The Comforts of Home

A chilly rainy night home alone pretty much signals comfort food for many of us. That's exactly what I was thinking tonght when I made a big pot of spaghetti and meat sauce.

I didn't want to go to too much trouble with cooking or cleaning so I just doctored up some jarred spaghetti sauce. I complemented the sauce with plenty of vegetables including eggplant, carrots, onions, mushrooms and red peppers. I also added some extra lean ground beef seasoned with plenty of red pepper flakes, garlic, salt, italian seasoning and a little red wine vinegar.

It sounds simple but I actually ended up dirtying four pots because I was trying to cook in a hurry. I used one pot to boil the eggplant, one to cook the meat, two for the spaghetti sauce because the first one wouldn't fit the sauce, meat and all the veggies at the same time and a large stockpot to boil the whole wheat pasta. Once everything was cooked and relatively cleaned up, I filled a big bowl with pasta and sauce and topped it with lots of freshly shredded Parmesan cheese.

The rain was coming down pretty good at this point and it was starting to get dark outside so I curled up on the couch and polished off the whole bowl. It was completely delicious and satisfying. In fact, the sauce's flavor was almost addictive. The large variety of vegetables, including the eggplant and mushrooms, combined with the savory beef made this dish irresistible. Moo Shu, our cat, loves spaghetti sauce. I know it's bizarre but it's the one human food we feed her. I always let her lick the bowl once I'm finished. She loves it and tonight was no exception. Despite missing Johnnycakes, Moo Shu and I shared quite an evening on the couch enjoying one of our favorite comfort foods.