I think I'll make Sunday be the recipe day. Until I get tired of trying to figure out what the recipes are anyhow...
Since the blog is still in California I was going to start with my grandfather's recipe for spaghetti sauce. It's actually quite tasty and I have no idea how much of anything goes into it cause we always just eyeballed it. Nothing was ever measured in moms kitchen except when baking happened. If you need exact measurements you're in the wrong place and should head over to a REAL recipe site or something.
Grandpa Don's Spaghetti Sauce
I'm sure this isn't exactly Grandpa Don's recipe because my mom never fixed anything that she didn't embellish, but here are the basics that I was taught by her.
Start early because this is a day long project.
4-5 strips of bacon (because bacon makes EVERYTHING better)
1 medium-large onion (how much do you like onions is the guide), diced
Sliced Mushrooms (however many you want... sometime we're in 'shroom mode and put in tons)
1 lb ground beef
2 cans of tomato sauce (the canned veggie size, not the bigger ones)
2 cans of tomato paste (the small sized cans)
See? I warned you about the measurements....
Oregano
Garlic, 2-3 cloves or use powdered.
Basil
Thyme
Rosemary
Bay Leaves
Salt & Pepper
First you cut the bacon into 1/2 inch pieces and cook in a large sauce pan. After the bacon is crispy, add the ground beef, diced onions and garlic and cook til browned. Most people drain the fat from the meat and you can do that if you want but we just left it in there. Yep... we are lazy and can't be bothered with that extra step. Add the sauce, paste and mushrooms and stir till well blended. Now.. the herbs and spices. 2 bay leaves usually works and is the only thing that I know the amount of. Start with about a half to one teaspoon of each. Stir well and lower heat to simmer. Cover that puppy. Stir it around every hour or so and taste to see if more herbs are needed.
My grandpa would start this sauce around 9 AM and let it simmer all day. You do that too.
I have tried making this in a crock pot but it just never really tastes right... I think it loses something when you accidentally leave the burner too hot and scorch the bottom of the pan... maybe that's just me.
I'm assuming that you know how to cook spaghetti noodles so you're on your own for those.
Next time I make this I will take pictures of the process... (because apparently that is what recipe bloggers do?) It won't be until wintertime though. I really don't want to cook something all day long while it is over 100 degrees outside. Oh hey... I think tomorrow we'll be on our 30th consecutive day of triple digits. Truly, I want to move back to Washington. This heat thing is wearing me out.
Also... I will probably read this over and over and change stuff up. If you try the recipe make sure you print it out the day you make it. LOL!! (see? I just added an ingredient and the post is only 5 minutes old...)
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Intro to credit 101
While living in San Diego, dad still had to go out to sea on a regular basis. This was not that much of a problem cause mom could get to the commissary for groceries and stuff but for household items they liked to shop at Sears. They lived quite a ways from the closest Sear store so taking the bus was how mom would get there while dad was gone, since she couldn't drive.
Dad left the Sears charge card with mom while he was gone so she could pick up necessary household things if she had to. She also was given the job of making the monthly payments on that card so she knew exactly how much was on it. That was all she knew about credit cards at that time. You go shopping, use the card instead of money and you paid the bill. Seems like that is all you really need to know about them, huh? Well you're wrong. You also need to know that if you pay the card off that they don't take the card away.
Every time the card was about to be paid off my mom would get on that bus and ride an hour to Sears and buy something. ANYTHING. Because she did not want them to take the card away. We had, what could have been the world's largest collection of sheets and towels ever. I don't think they had to buy new ones until after we moved to Connecticut.
Next time - San Diego gets a new resident
Dad left the Sears charge card with mom while he was gone so she could pick up necessary household things if she had to. She also was given the job of making the monthly payments on that card so she knew exactly how much was on it. That was all she knew about credit cards at that time. You go shopping, use the card instead of money and you paid the bill. Seems like that is all you really need to know about them, huh? Well you're wrong. You also need to know that if you pay the card off that they don't take the card away.
Every time the card was about to be paid off my mom would get on that bus and ride an hour to Sears and buy something. ANYTHING. Because she did not want them to take the card away. We had, what could have been the world's largest collection of sheets and towels ever. I don't think they had to buy new ones until after we moved to Connecticut.
Next time - San Diego gets a new resident
It looks like chicken so it must be chicken...
Mom had learned to cook a few things while they were married and living in Japan. Naturally, the things she learned to cook were based on what she could buy there, which were all familiar ingredients to a Japanese person. The method of grocery shopping was also familiar.veggie stand, meat market... you know. NO grocery store that carried everything in nice neat packages with labels.
The first years of living in American were full of learning. I remember mom telling me stories about going to the commissary on base to grocery shop. My dad says that he got sick of steak for dinner during that time. Why? Well you remember that part about mom not knowing how to cook? Steak is truly one of the easiest things to cook. You just season the things and slap them in a pan or on a grill. Also, it is really easy to recognize a package of steak. It looks like what it is. They ate a LOT of steak.
Not knowing English affected her shopping. She couldn't understand what packages said so she shopped by what the product looked like. This didn't always work out so well. Just because a package LOOKS like chicken, doesn't mean it IS chicken as she once found out. She had opened a package of 'chicken' and started preparing it when my dad got home from work and came in to see what was for dinner, probably hoping it wasn't steak again. He saw the package and then made a comment about how he didn't know that Japanese people ate those. Of course Japanese people eat chicken! Then he informed her that it was indeed, NOT chicken. It was frog legs. She wouldn't touch them after she found out and I imagine that dad had to finish cooking his own dinner that night.
I don't think that she went grocery shopping without him again until she had learned a lot more English.
Next time - The Sears charge card
The first years of living in American were full of learning. I remember mom telling me stories about going to the commissary on base to grocery shop. My dad says that he got sick of steak for dinner during that time. Why? Well you remember that part about mom not knowing how to cook? Steak is truly one of the easiest things to cook. You just season the things and slap them in a pan or on a grill. Also, it is really easy to recognize a package of steak. It looks like what it is. They ate a LOT of steak.
Not knowing English affected her shopping. She couldn't understand what packages said so she shopped by what the product looked like. This didn't always work out so well. Just because a package LOOKS like chicken, doesn't mean it IS chicken as she once found out. She had opened a package of 'chicken' and started preparing it when my dad got home from work and came in to see what was for dinner, probably hoping it wasn't steak again. He saw the package and then made a comment about how he didn't know that Japanese people ate those. Of course Japanese people eat chicken! Then he informed her that it was indeed, NOT chicken. It was frog legs. She wouldn't touch them after she found out and I imagine that dad had to finish cooking his own dinner that night.
I don't think that she went grocery shopping without him again until she had learned a lot more English.
Next time - The Sears charge card
Friday, July 29, 2011
So it begins....
My brother wants me to write down what we know about our family and how it came to be. Naturally, I only know what I was told about the early years and I haven't any idea how much is truth or exaggeration. So, without further ado...
How my mom and dad hooked up - What *I* was told, what I figured out through creative snooping and what I presume to be truth after years of hearing stories.
My dad is from Lincoln City, Oregon and graduated from Taft High School a year early and promptly joined the Navy when he was 17... by lying about his age when he enlisted! Sure... he could have gone to college, he was class president and all, but no. He wanted to hang around on a big boat and see the world... I assume. Eventually he was assigned to a submarine(?) that was stationed in Japan for a bit. I'm guessing they docked somewhere near Osaka since that is where mom was from.
I have no idea how they actually met, only that they went out on ONE date before he went back to sea. She didn't speak much English and I doubt that he spoke much Japanese at that time, cause let's face it... In the 50's, Americans didn't bother learning languages if they didn't have to. Even now they just talk louder English because they think that makes it easier for non-English speaking people to understand what they're saying o.O (I witnessed this first-hand in France in 1976 and I believe it's still holds true).
So dad went back out to sea and most of the guys were a little grumpy because it was Christmas time and they were not with their families. My mom sent him a Christmas card and I guess he thought that was a pretty nice thing to do, so when the sub went back to port, he asked her to marry him. I'm sure there was much more involved in this decision but hey... they never told me the entire story!
Mom was the baby of the family and did not have to do anything related to upkeep and feeding of the household. We're talking SPOILED here. I'm told that she couldn't even boil water for tea. She had also never really traveled anywhere mostly because it wasn't as easy to go places then as it is now. Being the baby, she was allowed to get away with just about anything, so when she sprung this 'marrying a gaijin' thing on her dad he just went along with it.
Mom and dad had a traditional Japanese wedding as well as an American one officiated by the chaplain of the ship. I'm not sure where they lived while waiting for all the paperwork to go through the hoops so that she could come to the states when dad got his orders. She once told me that during that first year or so, I almost had a big brother or sister who would have been born in Japan but she miscarried while running around in the country on the back of a motor scooter. Yeah. My parents were practically hippies... or as hippy as you can be in the mid-50's. In 1957 or '58 (maybe?) dad got orders to go to the LA area and mom made the trip to Los Angeles on a ship, where she spent most of the journey in her cabin, sick as a dog.
Next time... Learning to be American
How my mom and dad hooked up - What *I* was told, what I figured out through creative snooping and what I presume to be truth after years of hearing stories.
My dad is from Lincoln City, Oregon and graduated from Taft High School a year early and promptly joined the Navy when he was 17... by lying about his age when he enlisted! Sure... he could have gone to college, he was class president and all, but no. He wanted to hang around on a big boat and see the world... I assume. Eventually he was assigned to a submarine(?) that was stationed in Japan for a bit. I'm guessing they docked somewhere near Osaka since that is where mom was from.
I have no idea how they actually met, only that they went out on ONE date before he went back to sea. She didn't speak much English and I doubt that he spoke much Japanese at that time, cause let's face it... In the 50's, Americans didn't bother learning languages if they didn't have to. Even now they just talk louder English because they think that makes it easier for non-English speaking people to understand what they're saying o.O (I witnessed this first-hand in France in 1976 and I believe it's still holds true).
So dad went back out to sea and most of the guys were a little grumpy because it was Christmas time and they were not with their families. My mom sent him a Christmas card and I guess he thought that was a pretty nice thing to do, so when the sub went back to port, he asked her to marry him. I'm sure there was much more involved in this decision but hey... they never told me the entire story!
Mom was the baby of the family and did not have to do anything related to upkeep and feeding of the household. We're talking SPOILED here. I'm told that she couldn't even boil water for tea. She had also never really traveled anywhere mostly because it wasn't as easy to go places then as it is now. Being the baby, she was allowed to get away with just about anything, so when she sprung this 'marrying a gaijin' thing on her dad he just went along with it.
Mom and dad had a traditional Japanese wedding as well as an American one officiated by the chaplain of the ship. I'm not sure where they lived while waiting for all the paperwork to go through the hoops so that she could come to the states when dad got his orders. She once told me that during that first year or so, I almost had a big brother or sister who would have been born in Japan but she miscarried while running around in the country on the back of a motor scooter. Yeah. My parents were practically hippies... or as hippy as you can be in the mid-50's. In 1957 or '58 (maybe?) dad got orders to go to the LA area and mom made the trip to Los Angeles on a ship, where she spent most of the journey in her cabin, sick as a dog.
Next time... Learning to be American
I'm going to blame this on Don
My brother has been getting after me about putting some family stories and recipes down in writing so I decided to start this. Why? Because no matter where I am, if I can get to the internets, I can write something down. Yesyesyes... I can do this with paper and pens as well, but then I would inevitably have to type it into an electronic form sooner or later. Also? I will LOSE paper. You have permission to contact ANY of my high school teachers to verify this.
The name of this blog is based on something my mother once said. That story will be included in this blog eventually. Just be patient.
In any case. This blog was born today. I will now go and play with the design and fonts and stuff. Anyone that knows me will understand that this 'playing' phase will take longer than ANY blog post that I eventually make. We're talking about someone who spent nearly 6 hours painting and cutting the hair on my damned Moogle in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles here....
PS. I'm willing to bet most of my high school teachers are either dead or close to it... You're just going to have to trust on that losing paper thing.
The name of this blog is based on something my mother once said. That story will be included in this blog eventually. Just be patient.
In any case. This blog was born today. I will now go and play with the design and fonts and stuff. Anyone that knows me will understand that this 'playing' phase will take longer than ANY blog post that I eventually make. We're talking about someone who spent nearly 6 hours painting and cutting the hair on my damned Moogle in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles here....
PS. I'm willing to bet most of my high school teachers are either dead or close to it... You're just going to have to trust on that losing paper thing.
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