All noodley and stuff

Zachary has gotten into the habit of taking his clothes off and running around in undies (if we're lucky).  I never really know what stage of dressing I will find him in at any given moment of the day.  He says he's "a big boy for to take off my clothes 'cause I can snap and zip all by myself."

I guess I should be happy that his fine motor skills are so developed.  I just jokingly remind him he's half naked, and get some clothes on.

Tuesday morning he climbed in my bed at early o'clock, and stumbled out to the kitchen just after Kelsey left for school.  I was getting a head start on my day by washing two days' worth of dishes before they started creating more dirty dishes, and my hands were wet when I hugged him.  So of course his clothes were too wet to wear, and he was not happy about that.

"I gotta take my clothes off now Mommy, and be naked and a half."

Naked and a half.  Awesome.

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Speaking of Kelsey, she is doing awesome as an eighth grader. For the first time in many years, she is on track to be on the A & B Honor Roll.  We're very happy.  She told us today they are doing a t-shirt project about tobacco usage.  Her slogan?

"Smoking sucks. Save your bucks."

There you have it. Smoking sucks. Save your bucks.  The next generation of marketing executives just made her debut.

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I made the best spaghetti sauce of my life tonight.  No, really. It was delicious.

Just call me Chef Liz.

We eat spaghetti about 4 times a month on average, so I'm pretty pleased with my "strategic dumping" as I phrased it earlier.

Spaghetti Sauce a la Chef Liz

1/4 cup EVOO
1/4 cup chopped onion
3 cloves of garlic, freshly minced (I have a garlic press thanks to Mom's awesome Christmas stocking stuffers)
(And Amy, 3 cloves of garlic is interpreted to mean 3 parts of one BULB of garlic. You are welcome.)
1 1/2 lb ground burger or turkey
1/2 tablespoon steak seasoning (very coarse looking, I get it from Sam's Club)
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 26.5oz can of meat flavored tomato sauce
1 small can of tomato paste
1 cup of water
1/3 cup sugar

In a 4 qt pot, preheat the EVOO on medium, saute the onions while you press in the garlic.  Let it carmelize a few minutes while you finish defrosting the completely frozen solid pack of burger.  Brown the burger with the onions and garlic, adding the steak seasoning and first round of Italian seasoning.  Drain the burger mess, and return to the same pot. On low-medium heat, add the can of tomato sauce, the tomato paste, and the cup of water.  Mix it all together, and add the sugar.  And - oh, why not - throw in another tablespoon of Italian seasoning. It is spaghetti sauce, after all.  I let this all finish simmering while I boiled the spaghetti noodles.  If you need a recipe for boiling spaghetti noodles, then you have my complete sympathy because I too used to be cooking-impaired.  Not all that long ago.

And now, I must conclude this edition of pointless blogging because my husband was begging me to make a cake.