Parts of the Whole

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

**Crazy Cooking Challenge!!* Spaghetti-oooooooooooooo!

I realize that I missed last month's Crazy Cooking Challenge. And I realize that it's been two months since my last post. I also realize that in those two months, I haven't posted because the only things to come to mind were overwhelming negative, pessimistic and/or boring. So I stayed away. While I still have a good reserve of the overwhelmingly negative, pessimistic and boring, I am also in a much better place and which means I will try and keep that other stuff to a minimum. Now for the challenge.

This month was spaghetti. Regular ol' spaghetti with red sauce. In other words, this month's challenge was ridiculously hard because a) there are only so many ways you can make red sauce and b) none of them are original. Well I mean they are but I like to look at this little competition as a way to grow my cooking laurels (if they can be grown at all). I found lots of butter sauce recipes that I'm now dying to try and a couple that called for pasta other than spaghetti. Finally, I came across Natalie at Oven Love and her recipe for Homemade Spaghetti-O's. Perfect. Husband and I recently ventured to the grocery store (together! I know, shocking) and picked up some of his favorite childhood food.

Now I would like it be known that I HATE Spaghetti-O's. Hate them. They are disgustingly overcooked pasta o's in sickingly gross tomato sauce. The thought of them makes me gag. And everywhere I went as a kid, there they were. I had friends who liked them with hot dogs added in. There were the (rare) babysitting clients who insisted upon them and nothing else (I mean I offered up grilled cheese and mac and cheese and still that canned pasta won). When Husband's feeling especially hungry, I will look up from my book to find him eating them. Straight. Out. Of. The. Can. Talk about birth control.

You can imagine my delight when I came across Natalie's recipe, which would hopefully put an end to my days of tin can torment. This recipe came out pretty well. Unfortunately, I didn't have any tomato sauce on hand so I used spaghetti sauce, which next time I will run through the food processor because the first words out of Husband's mouth were, "I don't like tomato chunks." No $%#^%. I didn't realize it had chunks until after I dumped it in the pot. Now get out my kitchen before you end up wearing it. I also used spaghetti noodles broken in half, so it wasn't quite as soupy as one would expect. The flavor was really good, though, and I will try this again with all the right ingredients. Hopefully.

Boil bubble toil and trouble. Literally trouble. Red sauce all over my clean stove top.

The cheese and milk lighten up the color.

This is my bowl...after I had eaten half. My bad!
So there you have it. Remember, if you've come to this post via the Facebook page or you subscribe to it, make sure you click on the picture of this recipe below (#60), so that your click counts. Happy reading!


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16 comments:

  1. Bwahahahahaha! My boyfriend eats Spaghetti-o's out of the can, cold, just slurping 'em up. Gross. I'm glad I'm not alone in my disgust!!!
    #29

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    Replies
    1. It's really bad when I buy the family sized cans. I have to leave the room.

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  2. I am so in agreement with you over spaghetti-o's. My hubby ate them growing up, and my MIL gave them to my kids when they were little. I can't imagine how anyone could actually like those mushy things... like finding a water-logged noodle and dipping it in canned tomato soup. Gross!!

    I hope you'll stop by and visit my CCC - #75 Spaghetti Pie

    :)
    ButterYum

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  3. I too hate spaghetti-o's but hey love your recipe! Thanks for sharing!

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  4. This really interests me overcoming the yucky spaghetti O can!

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    Replies
    1. I highly recommend it. I also recommend not using regular spaghetti. I'd be curious to try this using fun shaped pasta, like the ones that come in disney characters or what not.

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  5. I loooooove spaghettios! I can't wait to try this one out!

    Hope you had as much fun this month as I did!

    #47

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    Replies
    1. It was a little difficult but in the end I found a winner.

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  6. omg, I hate spaghetti-o but I love you and your style, so glad you made it this month for the CCC!

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  7. Even the smell of spaghetti-os makes me ill, so much better pasta made at home.

    If you haven't already, I'd love for you to check out my CCC entry: Tomato Sauce with Onion & Butter.

    Lisa~~
    Cook Lisa Cook

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    Replies
    1. I feel like they taste the way the smell-slightly metallic.

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  8. All of my kids loved the stuff growing up, and I still have a 14 yo daughter at home who asks for it regularly. Thanks for bringing this recipe to my attention, maybe I can finally stop them from bringing those cans of O's into the house. :)

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