Saturday's Dinner

Baked Ziti and a green salad! Very NOM! MomJean liked it too!

But before I made the Ziti, I needed to make my tomato sauce:



KECKY'S BASIC TOMATO SAUCE

2 tablespoons olive oil
¼ cup minced shallots
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 large cans peeled, whole tomatoes (I squeeze the tomatoes through my hand to break them up a bit)
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
2 bay leaves
½ cup red wine
2 tablespoons honey
Kosher/sea salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. When warm, add the shallots and cook until translucent, 2 to 3 minutes, add the garlic and cook another minute, until softened.

Add the tomatoes, increase the heat to high and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Add the thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, wine and honey. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring from time to time until the sauce has thickened so much you can almost stand a wooden spoon upright in it, about 1-1/2 hours. You will hear the bubbling as it thickens, indicating it is almost ready.

To finish, reduce the heat to low, and simmer, stirring until the desired thickness. Be careful not to burn the sauce.

Taste, and add salt and pepper as desired. Puree or leave chunky, which ever you prefer. Cool and store up to 5 days in the refrigerator or freeze.

Now for the Ziti:

KECKY'S ALMOST FAMOUS BAKED ZITI

INGREDIENTS
1 pound dry ziti pasta
1 onion, chopped
1 pound Italian sausage (I mix ½ lb spicy and ½ lb mild)
2 (26 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce (or homemade)
6 ounces provolone cheese, sliced
1 cups sour cream
1 cup ricotta
2-3 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add ziti pasta, and cook until al dente, about 8 minutes; drain.

In a large skillet, brown onion and ground beef over medium heat. Add spaghetti sauce, and simmer 15 minutes.

Mix the sour cream and ricotta cheese together until smooth.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9x13 inch baking dish. Layer as follows: ½ of the ziti, ½ provolone cheese, ½ sour cream/ricotta mixture and ½ of the sauce mixture. Repeat. Top with grated Parmesan cheese.

Bake for 30 minutes or until bubbly and cheeses are melted.

The only thing I did different with this recipe was I sliced a zuchini very thin and added it as a layer to the ziti.

So yesterday was a rest day for the everyone at Kasa Kecky. After we took MomJean's rental car to the airport, we hit Mollie Stones for some fud and then drove into Pacifica and let Jax-The-Cheese-Connesewer run on the beach; then it was time for lunch. Friend and member of the family, Laurie had told me about El Toro Loco in Pacific Manor. It's a Peruvian/Mexican restaurant. She recommended the veggie burrito. NOM NOM NOM! Poppy had the Ceviche Mixto and MomJean had the Black Bean and Shrimp Burrito. We also shared a Peruvian Tamale that was to die for! We rolled out of there and headed back to Kasa Kecky.

Someone is very happy to have her Poppy home!



Let's talk about last night...I went to bed and left Poppy and MomJean watching Frida. After Poppy came to bed, our little Roger started running around the bedroom. At one point I think she tried to climb up the curtains. So I turned on the light to find her hunting a very large moth...yeah, Mothera! Poppy goes out to the living room and comes back with the current issue of Time Magazine. Yeah, this is the one with the Afghan girl with no nose on the front. Anyway, I'm thinking if Poppy hits Mothera, there's going to be a big dusty, bloody mess to clean up. We try with no luck to catch the elusive Mothera, give up and turn the light off. We do this two more times without success and now it's after 2:00am!!! Of course, Roger thinks this is the next best thing since cat nip! I got up this morning to find that bastard Mothera sitting on the curtain. I catch him but he's not moving. I take him outside and he flies out of my hand. Mothera lives another day!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.