What's for dinner?

I have cooked for many years, but these days I feel so lazy that it is hard for me to get into the kitchen. Still, there are hungry mouths to feed around here so someone has to do it.

These days, I am cooking for my husband, my father, and my adult son. All people that are perfectly able to feed themselves, but they will likely starve if I do not cook something at least once per day. Do I sound resentful? Haha! Yes! A lot of the time I force these grown men to fend for themselves.

Anyway, today I felt guilty and decided to cook--probably because my husband returned to work today after a 3 week vacation. I felt bad to make him come home from work to no food, so I prepared something.

I found some ground deer meat that I had in the freezer. Lucky for me, I had many premade ingredients that I could simply mix together. Every year, I take the harvest from my garden and preserve it by either drying, canning, or freezing.

For example, I had a huge crop of tomatoes in 2019. From these tomatoes, I made many jars of tomato sauce.

I also made a huge jar of powdered dried tomatoes. after 2 years, this jar is almost empty, so I hope that I will get another bumper crop of tomatoes this year. Dried powdered vegetables has been a useful addition to my cooking. Not only does it add flavour, but it also adds nutrition.

The men in my life are very spoiled and like to eat a lot of meat, so I made them a meat and tomato based pasta dish. Since I grew almost all the ingredients myself, and have a supply of deer meat from my husband, this dish cost almost nothing.

I started by frying the deer meat with some onion, garlic, and celery. Normally I would add some peppers and other vegetables, too, but nothing is growing yet.

Deer meat is extremely lean and I must add additional oil to brown it. Normally, I add some olive oil, otherwise it will not brown.

After I browned the deer meat, I added the jar of homemade tomato sauce and a couple of tablespoons of the dried tomato powder. At this time I would add some herbs such as oregano.

While the sauce is simmering on low heat, I boil water for the pasta.

This is the hip new pasta brand that people are using these days. Barilla brand used to be very popular, but then the CEO said rude things about gay people --so people boycotted Barilla. I really liked the taste of Barilla, but this Fiorfiore is really delicious. HAHA NO this is not a product endorsement of either brand of pasta. I wouldn't be surpised if both brands are owned by the same company.

While the pasta noodles were boiling, I sat in my rocking chair like an old woman. I contemplated the evils of "Big Pasta" and its discrimination against lgbti+ people. I felt smug that I was not supporting "Big Meat" and "Big Tomato" today. I might be resentful about cooking for my family, but the consolation prize was that I was sticking it to "The Man".

Finally it was cooked. It says just 9 minutes, but I swear it took longer. I prefer it at the al dente stage, which translates to firm to the tooth. There is nothing yuckier than overcooked pasta.

The final step was to mix the pasta with the meat sauce. It turned out pretty good. As a final touch, we sprinkle a little bit of grated parmesan cheese on the top.

There is enough leftover that I can serve it to my father tomorrow at lunch. He is approaching 85 years old, but his stomach has no bottom.

Maybe I will cook again. Maybe I won't. I will keep them guessing.