One for the road

DisneyWorld may have re-opened, but I think a lot of families will be avoiding the “big” places and taking “small” vacations this year because of the pandemic. My local family and I just got back from a three-day stay at a friend’s lake house, and our safe trip during quarantine made me realize a lot of people will be renting short-term vacation homes rather than staying in hotels and motels.

For us, going to someone else’s house involved a lot of planning for meals, because we wanted to take everything we needed. No ordering in, no daily grocery runs. So we planned what we wanted to eat and made endless lists of what to take. And I borrowed a trick from my Austin daughter who takes chili and spaghetti sauce on ski trips. She makes them at home, freezes them flat in baggies, and packs them in her luggage. Nope, no spills or accidents so far.

Jordan and I decided spaghetti would be a good choice for supper one night at the lake house. I happen to have a delicious and slightly unusual recipe from my good friend Carol Roark. It’s her mom’s spaghetti sauce. Feeds four nicely, but I made a double batch, so we’d have one in the freezer at home.

Getting spaghetti sauce into a baggie without decorating the entire kitchen is a challenge. I am one of those who gets that stain-prone red sauce everywhere if I just look at it. But Lisa, my Tomball daughter-in-law, gave me a gadget for Christmas that really helped (according to Christian who did the bagging). It’s a plastic frame that hold a baggie open while you carefully ladle the sauce in. I have no idea where Lisa got it or what it’s called if you want to look for it, but you might prowl Amazon or Pampered Chef.

The night we had spaghetti Jordan kept claiming she’d labored over the sauce all day, but we all knew better. Dinner—spaghetti, garlic bread, and salad was ready in less than half an hour. Rather than serve pasta and sauce separately, she put them together in a pot and heated the dinner. Result was delicious. I like a rather thick spaghetti sauce in generous amounts on my pasta—and that’s what this was.

Here's the recipe with a couple of my changes. Carol uses eight ounces ground turkey; I prefer ground beef and use a whole pound.

Carol’s Mom’s spaghetti sauce

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, pressed (I use my microplane these days)

1 lb. lean ground beef

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 6 oz. can tomato paste

1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes

1 14.5 oz. can tomato puree

½ tsp. each sage, rosemary, oregano, thyme, savory, marjoram, and basil

Salt and pepper to taste

            Brown the meat, crumbling as it cooks, and set aside. Cook the onions and garlic in olive oil until onions are slightly softened. Add spices and mix thoroughly. (It helps if you mix all the spices in a small dish, so you can dump them all in at once rather than searching the cupboard and putting in half a tsp. at a time.) Add tomato paste, puree, and diced tomatoes, and stir well. Stir in the ground beef. Simmer on low heat for about three hours or in a slow cooker for six hours. Serve with your favorite pasta and fresh grated Parmesan or pecorino (my choice lately).

Happy and safe summer travels.