Personal Victories

Alright, so I'm going to talk about what I made for dinner last night. It is a complete bastardization of a recipe out of a cookbook but I think it's gone off track enough to give it here.

Cook as much spaghetti as you think you'll need for how many people you're serving. Once it's done, drain it and return the spaghetti to its pot.
Meanwhile, brown up as much ground beef as you think you'll be needing. You could probably use chopped up or ground chicken if you like, but I used ground beef.
Season the beef as you like, I used chili powder and ground coriander.
Drain the beef and add to the pasta.
Then add some drained canned corn or some frozen corn that has been thawed.
Now add the sauce. What is the sauce? It's salsa. Add salsa to make it as saucy as you like and stir in the pot over low to medium-ish heat until heated through.
Serve and sprinkle with shredded or crumbled cheese. (I used cheddar.)

It's simple, quick, relatively cheap, and really really tasty. It's good cold the next day, too. You can add other bits to it to taste. The original recipe calls for olives (which I don't like) and maybe cilantro (which I didn't have on hand) but I like it just fine as I made it. DH added some hot sauce to his.

So what is it about this simple dinner that's a personal victory? Well here's an embarrassing tidbit: Food lover that I am, it scares me senseless to handle raw meat. I had one of those mothers who after prepping meat for cooking, washed and bleached not only the cutting board but the whole counter, too, and God help her if it wasn't extra well done (read: to the texture of something akin to saw dust) because then she would be obliged to remind us of how we were stupidly risking food poisoning and horrible illness. I might be exaggerating, but that's definitely the impression we got when we were younger. It left me with a very deep seated (side note: is the expression "deep seeded" or "deep seated?" Really, they both make sense.) fear of raw meat. I was sure if I handled it I wouldn't cook it or clean up properly and I'd make everyone around me ill.

A few years ago I took a cooking class to learn basic kitchen technique and this included clean up, so I knew what was actually necessary and what was overkill. Still uncomfortable. I deboned a chicken at home once and cleaned up under DH's watchful eye. Felt sick for days and not from the chicken.
Handling raw meat is something I can do now, but it isn't easy and I usually avoid it. Even what I do have to, I keep DH around to give a second opinion as a safety.

So if you haven't figured out the victory yet, look at the recipe. Ground beef. Raw meat.

I prepped this meal all on my own and it was ready when hubby got home from work. I did it alone and I'm definitely proud.

Personal victories rock.