♪ That's Amore ♪

Now that I am able to do a little bit more around the house, I wanted to cook a special dinner for Shannon to show him how much I appreciate all he has done for me over the last few months with all of my travel and back surgery nonsense going on.

I also wanted to try to use some of the food we had purchased from Angel Food Ministries to make the dinner with. (Click here if you would like to know more about this program. It has really helped us stretch our "food" dollars.)

After going over all of my choices, I decided to make him an Italian meal of pasta and meatballs. (Oh, how I do love meatballs!)

Sigh.

Now, please keep in mind, I am no chef. I do not even remotely pretend to be a good cook; I am just a housewife trying to do something nice for my man. Mmmkay?

So, with that being said, here is everything I used to make this meal. Well, with the exception of the secret ingredient, but we will get to that later.



The spaghetti sauce, macaroni noodles, and meatballs were all from our Angel Food Menu order last month.

Now, these next two items, you don't necessarily need to make a delicious Italian meal, but they absolutely don't hurt a thing to have. These are handmade dishes that I purchased in Positano, Italy. Sigh.



Aren't they beautiful?

Sigh.

Okay, where was I?.....

Oh yes, I was cooking. Sorry.

The first thing that I did was start opening the cans and dumping them into the pan.

Here I am dumping the spaghetti sauce, like so.



Now it's time to dump the can of petite diced tomatoes.



The last (but not least) can to be dumped in is the little can of tomato sauce.



Next up are the spices. I never measure them; I just shake the containers until I feel like I've added enough.

I started with parsley flakes; I love to have a lot of parsley. Mostly because I think it makes the sauce look prettier.



The next spice I added was garlic. I have to go easy on the garlic, because Shannon wouldn't like it if I added too much. Not that I have ever done that though. Ever.



I threw in a dash or two of basil.



Every time I add a dash or two of oregano, I try to say oregano in my best Italian accent. I love how Italians say, "oregano." Sigh.



I threw in just a dash of salt. (But let's just keep this one between you and me, okay? Shannon worries about his sodium intake.)



Although I went light on the salt, I went very heavy on the pepper. We like lots of pepper here in Crazyville.



This next ingredient is my "secret" ingredient, so I would really appreciate it if you did not tell anyone about this one. It is Sweet~n~Low, two packets to be exact. The Sweet~n~Low helps to keep the sauce from tasting too bitter.
(But remember, you never heard about this ingredient, Mmmkay?)



After I added all the spices, it was time to add the meatballs. (Oh, how I do love meatballs!) I just added them still frozen straight from the bag; they were already fully cooked and would thaw out as the sauce simmered.



I cut the bell pepper into small pieces, like so.



Then I scraped them all into the pan, and only one piece or seven fell onto the floor.



After chopping the bell pepper, I had to chop the onion up into little pieces.

*sniff*sniff*



(I only used about half of the large onion; I was trying to be romantic after all.)

*sniff*sniff*

After I was finished chopping, I scraped all of the onion onto the floor into the pan.



Once I was finished adding all of the ingredients, it was time to stir them all together.



Then I put a lid on the pan and turned the heat on low. I let it simmer, stirring occasionally for several hours.



After about an hour of simmering, since the meatballs were ginormous, I cut them into fourths. And obviously, I was very careful not to drop my knife into the boiling spaghetti sauce.



And I definitely did not get sauce all over my white tee shirt.



When it was getting close to the time that Shannon gets home from work, I boiled the water for the pasta. Once the water was boiling, I dumped the entire bag of pasta into the boiling water.



I let the pasta cook until it was "Al Dente," about 7 minutes.

When the timer went off, I drained all of the water from the pasta.



Then I dumped all of those "Al Dente" noodles into the spaghetti sauce.



And I mixed all of the ingredients together, like so.



Once I was done mixing everything together, I put some of that yummy stuff into my beautiful bowls that were handmade in Positano, Italy.

Sigh.

I then sprinkled some Parmesan cheese on top of each serving.



Followed by some freshly ground pepper.



Mmmmmmmmmmm!



With just one whiff of this delicious Italian meal, that was served up in my beautiful handmade dishes from Positano, Italy, I started dreaming of romance with my husband. I instantly got carried away with romantic visions of Lady and the Tramp.



Sigh.

And then I started to hear Dean Martin singing so softly in my ears.......

♪
In Napoli where love is King,
When boy meets girl, here's what they say:

When the moon hits your eye like a big-a pizza pie,
That's amore;
When the world seems to shine like you've had too much wine,
That's amore.

Bells will ring ting-a-ling-a-ling, ting-a-ling-a-ling
And you'll sing "Vita bella."
Hearts'll play tippi-tippi-tay, tippi-tippi-tay
Like a gay tarantella.

When the stars make you drool joost-a like pasta fazool,
That's amore;
When you dance down the street with a cloud at your feet,
You're in love;
When you walk in a dream but you know you're not dreamin', signore,
'Scusa me, but you see, back in old Napoli, that's amore.
♪

Sigh.

Of course, I can't promise you that bells will ring ting-a-ling-a-ling if you cook this meal for your husband, but the bells were definitely ting-a-ling-a-linging at my house.

I'm just saying is all. ;)

Philemon 1:6
"I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ."