until the custard thickens. DO NOT let this get really hot, 'cause then the egg bits poach and you have a wet sandy texture to the custard.

You can also put these in custard cups, place these in baking pan filled 1/2 way up the cup sides with water and bake for a while in a 300 degree oven . I don't usually do that. My favorite quick custard is a cornstarch one made in the microwave. Each microwave oven is different so you have to record the times the first time you make it to get the recipe perfect.

Microwave Blancmange

The trick to this recipe is to make a cornstarch paste with NO lumps in it before adding all the milk

• whisk together in a microwave safe bowl 1/3 cup of cornstarch and 1/2 cup of sugar.
• measure 2 cups milk and 1 tsp vanilla or orange flavor.
• add very little of the milk, maybe a Tsp to the starch and mix very well. Get rid of the lumps
• Keep adding milk very slowly-and mixing until you are sure there are no lumps left at all then whisk in the rest of the milk

Microwave at full power for 2 minutes, then check the pudding. If the mix is not yet hot, microwave at 1 minute intervals until pudding starts to set on one side of the bowl.. Record the time it took. Whisk pudding and return to microwave at 30 second intervals. The pudding is done when it is thick and no raw cornstarch flavor remains. Record this time too.

Pour into pretty cups and refrigerate until firm. It tops well with fresh fruit or with chocolate syrup drizzles.

Notes

When you make the pudding again, set the timer for the time it took to start setting. When the buzzer sounds, whisk the pudding, return to microwave for second time interval.

In my first microwave, the times were 3 minutes, stir and reset for 1.30 minutes. In my new one, it takes 5 and 3 minutes. Go figure.

I like it best with orange flavoring. My nephew prefered this as a warm drink rather than letting the pudding cool in the fridge.