Treat Myself

Today is Valentine's Day, as you may know. A time to receive cards, gifts, chocolates, and the like. So far, I've received: two packages of chocolates, a Charlie Brown Valentine from one of my preteens (so awesome), and I won a peppermint-themed Valentine's gift basket with spa essentials. Too deadly, as a friend would say. I've also spent it with a couple of great tea/coffee dates with friends. I saw that a local pub is having a Valentine's pasta night, but since I'm busy tonight (with worship band practice), I decided to make myself pasta. And it's fantastic. (In my opinion). So because today is supposed to be about giving - I'll share my "recipe" with you.

I'm pretty loose with what I put in pasta sauce. It depends on what I have in stock, and what I feel like having. Today it worked out quite well. Here's what I did:

Sautéed up an onion and celery in a splash of olive oil. Took my handy-dandy Watkins garlic peppercorn blend and ground a healthy dash of that onto everything. (It has oregano and sea salt as well). Threw in a dried bay leaf and a tsp more of garlic powder. Added a dash of Knorr (I think) Buffalo sauce - I like spice - and a dash of Lea & Perrins worcester. Added a generous helping of sundried tomatoes. (All while sautéing). Threw in a half-pound of extra-lean ground beef, stirred it up nice n good. Sprinkled a satisfying amount of Watkins cinnamon in. Ground some more sea salt, and multi-coloured peppercorn in. Added a can of italian-spiced stewed tomatoes, and a can of earthpure organic tomato sauce. Added broccoli and cauliflower (add them last so that they're not soggy). Simmered it all while the bowtie pasta was cooking!

That's it, ladies n gentlemen! It would have been even better with a sprinkle of cheese, possibly feta, but I was out.

I definitely felt loved as I was enjoying my home-cooked pasta. Happy Valentines!