Worry-Free July 4th



Yesterday was a very nice, relaxing day. The whole family had the day off and we just stayed home and took it easy. I only went out once to buy ingredients for the spaghetti and meatball supper I cooked. I will admit it, it was a rainy day and we were lazy all day. I had the digital video recorder (DVR) recording the G4 Star Trek marathon while I played video games for a while on the computer. The kids enjoyed the Tom and Jerry marathon on Boomarang (but not all day for them, and not all day for me, either -- watching the tv for more than 90 minutes tends to do serious damage to one's IQ).

I did enjoy cooking. I haven't made meatballs in years. I used ground turkey meat for the meatballs this time, which was a first for me. I seasoned it with some steak seasonings (salt, garlic, onion, black pepper, red pepper) and worcheshire sauce and then cooked it in the skillet. Next time, I will add some chopped onion to the mix, though; it really helps with the texture. Anyway, I combined that with a couple of different spaghetti sauces from the store (sauteed onion and garlic and super chunky mushroom, both from Ragu) and some Barilla angel hair pasta -- and voila!

Even though I dearly love cooking on my George Foreman Grill, it was nice to cook something on the stove for once. Spaghetti itself is a no-brainer but the meat is what can take time. I usually just break up the ground beef (or turkey) and brown it, drain it and let it get seasoned by the sauce, but I wanted to do something different this time. I also wanted to see how the flavoring of the turkey meat would in turn flavor the sauce. (I really liked how it ended up adding a nice dash of the worcheshire taste to the sauce!)

Sometimes the greatest benefit of having freedom is to use it. But also, it's important to remember that those freedoms were attained at a high cost. We need to be grateful for our independence.

Best Wishes,
Allen