Father's Day feast

I live in a house of spaghetti-a-holics.

Seriously. I'm not kidding.

If it were up to the boys (all 3 of them), we could have spaghetti several times a week. Some pasta substitutions are allowable, sometimes even requested.


The plan for Sunday morning was to walk up the street to the local Farm Boy and purchase the ground beef and celery I needed to make a large pot of pasta sauce, the all day, slow cooked kind of sauce. The kids and I were slightly over ambitious though as the store did not open until 9am, and we were ready to shop at 8:40am. Oh well.

"Maybe I"ll make penne tonight instead of spaghetti with meat sauce."

"Penne?"

"Yes, penne. Tube noodles with the tomatoes and garlic and chillies. Parmesan cheese. That kind."

"Yohoo! That's my favorite! I love penne!"

That from my oldest child. The child who requests spaghetti at every special meal he has.

It's your birthday tomorrow, what would you like for dinner? Spaghetti. Congratulations on your taekwon-do promotion, what would you like for dinner? Spaghetti. End of school, you finished kindergarten, what would you like for dinner. Spaghetti. Soccer tournament tomorrow, what should I make you for dinner? Spaghetti.

I guess I can stop asking the question.

All around this change in menu was approved up by all the pasta-a-holics, both big and little.

I have to mention, this is one of the items off a small list that my husband will actually cook. He can cook when he wants to but claims that he doesn't because I enjoy it too much and I'm so much better at it.

A very simple sauce, topping penne noodles, rigate only because other kinds of penne are too small. A bit of olive oil, sauted garlic slices, chilli peppers, canned, diced tomatoes. Basic, simple, very tasty. Extra chillies on the side for those who like more heat in their pasta, freshly grated parmesan cheese for those of us who like our cheese.

But to make up for a simple, though much enjoyed, dinner, I followed up with a not so simple dessert. Key Lime squares, courtesy of Cooks Illustrated magazine.

I think my husband was happy to see me finally making a recipe from this magazine. He got it for me for Christmas, and anxiously waited as I read the first issue, waiting to see if I liked it.

"It was highly recommended."

"Hmmmmm" (I was busy reading.) "Okay these people are wierd."

"Wierd?"

"Yes, wierd. They just made over 100 meatloafs in their quest to make the perfect meatloaf."

Final conclusion from me? "Interesting. I can see making the occassional thing from them, but I'd hate to have to cook for any of them! And the letter from the editor has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with food!"

Still, while the boys are pasta-a-holics, I am probably a cookbook/magazine-a-holic. Combines two of my favorite things - cooking and reading. The stack of cookbooks on the floor beside my bed is probably a symptom of something, not sure what, but something.


But Key Lime squares just screamed out at me. Oh he'll love these. Heck, we'll all love these!

They were fairly easy to make, alot of cooling time. Unusual base for a square - instead of the usual graham cracker crust, it was animal crackers instead. (I think that contributes to my feeling that these testers are a bit wierd and I would not want to cook for them. Who doesn't like a graham crust?)

Despite that, the last two squares went into my husband's lunch box this morning and I'm sure if I were to offer to make them again any time soon, no one would complain. (Actually, while writing this, the youngest just came up behind me and said, "We ate those! They're all gone! We need more.")

For those who subscribe to Cooks Illustrated and decide to make this recipe, you'll note that I skipped the optional toasted coconut topping. While I like coconut, these squares did not seem like the right place for it.

In the end both dinner and dessert were a success. I hope it made for a good Father's Day feast for my husband.

Happy Father's day.