Beef Pasta Dish

I was trying to figure out what to call tonight's dinner.  I first goulash but I looked up the definition of that and it said that to be called goulash it paprika would be used, well I didn't use any paprika so I just went with beef pasta dish.

Beef Pasta Dish
1/2 package elbow macaroni, cooked and drained
1 pound ground beef sausage (this is what we used which comes from a local source Mountain Run Farm, but you can use just ground beef)
1 onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 large clove of garlic, pressed
1 can diced tomatoes
1 jar of homemade tomato sauce 
A small amount of tomato paste (see note below)
Dried oregano
Dried basil
Brushetta Herb mix
Salt and Pepper
In a large skillet, add a little bit of olive oil and heat skillet to medium high.  Add onion and cook until soft, add garlic.  Add beef and break into small pieces as it cooks.  Add bell pepper and tomato sauce.  Cook until beef is cooked through.  Add diced tomatoes with juice and a small amount of tomato paste.  Mix all ingredients together.  Add herbs (I used a couple of pinches of each but it will be really up to your taste) and stir.  Add cooked macaroni to meat mixture and stir. Serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Note:  When using a can of tomato paste, (usually you only use a tablespoon or two) I freeze the leftovers into a small snack sized ziploc bag.  Mash tomato paste so that it is flat in the bag, place in freezer.  The tomato paste won't stick to the inside of the bag once frozen, you will be able to remove it from the freezer and using a sharp knife cut off a section that you will need to cook with, place the bag back in freezer to use for next time.  That way you have no waste.

Baked Spaghetti

I want to start off by saying that my mind works in interesting ways.  I came home from work and was trying to figure out what I wanted to make for dinner.  The first thing that came to my mind was macaroni and cheese.  Well I didn't have the cheese I needed and I didn't want to run out to the store, it was pouring down rain and it was a little chilly.  So the first thing I did was I went to the freezer to see what I wanted to make (figuring that this would give me some ideas).  With it being cool and rainy out I was in the mood for comfort food, which is why I think my mind went to mac and cheese.  I grabbed a package of beef sausage.  It is ground so it makes it easy to break apart as you cook it in a skillet.  The sausage has some spices to it which make it very nice.  We get it from Mountain Run Farm, who sells grass-fed beef.  So as I decided on the sausage I then thought okay I will make spaghetti, and then as my mind continued to process what I was thinking I then thought, ah ha, I know what I will make.  I will make baked spaghetti.  Here is what I did.

I made my own spaghetti sauce (I usually don't have jarred sauce in the house) to use for this dish. Here is what you will need:
1 28 ounce can of chunky tomato sauce
1/2 half can tomato paste
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon parsley
1 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
salt and pepper
1/2 cup romano cheese, grated
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
The above spices are an estimate.  Place everything into a saucepan and heat.  Stir occasionally and keep covered.  Cook until heated through.   Meanwhile cook the sausage until done.  Add to cooked sausage to sauce mixture.  Cook 1 package of spaghetti, cook according to package.  Preheat oven to 400 degree Fahrenheit.  Take a casserole dish and brush it with olive oil.  Add half of the cooked spaghetti to the bottom of the casserole dish, add half of the sauce and half of the cheese.  Then add the next layer finishing with the rest of the cheese on top.  Place in oven and bake for about 30 minutes or until it is just starting to brown.

Also had a side salad to go with dinner.  It was from a bag of greens that we bought at the market portion of the Land and Table event last night.  We also bought a container of Honey Lemon Lavender Chevre (goat cheese) last night from Spring Mill Farm.  I took the greens, washed them and placed them in a bowl added the cheese, topped it with a little drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a light splash of red wine vinegar.  Topped with a sprinkle of fresh ground pepper.