I'm going to make a family cookbook as a gift to Matt's side of the family. They all learned to cook from their dad and are always calling to ask, "how do you make......?" So this is it.
Here is the story of the Spaghetti Mistake as told by Matt's Dad.
Dana has an idea for a family cookbook entitled "The Spaghetti Mistake". It is a great idea and while they were here we came up with several recipes to put in it. But the recipes have special signifigance...it has to do with the title...so here's how it happened:
We were living at Patch Barracks in Stuttgart-Vaihingen. Matt was about 12 or 13 years old, he probably remembers the exactness of it better than me, and one night in the kitchen decided he could handle making spaghetti. He wanted to learn how to do it so he could make it for the whole family. At the time, we had five kids and the two oldest boys were nearly teens so it took a lot of spaghetti to feed everyone, especially since it was one of the few things that all the kids liked.
So we proceeded to teach the boy to make spaghetti. He did good, too. And was super proud of himself. In a couple of days he wanted to know if it was time to make it again. He wanted to solo. We said, "Sure, get to it !" He did it with little supervision and did it very well. The younger kids praised him, the parents gave positive reinforcement and Matt was cock o' the walk. In a week or so, I laid out the makings and called for the spaghetti-meister to report to the kitchen. He eagerly plowed into the making of dinner, just like a pro. I don't remember at what point the joy of it turned to dread. But having declared himself the Spaghetti King, we, the parents, would schedule spaghetti knowing that it meant a night off from the kitchen for us. Spaghetti King soon wearied of the chore, it wasn't fun if he HAD to do it. But from then on, almost every time we had spaghetti, it was Matt's night in the kitchen.
On a night when I was too lazy to roll up individual enchiladas, I just layered the tortillas in the pan with the meat and cheese and sauce, kind of like a Mexican lasagne. Number Two son was in the kitchen watching and talking to me and mentioned that he thought he could handle making an enchilada casserole and so I started breaking him in, and he got the hang of it quick. About half way through the process, Matt came into the kitchen and sized up what was going on and cried out for Mike..."Don't do it, Mike, I made the spaghetti mistake and now I have to do it all the time...don't make the enchilada casserole mistake !" Or words to that effect. But it was too late. Mike was hooked, he was into it and enjoying it and forever after, was the Enchilada Casserole Meister in our house.
Kids are funny people. Even after making fun of Matt for making the "Spaghetti Mistake", each one of them made a "mistake" of their own. And they became quite good cooks, I might add...mistakes not withstanding. We got to a point where the kids would make complete meals several nights in a row...Mama Charlie and I didn't have to cook at all, if we didn't want to. The difficulty came when the three boys all passed the six foot mark and ate like a plague of locusts every day. We would buy things at the store with the intent of having them for a dinner and find that when it was time to prepare that dinner, the stuff had already been consumed as an "after school snack".
Any way, Dana...there is the origin of the "Spaghetti Mistake"...as I remember it. Matt will surely remember it differently. But you can run it any way you want, it is your project. And for the first recipe, the simplest spaghetti in the world (short of dumping it out of a can):
2 lbs of hamburger, browned, drained and rinsed
two cans of tomato paste
Italian seasoning (or garlic salt, oregono, basil, salt, pepper, and sage) to taste
two bullion cubes
medium onion, chopped (optional: half a green bell pepper, or sliced black olives, or both)
mix all the above together, add water to cover the meat mix (about four of the tomato paste cans) and simmer, covered, for a while. Stir ocassionally and add water if it evaporates off. Time varies with taste, it needs to be about an hour to get all the flavors and spices thoroughly infused. Too long and things get too mushy, even the meat. Too short and you don't get the best flavor out of it. Pour it over cooked spaghetti and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese (or cheddar...my preference...Okie style).
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