Married! And eating a ton!

So, nothing much has changed since being married. I can't believe it's already been almost 2 weeks! All we've been doing is making trips to the DMV to change my name, Social Security Offices to change my name, Post Office for my Passport name change, Banks to change my name. Fun =) We've also been cooking a lot too. Sam's rice is almost always sitting in the fridge waiting to be reheated and eaten. We made a slightly different version of Amy's Cincinnati Chili, which turned out a bit closer to Skyline, though it is still missing something. We'll figure it out one of these weekends. Funny story... (or kinda gross, up to you to decide) Saturday night, after we were done working, we went to Real Chili for our midnight dinner. Woke up, drove to Joe and Megans for the Packer game, and I consumed multiple servings of their Cincinnati Chili, Drove back home, began making our own pot of Chili, and ate multiple bowls the next day when we woke up. I survived on nothing but chili for many many meals. I stopped there, but I think Dan has grabbed a few containers from the freezer and eaten 3-ways about 5 more times. We made some Lasagna last night, and made our own meat sauce for it. Which was awesome! I'd rather spend the 2 and a half hours making my own spaghetti sauce than ever buying from a store again. While preparing the 5 different cheeses for our lasagna, Dan sliced into his thumb and nail.. get this.. using a huge butcher knife to "shred" the softest hunk of ricotta cheese ever. I kinda yelled at him for being an idiot and not using a "cheese grater" then I felt bad about it, seeing he hurt himself. Then he was bragging about how he was getting too cocky with it, using it like chefs do on Iron Chef, so I got mad and yelled at him again for thinking he could cut as fast as Morimoto. Then I finished the lasagna by myself, not allowing him near the kitchen. Here's the meat sauce recipe if you ever wanna try it out...

You'll need :
2 tbsp. Olive Oil
2/3 lb. Ground Beef
1/3 lb. Ground Pork
2 c. Onions (finely chopped)
1/2 c. Celery (finely chopped)
1/2 c. Carrots (finely chopped)
2 tbsp. Garlic (finely chopped)
28 oz. Chopped Tomatoes (about two 14 oz. cans)
6 oz. Can Tomato Paste
4 c. Beef Broth
2 Sprigs Fresh Thyme
2 Bay Leaves
2 tsp. Dried Oregano
2 tsp. Dried Basil
1 tsp. Crushed Red Pepper
2 oz. Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese
Salt & Pepper To Taste

In a large saucepan over Medium heat, add the Oil. In a mixing bowl, combine both Meats together, and season with salt and pepper. When oil is hot, add the Meat and brown. Add Onions, Celery, and Carrots. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until veggies are soft. Add Garlic and Chopped Tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Continue to cook for about 5 minutes. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the Tomato Paste and Beef Broth, then pour into saucepan. Add the Herbs and mix well. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat back to Medium and simmer for about 2 hours. Stir occasionally and add more beef broth if liquid is needed. During the last 30 minutes of cooking, reseason with salt and pepper and stir in the Cheese. Remove from heat and let sit for 15 minutes.

So that is the recipe. What I changed up a little bit last night was adding some more garlic (I used about half of a garlic bulb), used both the fresh thyme and added more dry thyme, threw in a bunch of fresh chopped basil, and a little extra crushed red pepper. I think the next time I do this, I will use a cup less fo the beef broth, as it turned out a little too watery to use with spaghetti, but it was fine for the lasagna. I don't know how much the cheese did for taste, I think it was mainly a thinckening agent, you could use anything else if you wanted, but man was that sauce good =)