spaghetti sauce-1spaghetti noodles 4 by 4spaghetti sauce-5

I have mentioned on my about me Page about my Dad’s Spaghetti Sauce and how good it is. And not that I have tried plenty of other homemade spaghetti meat sauces to compare with (I have only eaten his version), but still believe me, will you please, when I say its really good. My dad hardly ever gets in the kitchen, probably because my mother is an excellent cook, but when he does, he does a darn good job of it.

My dad is in the Indian Air Force and when I was in first grade he came to the US for a course. After he completed the course my dad took some time off so that we could travel around US and also visit my mom’s brother in Canada. Now in Canada they release this annual Milk Calendar, where they feature recipes which are “ready in 45 minutes or less, include at least 1 cup of milk, and meet the recommendations of Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating”. My mom, being the avid cook she is, flicked many Milk calendars from her brother’s house. And the recipes from these calendars made way into our home. The spaghetti sauce recipe I am sharing today is one of them.

I do not know how it got to be that my dad started cooking this recipe from the Milk Calendar. I don’t remember him cooking anything before he started making this spaghetti sauce. Like I said, he hardly ever entered the kitchen to cook. But somehow he decided to try this recipe out on his own. And then from that day onwards this recipe was his thing. If I remember correctly my mom made the same sauce once, but I think I told her that Papa makes it better. I know, I was a mean kid to my mom. :/

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Mexican Pasta Salad

A cloudy and windy Saturday (Sadly, no rains though)

A walk to the theatre to see Man of Steel (which I enjoyed watching)

A lazy Sunday spent meal planning and grocery shopping (my first time doing a meal plan for the week)

And, eating this mexican pasta salad for lunch today. All of this and more made it a weekend well spent. 🙂

The first time I made this easy pasta salad was for my coffee group friends and everyone enjoyed it. In fact it got my friends’ kids’ approval as well, and one of them is only 15 months old. And I think anything that gets a kid’s approval is a recipe to keep. Just make sure you reduce the spice to make the recipe more kid friendly.

mexican pasta-3

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fluffy pancakes-7

A while back (and I am sorry to the person who asked this because it’s been quite a while back), someone asked me for a good recipe for pancakes. The simple kinds. Easy to make, and great to taste.

Since V is not that crazy about pancakes, they are never made in our house. In fact, during the first month or so of our marriage I remember bringing one of the boxed mixes home. I made them once, but realized later that V is not a fan of pancakes, and that box sat in our kitchen pantry cupboard till it expired, never to be used again and finally thrown after a year of passing its expiry date.

I, on the other hand do like pancakes.

I have grown up on pancakes.

Almost every weekend, my brother and I would request my mom to make pancakes for us. She generally used box mix, but sometimes made them from scratch too. Along with the pancakes, on the table would be maple syrup that my grandmother would get from Canada every time she came to visit us in India, but I always preferred the lemon syrup that my mom made from scratch.

And that’s how I remember pancakes. My mom serving them hot with a good serving of butter and the lemon syrup drizzled on top. Oh sooooo good.

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