Fast and Easy = Grigsley Koogsley, aka Johnny Marzetti (and other stuff)

Fast and Easy

I had another migraine yesterday. I get them when the barometric pressure changes drastically, and it dropped lots yesterday. I had to survive it without brownies. My husband was in charge of dinner, which was Chef Boyardee ravioli. O.K. Chef Boyardee makes me feel younger, as it was a staple of my childhood. But it is also soft and a little flavorless. To say the least.


Where did this man get his culinary degree? I can tell you one thing - when Chef Gordon Ramsey found out his noodles weren't al dente he would have ground him into a soft roux and made an extremely tasty jambalaya out of him.

Remember, I am post-migraine. I am goofed up on pain medication. Continue this post at your own risk.

So getting back on topic, the mushy ravioli got me thinking: there have to be good tasting recipes out there that are super easy to make AND kid friendly. Easy enough to make when I am only partially with the earth. Or for my husband. I thought of one and I will share it with you.

Grigsley Koogsley (aka Johnny Marzetti)

My dad is from Youngstown, Ohio, very close to Pennsylvania Dutch country. Up there, Johnny Marzetti is Grigsley Koogsley. It's a better name, I think. So that's what I call it. My daughter has taken to calling it goulash and does not care that goulash is actually a Hungarian/German/etc stew. She likes that name. What I will tell you is that with the relative simplicity of this dish it is well loved by my family. The leftovers taste even better.

Before we begin, I have to give a diclaimer. I learned this recipe from my grandmother who had been cooking it since the Depression. It has no spaghetti sauce in it. You don't bake it. It is most likely very different than you are used to. But it is so good. So good.

You will need:

Macaroni noodles
1 lb. of ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1 or 2 cans of diced tomatoes
garlic salt
Italian seasons of your choosing
salt

Prepare the macaroni noodles as directed. Make as much as you think your family will eat.

Add the ground beef and onion to a large skillet and thoroughly cook the ground beef.

I usually add the seasonings here. This is all highly subjective and can be done according to your family's tastes. If you like things bland, don't add a lot of seasoning. If you like things very savory, add to your taste. You could add an Italian seasoning mix, or just oregeno or basil. Just remember that this is the step that takes the dish from ho-hum to delish.

Add tomatoes to the meat mixture. let he mixture come to a boil to cook off some of the liquid. My grandfather liked his grigsley koogsley juicy so there wasn't a lot of boiling to be done. I like it drier, so I boil until it gets a little thicker.

Add noodles to the sauce. Mix well. Eat up!


With summer approaching, one could certainly use fresh tomatoes. Just remember to par boil them and remove the skin.

Fa, Fa, Fa, Fa Fashion!

Regular readers know that I love fashion. When I am wearing my perfectly respectable Target maxi dress, I make believe that I am wearing Etro in Capri and that my 32 oz. mug from Riverside Hospital is actually the most glorious sangria I've ever tasted. I also pretend that I am a Food Network star when I am cooking. Yes, I have an active alternate imaginary world. And I am a little insane.

But I digress. The process of designing clothes is fascinating to me. I came upon this wonderful site by Kathryn Elyse Rodgers who is an apparel design apprentice in Boston, MA. She does the most amazing fashion illustrations and publishes them on her blog paper fashion.



Also in the fashion realm is Tokyo Street Style which features the amazing, sometimes outlandish, and always inventive underground street fashions in Tokyo. FYI - the site is in Japanese, but if you click on the pics, you can get better looks at the outfits. Check out the various "cliques" in the fashion culture of Tokyo.