Bust

Seriously, what kid doesn't like spaghetti with meat sauce? Well, I have the two on earth who don't. Okay, I guess, maybe not all kids eat meat, but mine do. They quite enjoy meat. Tyler even likes meatballs; the ones with spaghetti sauce.

I had a feeling Vincent would be so-so on this meal. He hasn't liked red sauce since he was about 2 years old. He also doesn't care for meatballs. But, I haven't tried to make something like this in ages. The closest I get is chili, and lately he's been okay with it. He's also been eating pizza a lot more, which has red sauce on it. After analyzing my childrens' palates, I decided to take a chance.

WTF. Gosh, I don't even want to go into the details of their behavior over this meal. It'll just make me resent them, and I don't want to. Maybe it was because I didn't make the sauce from scratch? I just threw this together with leftover meatloaf and a jar of store bought sauce. Frankly, I enjoyed it. I guess I could think of it as a compliment to my real cooking, since they usually do a better job of eating the scratch meals I make.

Funky Olive Tart-thingy

I forgot to take pictures of tonight's dinner. Doh! Mainly because of the tart thing I made. I only call it a tart because that's the dough I used. It was more like a crust, or cracker, or cookie. Yeah, maybe an olive cookie.

 

 

Anyway, I had some tart dough that I pulled out of the freezer a couple of days ago. I knew it needed to be used. And, I had some homemade olive tapenade that had been around a few days, too. So, I decided to combine them.

 

 

I rolled out my dough, then spread the tapenade on top, then folded in the edges so that they over lapped. Then, I rolled it out a little more to smooth it. I docked the down with a fork and stuck it in the freezer. Basically, it was a rectangle shape, and about 1/4 inch thick.

 

 

Popped it in a 425F degree oven for 20 minutes, and voila, olive cookie. But, it tasted less of olives and more of buttery tart crust.

We also had grilled flat iron steak, from the late Thundering Hooves Farm, with grilled strips of zucchini. I made a sauce for the steak, which was sauteed red onions pureed with fresh cilantro, extra virgin olive oil, sherry wine vinegar, salt and smoked paprika. Yum. Tyler asked for some and actually ate most of the teaspoon I gave him. This was a delightful meal.