The Cheesecake Factory

One might ask...is the Cheesecake Factory worth a 2 hour wait on a Saturday night with an energetic one year old whose bedtime is quickly approaching... This picture of my dad says it all! Of course it is!!!

My parents and sister came up to visit for the weekend to celebrate my birthday, and we had a great time!

Isn't cheesecake the most wonderful food?!

Yum Spaghetti Sauce

Note: All these measurements are approximate, except for the crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce, I usually just pour stuff in until it looks good.

1/3 c. olive oil
2-3 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. black pepper
1 sprinkle of basil
1/4 lb. ground beef
1-28 oz. can crushed tomatoes with basil
1-8 oz. can Hunt's tomato sauce with basil, oregano, and garlic

Add olive oil, garlic powder, and pepper to a saucepan and heat. Add ground beef and saute in olive oil mixture. Sprinkle in basil. Just after the beef is browned add crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce. Simmer for about 20 minutes (or longer if you want the sauce to be thicker).

And there you have it, yum spaghetti sauce! This recipe is pretty much my dad's spaghetti sauce, so I can't really take much credit for it. Also, in my family we eat rigatoni pasta with our spaghetti sauce instead of spaghetti noodles, and I am a firm believer that the type of pasta used makes a big difference so give rigatoni a try! Enjoy!

Sincerely, Very satisfied Key Bank customers

We decided to open an account at Key Bank when we moved here because of their offer for a free IPod. We did all that we were supposed to do, and Mark has been anxiously awaiting the IPod's arrival. My plan was to intercept the delivery, wrap it up for Christmas, and lie until then saying that the IPod hadn't arrived... Well, of course the day it comes Mark happens to come home from school early and finds the package at the front door! Anyway, it was an exciting to finally get it, and we are now very big fans of Key Bank!

Did someone say YUM?

As most of you know I love to cook. Tonight I made spaghetti...except it didn't turn out to be the spaghetti sauce that it usually is...it was pretty different and amazingly delicious! Hopefully I can reproduce it since I generally don't measure ingredients when I cook and this even happened by mistake. Here are a few pictures of my favorite people enjoying the yum sauce...Mark even licked his plate!