johnny marzetti

Have you heard of Johnny Marzetti? I think it might be a midwestern dish, but thought I'd ask if others outside of the midwest have heard of this casserole dish that was so popular when I was growing up.

This recipe was originally created in the 1940s by the owner of Marzetti's Restaurant in downtown Columbus, Ohio and was named after his brother.

Here is the original recipe:

3 Tbs olive oil

1 large onion chopped

¾ lb mushrooms, cleaned and sliced

2 lbs lean ground beef

3 ½ cups tomato sauce

1 ½ lbs cheddar cheese, shredded

1 lb elbow macaroni, cooked and drained

In skillet, saute onion in oil until limp, about 3 minutes. Add mushrooms and fry until juices are released, about 5 minutes. Add beef and cook, stirring, breaking up clumps, until no longer red. Remove from heat and mix in tomato sauce and all but 1 cup of cheese.Transfer to two greased 11 X 14 baking dishes and add macaroni. Toss gently to mix. Scatter remaining cheese on top. Bake, uncovered, in 350° oven until browned and bubbling for 35 to 40 minutes. Serving Size - 10-12.
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Now when I made this, I changed it up a bit: for starters I don't care for mushrooms, so I left those out. Secondly, that seemed like an awful lot of onions for Gary, so I didn't put in as much. I also noticed that there were no other spices/flavoring other than the onion, so I used flavored diced tomatoes. It also made 2 pans, so I halved the recipe except for the sauce, we like it saucy (although, I could have made 2 pans...1 for dinner that night and 1 for the freezer to heat and eat later). So here's how I made it (and we thought it was pretty GOOD):

1 small onion, chopped

1 lb lean ground beef

3 ½ cups tomato sauce
1 can (15 oz) fire roasted diced toms

1 ½ lbs cheddar cheese, shredded

8 oz elbow macaroni, cooked and drained

In skillet, cook beef, stirring, breaking up clumps, until no longer red and drain. Add onions and cook for a couple more minutes. Remove from heat and mix in tomato sauce, diced fire roasted toms, and all but 2 cups of cheese.

Transfer to greased/sprayed 9 x 13 baking dish and add macaroni. Toss gently to mix. Scatter remaining cheese on top. Bake, uncovered, in 350° oven for 35 to 40 minutes or until browned and bubbling.  Yummeee!  I hope you like it too.  :)

catching up

This post used to be titled, "okay, enough snow already"...but I waited so long to add the pictures that the snow is now completely melted and long gone!  I procrastinated so long that the season has changed!
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We got some pretty serious snowfall here over the weekend (in February).  We shoveled and shoveled like crazy.  Sore arms, shoulders, backs.  G's parents told us we could borrow their snowblower, but the snow was initially predicted to be around 4-6", maybe even 8", maybe mixed with rain, maybe this, maybe that, blah, blah, blah.  Nah, we didn't need their snowblower, we could handle 6" of snow.  Well, it kept snowing and snowing and it we got about 16" or so.

As usual, Michael enjoyed playing in the snow.  Scooting, hopping, lying in the snow, making snoring sounds, scooping up snow and letting it fall, and having so much fun.

The snow was so deep that when he was scooting through the yard on his hands and knees, his arms would sink so far down into the snow that his face was almost buried.

I was surprised his mittens stayed on throughout it all - those are usually the first to go.  This time it was one of his boots that decided to be pesky and kept coming off.

The city plows came down our street, but plowed only enough for one lane.  Today, the bus was slip-sliding around on the snow plow drifts in the road.  (BTW, Michael is 51" tall...so that kind of gives you an idea how tall the snow is in this picture.)

There's more snow coming Tuesday and Wednesday that is supposed to bring another 6-9".






































Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal except that I am supposed to leave for Seattle on Wednesday afternoon (gotta get outta this snow!).  Fingers are crossed that I still get to have my little weekend getaway (updated to say that I did make it out of Columbus for my trip, but had to spend the night in Chicago on the way home because the Columbus airport got snowed in-stupid snow).