Honest Scrap | Not Just Something That Rhymes With It

A real nice person has passed this Honest Scrap Award on to me. This is a real privilege and I have not taken for granted.

So, get off your pork butt and Google it. You'll find that it is real!

You'll may also find that before you can become the great person you want to be, that you must help others to become the great person they want to be!

Anyway, the person that passed this on to me didn't have to pass it on to me..."She's there"! She already has a fantastic food blog and lots of followers.

But, wouldn't it be a super thing on your part to take a few minutes out of your busy day to visit her! Her site is: Weave A Thousand Flavors. You just might learn something about good food!!!!

Now, it's not enough just to grab this award, there are conditions and obligations in receiving it:
a) I must brag about it.

b) Display the badge on my blog and link to the one who tagged me to prove that I didn't tag myself (how pathetic that would be!)

c) Share 10 things about myself.

d) Pass the award to other fellow bloggers by visiting their site.

So, 10 honest things about me:

1. I'm retired, and a househusband and I work at trying to be a good one
2. Spent four years living with foster parents and five years in an orphanage
3. Many years playing drums in jazz groups
4. Gave up the drums and now play keyboard strictly for enjoyment
5. Made sixteen different trips to the Far East while I was in the Marine Corps
6. Use to race cars
7. My favorite food and restaurant is Italian
8. Although, I grill and barbecue a lot I never use BBQ sauce
9. My favorite chef is George Hirsch
10. Maybe just the oldest food blogger going (well into my 70’s)

The bottom line is: Do you know three folks you would like to pass this award onto? Sure you do! You just have to get off your pork butt!

Marinara Sauce Recipe For The Motivated

This recipe for my homemade Marinara sauce (technically a meat sauce, Marinara has no meat) has evolved over 35 years. Ok, I’m sharing. But, most folks won’t bother with it because it takes a little work.

Work meaning: It's not a ten minute meal recipe. Lot of stuff goes into it. Everything is cooked and spiced separately. You’ll be at it for awhile.

There are no tomatoes in this Marinara recipe because they have a tendency to water the sauce up. I prefer a thick, thick sauce. There are black olives in it?? There are mild peppers in it. It is somewhat spicy as recipes go. I spice it up more to get rid of a bland tomato sauce taste than to make it rip roaring hot.

• Extra-Virgin Olive oil
• One very large onion (finely chopped)
• Four gloves of garlic (minced)
• One whole red, yellow or orange pepper (diced)
• Two pounds of mild or hot Italian sausage
• Two pounds of hamburger
• Any kind of pasta
• Pound or more of fresh mushrooms
• Four 29 oz cans of tomato sauce
• One 6 oz can of black pitted olives
• New Mexico Ground Chili Pepper
• Chef Paul Prudommes’s Pizza & Pasta Magic
• Italian Seasoning
• Parmesan cheese (use good stuff)

Get yourself a large stockpot or sauce pan. I have an 8 ½ quart pot I use. It is more of a big sauce pan than a stock pot. We are quick to freeze recipes that we can’t eat over a couple of days.

Put 4 tbsp of the olive oil into the pot. Add the finely chopped onion and minced garlic. Cook until caramelized.

Add diced red, orange or yellow pepper (cored and seeded). Cook an additional 2-3 minutes. These peppers give your sauce a slight sweetness.

The easy way is to throw all the meat into the pot and cook it along with the onions and other ingredients. I cook both the hamburger and sausage separately, not together. Add any quality spice to the hamburger, drain both.

In the meanwhile, slice mushrooms. Cook the mushrooms in a separate pan with olive oil. Saute until golden brown. Drain and set aside.

Add the tomato sauce to the main pot, along with the cooked hamburger, sausage and mushrooms. Slice up the olives into three parts and add to the pot.

Next, add Italian Seasoning to taste. Be careful, it can be overpowering, so sprinkle lightly….it takes awhile for it to blend in. I like to add a couple of teaspoons of red chili pepper, along with a teaspoon or more of Prudommes’s Pizza & Pasta Magic.

Really there is no need to simmer the sauce. I never serve it on the same day that it is made….let all the flavors mingle overnight.

Cook the pasta to your preference. Add the sauce and sprinkle with Parmesan.

This marinara sauce recipe freezes real well and you can serve it up for quite a spell after you initially make it. We not only use this marinara sauce recipe on pasta, we use it for omelets and Italian-style sandwiches.

Enjoy! Like my favorite chef and friend, George Hirsch would say, “Know your fire!”

I don’t ask that you send me 100K for my BBQ and cooking tips. But, hey, it's OK if you do! It really helps with the bills. If not, please check out my sponsors and ads....it helps keep up the blog and my fragile spirit! Thank you, it’s appreciated! Please see bottom of page for Product Disclosure and Privacy Disclosure. “Semper Fi” To All Marines!