Fried Mommy Brain

Spaghetti Sauce and Italian Herb Bread Recipe

Recipespagbread

A dinner that has become a weekly favorite in this house was just begging to be shared on the blog. It has been so terribly long, afterall, since I have done so.

It is a classic Italian meal--spag and bread.  The sauce is one I have been making, actually, since I was about 10 years old; a recipe from a cookbook my mother had as a child. I have altered it very little over the years.  The bread I must admit is just a combination of recipes I found online and adore.  

It is a long process with the simmering of the sauce and the rising of the bread but it isn't complicated and is so worth it. Your house will smell heavenly.

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Stace's Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

--1/4 cup cooking or olive oil. Basically enough to cover the bottom of a large saucepan/cooking pot.

--2 Tablespoons chopped/minced parsley (dry is fine)

--1/2 large sweet onion, chopped into small pieces.

--2 cloves of fresh minced or finely chopped garlic

--28oz of tomato puree or my favorite, diced tomatoes that you very coarsely run through the processor to leave chunky

--2 6 oz cans of tomato paste

--2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

--oregano (dry is fine)

--basil (dry fine)

--salt

--2 Tablespoons or so of sugar (to taste)

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Heat oil in sauce pan/pot.  Cook parsley, onion and garlic until lightly golden-do not overcook.  Add puree, paste, worcestershire sauce and herbs.  Simmer on low for 2 hours. Add touches of water if needed and sprinkle in sugar to taste throughout cooking process.  (about 6 servings)

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Italian Herb Bread (2 loaves)

--2 packages of yeast

--2 cup of warm water (about 110 degrees)

--2 Tablespoons sugar

--1/4 cup olive oil

--1 Tablespoon salt

--1 1/2 Tablespoon basil

--1 1/2Tablespoon  oregano

--1 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

--1 1/2 teaspoon onion powder (I take minced dry onion and run it through a grinder)

--1/2 cup Romano or parm cheese (powder is fine)

--about 5 cups of flour

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1. Mix yeast, warm water, and white sugar together in a large bowl. Set aside for five minutes, or until mixture becomes foamy.
2. Stir olive oil, salt, herbs, garlic powder, onion powder, cheese, and 3 cups flour into the yeast mixture. Gradually mix in the next two cups of flour. Dough will be stiff.
3. Knead dough for 5 to 10 minutes, or until it is smooth and rubbery. Place in an oiled bowl, and turn to cover the surface of the dough with oil. Cover with a damp linen dish towel. Allow to rise for one hour, or until the dough has doubled in size.
4. Punch dough down to release all the air. Cut dough in half and shape into two loaves. Place shapen loaves on a greased cookie sheet, or into two greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pans. Allow to rise until doubled in size, about a 30 minutes.
5. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 35 minutes. Remove loaves from pan(s) and let cool on wire racks for at least 15 minutes before slicing.

Bittersweet Day

Today I took Madilyn for a tour of her new preschool.  It is a church built around 1848 which is such a rarity around here and the fact that the drive is mainly down a rural road and the church is in the sticks just reconfirms that I adore living out here.

Basically the program/director/teachers were together for a long time at another location. The director (who will be Madi's teacher too) had taught for over 20 years at a location by our central library. That church, who was a separate entity, said they wanted to remove the preschool so they were all left high and dry.  Luckily, a teacher's daughter saw this old church who was rezoning to add a preschool.

The classes are small since word of mouth that a school is finally available here now is just getting out and most people out this way are used to driving to the more populated area of our town for a preschool. They have only been here for two years. Class size is a 4 to 1 ratio. Rock on. The school feels like you are walking into a historic home, the classrooms look like converted living rooms.  Very charming. Tiny but cozy and not overwhelming. 

Madilyn walks right in, up to the director and then the teacher and says,"Hi! I'm Madi!" and sits herself down at the round table to start doing arts and crafts.  They let her just hang out for an hour while I did paperwork and got the low down. They said she was awesome. She went potty, played with another girl, dressed up, did a puzzle, built a castle, didn't suck her thumb and was totally outgoing. They do music, they provide snack (!! a first for us), they do show and tell, arts and crafts, play time outside and then of course the lessons. The typical letter and number a week, themes, calendar, etc   Obviously, religion is built into the day but the director said they get all faiths--Buddhist, Jewish, etc so they try to work in lessons about other faiths as well. I dug that of course. They also do a ton of field trips and <gasp> for the first time, I can actually chaperon!  I have never been able to before because I always had a baby.

SO she's all signed up! registered and ready to go. The open house is in Aug. and she'll start Sept-May for three days a week. M, W, and F from 9 to 12pm. I am so excited for her.

Afterwards, we headed to the library just in time for storytime. I always meant to do that but never have. Man, stupid me!  She's old enough to do preschool storytime now so she received a nametag and went into the activity room for 30 minutes without me. They had a large group of children but she went right in without hesitation. They had storytime, dance/music time and a craft and parents were made to wait outside.  Do you know what that meant?!  That meant I got to tuck myself into a little quiet corner and read. Oh man. I was in heaven!  So yeah you know where I'll be every Tuesday at 10:30. I think it'll fast become my favorite day of the week.  Best of all, it's all free...she even got a lollipop at the end.  Madi was kinda just thrown in there with very little preparation but she was awesome. She just smiled, sat Indian style on the rug and asks, "It's like school right, Mommy?"  I said, "yep!" and she was good to go.  I kept peeking in on her and she was great.  At the end, she was among the first to walk out but the last to get a lollipop because she patiently waited while the others (with no apparent manners) butted infront of her. I was so proud of her. We headed over to the computers and played games for 20 minutes while she had two kids breathing down her neck eventhough they had other computers to use. Madi was really patient (!!) and calm (!!!!) and then got up 10 minutes before her time was up (each child gets 30 mins) and says to them,  "It's ok..you can play now".  Man proud momma today.

I do know she is ready to go to school now and will definitely be impatient. As we were driving home, she said to me, "Mommy, you make me a cake now so I can be four and go to school!"  I am sure she'll start a count down to Sept soon!

For those of you logged in, I am posting pictures from today.