I Woke Up Like This

I sure did, with the world's biggest top knot, a baggy Gap hoodie circa 1999 and some fuzzy socks. Friday is finally here and I couldn't be happier. All of this snow makes the week go by even slower. Being cooped up in the house for a few days is never fun. I think I've got some hardcore cabin fever, so I am looking forward to getting out and celebrating our friend's 30th birthday on Saturday night. She is throwing a Gatsby themed party and I would be lying to you all if I told you I wouldn't be hanging by the champagne bar all night. It should be a fun time and I'm super excited to see their newly renovated home too. How life has changed. My weekends used to consist of planning my outfit for Friday and Saturday nights, preparing a pregame playlist and heading out with girlfriends to the newest and trendiest bar. Now, its 30th birthday parties, meeting our friend's babies and visitng friend's new homes, all very good stuff I might add.

I kicked off my morning with checking in on work emails, a 10 a.m. conference call, two cups of coffee and a vanilla blueberry Kind bar. I usually like to cook something for breakfast since I work from home and I have no excuse, but sometimes a Kind bar is easy enough to grab and is super filling. I have a ton of magazines to get through this weekend as well. My mom always saves up all of her old issues and passes them my way. They also inspire me to cook something new for the following week. Whether it be Southern cooking or a low calorie recipe, I do get lots of inspiration from reading magazines, and working in the publishing industry I have to support my fellow magazines out there. Maybe its just me, but there is nothing like holding a piece of reading material in your hand. Whether it be a paperback, magazine, newspaper, piece of snail-mail, its the best feeling to be able to grab it, get it messy, fold a page over, tear out stories or pictures for inspiration. Things that can't be done with reading content electronically. Anyways, before I continue on my rant about why magazines are AWESOME ;) I'm going to share my recipe for my grandma V's simple marinara sauce pronounced mad-i-nada in our house. For all of you jarred sauce people out there, this is as basic as they come and I promise you will never use premade sauce again. I know to some the thought of attempting a Sunday sauce with meat scares you, so we're starting off small. 

Ingredients:

-canned tomato sauce (I prefer Tuttorosso)
-canned crushed tomatoes (you can add these or leave out for the simple sauce)
-small onion
-fresh garlic
-olive oil
-salt
-pepper
-oregano

Directions:

Drizzle olive oil in a large sauce pot. On a low flame, brown about 3-4 cloves of minced garlic and 1 small onion or 1/2 of a large one. Make sure to watch your garlic and onions, you do not want them to burn. Slowly stir and let saute for a couple of minutes. Once your garlic and onions are soft and have a nice brown to them, add your cans of tomato sauce. Since I typically make a large pot of sauce and freeze the leftovers, I am going to use 3-4 cans of the Tuttorosso tomatoes. I typically add about a half a can to a can of water if I also add the crushed tomatoes to make sure the sauce isn't too thick or chunky. I then add my salt, pepper and a bit of oregano. Partially cover with lid and let cook for about an hour. Make sure to continuously stir so the bottom does not burn, there is nothing worse than a burnt sauce.

And voila, its as simple as that. I will have the full post later this weekend. What do you all have planned for the weekend? What are your simple recipes that may be intimidating to other cooks?