Bumbling Through Domesticity: Homemade Junk Food, Pretty Delicious II

HC and I have been pretty busy with the boys gone, and as you may have gathered, part of our business has been in the kitchen.

One of our several homemade junkfood tasks was Spaghetti O's. In terms of a review, HC loves them and is working through the several tons that our recipe produced. I think they're alright, but taste a lot like the canned version, which, while it was our inspiration, isn't exactly one of my favorite foods (excluding that week about a month ago when Chef Boyardee was all I could think about. I blame pregnancy hormones).

Below you'll find the original recipe, but then if you read the process you can see that I ended up making quite a few additions for flavor.

HOMEMADE SPAGHETTI O'S

6 cups canned tomato sauce
3-4 cups water
2-3 teaspoons garlic powder (depending on how garlicky you like it)
1 lb bag anelletti (ring shaped pasta- you could use any small pasta- alphabet or stars would be fun!)
1-1 1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (fresh shredded is best!)
1/4-1/2 cup milk
2 tbs butter
salt, to taste

1. Combine tomato sauce, water and garlic powder in a large pot. Bring to a boil.
2. When the tomato mixture is boiling, add the pasta to the pot. Cook, stirring frequently (the pasta is tiny, so it's easy to stick to the bottom) for about 20 minutes, or until the pasta is soft.
3. Stir in cheese until melted. Add milk, butter and salt to taste.

Okay, first, I can't abide raw garlic in my kitchen right now (again, I blame hormones), so I used a couple shakes of McCormick's Garlic Powder. Word to the wise: that stuff is potent. A little goes a loooong way.

Secondly, once those little pasta rings start softening, you have to watch them carefully:

See how they all stack up on the edge? They're suicidal little suckers. They'll leap right off. You have to keep knocking them back into the pot. Animating pasta with suicidal screeches when they drop on the hot burner, optional.

This is me stirring the cheese.

I ended up adding extra, because I wanted a little more kick. Following the recipe exactly, they really do turn out a lot like the can (although I had to add quite a bit of salt). For those of us who want to kick it up a notch, try the following: onion powder, chili powder, basil, ground black pepper, and possibly even some Tabasco.