Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Dinner: Spaghetti that wasn't

Last night I decided to make spaghetti. Beef was defrosting in the refrigerator and I had fresh green pepper and an onion to spruce up my store-bought pasta sauce.

As I opened the package of ground beef, it smelled a bit off, but I thought with enough seasoning and if I browned it really well, I'll be fine. Unfortunately, even when the meat was cooked, it looked off and I did not dare taste it. I think I get this from my mom, who at the first sign of a slightly sour smell throws the milk out, while my dad would just boil it and use it, thinking the milk has been saved.

Okay, back to my dinner. Now that the meat was in the garbage, I had to improvise. I sauteed a green pepper with an onion and a few cloves of garlic; added a can of garbanzo beans (drained!), dried basil, some onion powder, and a can of pasta sauce and let it bubble happily while I cooked the pasta.

Twelve minutes later, the pasta was done and as I added a few final touches to my sauce (pitted kalamata olives and fresh parsley) all that was left to do was to combine the pasta with the sauce and sprinkle some cheddar cheese on top. This was a great meal on a cold night!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hmmm, you may have had some of that contaminated beef that Cargill just recalled. Anyway, some of my most inspired meals occur when I have to improvise. Of course, I almost never write anything down, so recreating it is a challenge, but one I enjoy...