We've started a tradition in the house of having Family Dinner on Sunday nights, as a sort of bonding thing, and making sure we all manage to get together once a week, and to reduce some expenses. We cycle through the four adults, each taking a turn at making something for everyone.
Yesterday was my turn, and I decided to start out fairly easy: Spaghetti and meatballs, with salad & garlic toast. Made the sauce ("gravy" for the pretentiously Italian-American) from scratch using the one "family recipe" I ever learned. At the last minute, though, I realized I only had the edited version from when I was on the
Tsa-lung diet (no garlic, no onions, basicaly cooking for one) following my third
Palyul retreat, so I had to call Mom for some help remembering ratios. She, of course, didn't have it handy, but at least we managed to come up with some ballpark figures from which I could guesstimate.
Surprisingly, despite the 11th-hour prep and the lack of practice-this is the first time I've cooked anything complicated enough to need a recipe in over a year-it turned out rather well. Got plenty of compliments, nearly everone wanted seconds, and there were virtually no left-overs apart from another serving or two of sauce, which will be handy when next I have time to cook for me.
Nicest of all: the cook doesn't clean. :)