SUMMER COOKING.. GOULASH

Summer comes early, the temperature has been up till 3 digits, 109'F was the highest, and it's still going up, I wonder how high it will be when the real summer comes.. I hate summer, and unfortunately it will last for at least 5 months.. some plants are dying because of the heat.. yesterday we had to pick all of  our spinach plants because they dried out, now we have lots of young spinach in our refrigerator, but no worry, I already had an idea what to do with it, we'll talk about it in my next post..

our homegrown spinach

Like last summer, this summer I'll be going for my summer vacation, visiting my sister and going to see my niece's ballet recital.. I'll be gone for about 5 weeks, alone.. my husband stays home to take care of his plants, it's summer, he needs to water them twice a day.. that is his excuse for not going with me, but it's okay.. everybody needs some time alone :)

Like usual, before I leave for my vacation I like to cook some meals for him, I'll put them in container, name them and freeze them... with that way I wont feel too guilty to leave him alone for quite a long time :) I know.. I know... wink2 (can't find my wink icon :))

So starting today I prepare the meals for him, I cook in big batch, for our daily meals and keep the rest frozen for his meals while I'm gone next month..

I've been wanting to eat GOULASH for a while, today I got all the ingredients I needed for it and this is the recipe I used, Bobby's Goulash by Paula Deen.. very simple, I made some changes, so it's simpler and tastier..

Ingredients

• 1 lbs of hot breakfast sausage (Jimmy dean)
• 2 hot link (Louisiana hot link), diced 
• 1 large onions, chopped
• 2 cups water
• 1 (29-ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 big tomato, diced 
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
• 3 bay leaves
• 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce 
• 1 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of black peppers 
• 1 tsp of chili sauce ( homemade)
• 2 cups dried elbow macaroni ( I used vegetable Rotini) 

Directions

In a Dutch oven, saute sausage over medium-high heat until no pink remains. add in diced hot links, Break up meat while sauteing.

Add the onions to the pot and saute until they are tender about 5 minutes.add garlic,  Add 2 cups water, along with the tomato sauce, tomatoes, Italian seasoning, bay leaves, soy sauce, chili sauce, black peppers and salt. Stir well. Place a lid on the pot and allow this to cook for 20 to 25 minutes.

Add the Rotini, stir well, return the lid to the pot, and simmer for about 20 minutes. Turn off the heat, remove the bay leaves and allow the mixture to sit about 30 minutes more before serving. oh I sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.. pasta and Parmesan sound yummy, right :)