It tends to be the dinner choice that is suggested first when it comes to a weekend meal when the whole family will be in attendance.
I'm talking about the infamous Spaghetti & meatballs dinner.
My husband was raised on spaghetti and it was almost a tradition to have spaghetti every Sunday when he lived at home. He could eat pasta just about every meal and never gets tired of it, even now.
In fact, his "fall back dinner" is what he lovingly refers to as "red sh** and noodles". This is his slang for Ragu out of a jar (traditional style with meat...not any of those other varieties) .
I like his homemade, special recipe spaghetti and meatballs, but I am not a big fan of the "red sh** and noodles" senario. (I much prefer peanut butter sandwich and chips as my "don't want to fix anything or go out to eat meal".)
He told me not too long ago that he was going to always suggest his "red sh** and noodles " for dinner so it would force me to choose what's for dinner since he knows I won't eat Ragu ( only under duress and extreme laziness.)
He was a little upset not too long ago when there was a study released that had people rate jar spaghetti...I forget what was the winner, but Ragu was at the bottom of the survey.
Today, all the boys (& Becky) came over for dinner and of course the menu was spaghetti. We had a very enlightening discussion about the actual pasta being served. The discussion centered around what kind of pasta was everyone's personal favorite.
The oldest and youngest sons chose: angel hair pasta ( which was served today and had raves from them today!)
Becky prefers: rigatoni or any of the "tube like" pasta's. ( She said she likes a more substantial pasta.)
The husband votes for : linguini
The middle son stated he had no particular favorite...he likes them all.
I hadn't really given it much thought to a favorite but I would have to say I know I don't really like regular spaghetti ( too thick). I guess if I was pressed to choose a favorite it would be capellini.
Anyway, eating spaghetti is a pretty traditional weekend meal for our family.
When the boys all left for college and began doing some cooking, they all made the call to dad to get his recipe for spaghetti. (Much like my sister's and I did when we all called mom at Thanksgiving to see how to cook turkey.)
They all got the proper instructions for his spaghetti sauce and meatballs with visuals included!
Now, all the boys can make Tom's famous spaghetti and meatballs. The only question now usually is whether we should have a meat sauce, or meatballs, or to make lasagne. They all are delicious but the boys usually choose meatballs.
It was a particularly good batch today...maybe because it has been a while since the whole family was here for spaghetti. The husband has not figured out how to make "little batches" of spaghetti, so care packages went home with them all.
Nothing like second day spaghetti...just makes it that much better!
4 comments:
Amen to second day sketti! Thanks for a wonderful wonderful couple of meals!! The boys and the daughter-in-law greatly appreciate it! (especially on Tuesday nights when it's Tommy's night to 'cook') Sketti x3 works for me!
This post made me hungry!
Much to the disgust of my Italian-American friends, I like jar sauce. To them it's a sin, almost as bad as pronouning the "a" at the end mozarella or ricotta.
My wife makes a great homemade sauce but when she's in a pinch she'll use Newman's Own Five Cheese Sauce.
I could really go for a piece of garlic bread right now.
I thought about Tom's spaghetti sauce and his lasagna yesterday. Bill and I went to Cedar Lake to pick up some books that he had taken there Friday to the WV writers conference to sell. His birthday is Thursday but we'll be busy getting ready to go to the beach so we decided to go somewhere for a late lunch to celebrate. Cedar Lake is close to Ripley, WV which is a small town, but with plenty of restaurants, many of which are chains. Anyway---we chose an Italian one that was not too far off the beaten track from us. I had spaghetti, Bill had lasagna, and I have to say it did not rate up there with the Tom menu. The meatballs tasted like pure sausage! I can't say it was bad, but once you've had tom's. all else pales.
If Ragu is good enough for Maria on Everybody loves Raymond it is good enough for me...that is my favorite.
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