Pasghetti

Here's an old stand by.  A spaghetti dinner is great for a weeknight meal.  This is my favorite way to do it.

Menu

Paula Dean's Spaghetti Sauce

Garrett's Salad

Garlic Bread

I double the spaghetti sauce and freeze it in batches.  It makes throwing this dinner together a cinch.  And of course you can always use pre-made, frozen garlic bread, but if you're feeling a little wild and crazy, make your own.  

As for the salad, you have to understand that my mom is the queen of fancy salads.  We start every Sunday dinner off with one.  And while we're all enjoying the delectable combination of sweet or savory flavors, my little brother (and by little I mean 6"4, 26 year old man) is grubbin' on his ice berg lettuce, cheddar cheese, bacon bits, croutons and ranch dressing.

So we make fun of him, but the truth is, I'm not scared to recommend a little Garrett's Salad to all of you.  It's pretty good.  And easy.

Except the ice berg lettuce.  Yuck.  Use romaine.  

Paula Dean's Spaghetti Sauce

I love me some Paula Dean's Spaghetti Sauce.  I'll admit I've only tried a couple other recipes, but this is definitely my favorite.  I like to double the recipe and freeze it in batches - so easy!

Ingredients:

1 ½ lbs. ground beef
1 large onion
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
Two 6-ounce cans tomato paste
One 8-ounce can tomato sauce
One 14 ½ - ounce can stewed tomatoes
1 TB Italian seasoning
1 TB Worcestershire sauce 
2 TB sugar
1 t salt

Instructions:

Brown the beef and drain off the fat. Add the onion, green pepper, and garlic, and sauté until the onion is tender, about 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste, tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes, 1 cup water, and seasonings. Simmer for 30 minutes. Let cool. The sauce will keep for several days, covered, in the refrigerator.

Garrett's Salad

This salad is named after Garrett because he exclusively eats salads with the following ingredients.  More or less will not be tolerated. 

Ingredients

Romaine Lettuce

grated cheddar cheese

bacon bits

croutons

Ranch dressing    

Instructions

Toss first four ingredients together.  Top with Ranch dressing.

Garlic Bread

Easy peasy.  Do it once and you're a pro.  If you want to get fancy, throw some parmesan cheese on top before you broil it.

Ingredients:

1 loaf of french bread (or any artisan bread)

1/2 c butter, softened to room temperature

2 garlic cloves, minced.  (or just use garlic powder if that's all you have on hand)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Slice loaf of bread in half.  Set aside.  Mix butter and garlic together in a small bowl.  Spread butter mixture on bread.  Bake in oven for 10 minutes.  Turn oven to broil and cook for 1-2 minutes more.  

Caramel Popcorn

All right, it was a landslide folks.    Shauri Quinn wins for You Got Served.  Thank you so much for all the extra suggestions.  Maybe some of y'all should steal some titles and jump on the recipe blog bandwagon so I can keep eating well. 

Here is Shauri's well deserved dedication:

Game night: strikes fear in the heart of some, ecstasy in the heart of others.  Game night ranges from the entire family and all of their friends ferociously competing then shamelessly singing and dancing the night away, to just some of the family intensely competing.  And I'm not scared to say that without Shauri, game night, in any of it's forms, would not be the magical experience it is today.  She invites the guests when we're too anti-social; she organizes the games when we're too lazy;  she makes us laugh when we want to fight; she lets us use her yellow prom dress when we can't come up with anything else; and most important of all: she makes the caramel popcorn.  Here's to you  Shauri Shar.   

Ingredients

1 large batch of popcorn (about 1 cup of corn kernels)

caramel

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white Karo syrup

1/4 cup water

1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

1 cube of butter

1 t baking soda

Instructions

Add first six carmel ingredients to a medium sized saucepan and bring to a rolling boil.  Cook for 5 minutes.  Take off heat, stir in baking soda and stir.  Put the popcorn in a paper  grocery bag and slowly add the caramel, mixing with a spoon as you go.  Then lay the popcorn out on wax paper to cool.  (there is enough carmel for one large batch of popcorn)

As Southern as I Get

So you're going to find a lot of Sunday dinners here.  Here's another one.  Oh, I should mention that Famous Dave's Corn Muffins isn't an actual recipe, it's just a link to Famous Dave's because you should drive there and and pick some up.  They're really good.   

MENU

Fruit and Feta Green Salad

Barbeque Country Style Spare Ribs

Gary's Mac 'n Cheese

Green Beans Almond

Famous Dave's Corn Muffins

Maraschino Cherry Cookies

Fruit and Feta Green Salad

Recipe found in Favorites: A Collection of Favorite Ivory Family Recipes.

Instructions

8 cups assorted greens

1/2 c feta cheese, crumbled

1 (11 oz.) can mandarin oranges, drained

1/2 cup dried cranberries or cherries

1 small red onion, chopped

1/2 cup toasted pecans or almonds

Dressing

4 T raspberry wine vinegar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/4 t pepper

dash of Tabasco sauce

1/2 t salt

4 T sugar

Instructions

Combine salad ingredients in large salad bowl.  Mix together dressing ingredients.  Pour dressing over salad just before serving.