Spaghetti Face

Best Yet Spaghetti Sauce

Spaghetti is comfort food for me which is a little weird because I didn't grow up eating it, but somehow a heaping serving of hot spaghetti is almost therapeutic.  I've tried a few spaghetti sauce recipes but none of them were quite right until I found this one from Table for Two.  It's plain and simple, but to the point.  I didn't want a hot pot of sauce simmering on the stove for half the day so I let it simmer in my crockpot and it turned out delicious.

{ Best Yet Spaghetti Sauce }

Recipe from Table for Two

1 lb. 80/20 ground beef

1 6 oz. can tomato paste

6 oz. water

1 24 oz. jar tomato puree

5-6 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp. granulated sugar

Pinch of dried oregano

Pinch of onion powder

Pinch of garlic powder

Handful of fresh basil, chopped

Salt and pepper, to taste

In a large stockpot, saute garlic until soft and fragrant in 2 tbsp. of olive oil, about 2 minutes.

Throw your meat in with the garlic and brown until meat has been thoroughly cooked through, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.  Pour in the tomato paste, tomato puree, and seasoning, including the fresh basil.

Stir to mix well. With the 6 oz. can from the tomato paste, fill that with water and pour it in the stockpot as well.

Let mixture simmer, uncovered, for 2 or more hours (the longer the better, but minimum 2 hours), stirring occasionally.

Serve hot over fresh pasta.

Family Pictures

My friend Jenna took some family photos for us this weekend.  She claims that she's not a professional and that she "dabbles" in photography but I think she captured some wonderful shots of our family.  We definitely had fun getting our pictures taken.  Thank you Jenna for being such a fun friend; you're a keeper!

Phoenix Open

Golfing was never my thing; it was a miracle that I never hit anyone's head with the club or, worse yet, fling it into the fake volcano and the hideous windmill when we used to go mini golfing on dates before the bug was born.  But watching professionals golf is a completely different ball game.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself at the Phoenix open on Monday.  It had finally stopped raining after almost three days of downpour and it was simply beautiful on the course.

The most scandalous event of the day was when we were waiting for our car at the valet, a server offered me a drink that was "high in vitamins and minerals".  The drink tasted like orange soda and man was it good.  Now let me just tell you that I rarely drink soda (maybe half a dozen times a year), and I don't drink caffeinated soda.  After consuming 10% of the drink the lady offered me, I was speaking 50% faster and my voice was one whole octave higher.  Then six o'clock hit and I suddenly felt as tired as an eight-week pregnant lady.  And man, the headache!  The headache!!  I vow here and now to never ever consume any "high in vitamin and mineral" drinks.

Shadow Puppets

We decided to do some hand shadow puppets last night before we put Ethan to bed.  Jake and I are horrible at it.  Somehow everything we made looked like they had been zombie-ized but that's okay because I was mostly just happy that my two boys were laying right next to me.  Who knew a simple game like this could be so memorable?

An evil- and tamagotchi-looking duck.

This is our newest family portrait called The Shadows of Our Feet.

A Saturday on Our Driveway

Saturday is a special day, it's the day we get ready for Sunday.  We clean the house, and we shop at the store so we don't have to work until Monday...  That Primary song kept going through my head as we pulled weeds out and cleaned up our front yard this past Saturday.  Ethan had a great time playing on our driveway and front yard under intense supervision.  And even so, he managed to fall a few times with one of them being a face-plant on the gravel.  Ouch would be the right word.  It was rather painful to watch, but he ran around like nothing had happened three seconds after the incident.  Our work day was tiring but productive; and it ended with E smooshing blueberries in between his bum and the stroller seat.  He is now a proud owner of a pair of khakis with a rather large blue stain on the buttock area.

EE's Layover

EE (which means Aunt in Cantonese) came to visit us last week because she had a layover at Phoenix.  We brought her home, hung out with her for a little while, fed her leftover casserole and fresh sushi, then sent her on her way again.  Ethan was over the moon.