Spaghetti in Sussex, A Little Magic and Doing The Numbers
Spaghetti is a universally loved food by all ages isn’t it?
If this statement speaks to you, you will love today’s quick, easy and scrumptious Sussex Spaghetti recipe. Perfect for those nights when you are out of energy and time and the hounds (aka children, teenagers, partners) are nipping and yipping at your heels.
And what are your thoughts about the older kids in the household paying board? Some whingeing in my house initiated a little exercise that was very enlightening indeed. This activity helped enormously and took me just an hour.
Would love to hear if you try it and whether it shut down the ‘unfairness of it all’ complaints……
Lastly, don’t forget that the best days go the fastest and eating well will help you keep up!
Something to Think About
“Life is a combination of magic and pasta.” – Federico Fellini
Something to Make
Sussex Spaghetti
Some of you may have watched the new series, With Love, Meghan. I know that some of you will be fans and others will not, but it was a super easy relaxing watch on a Saturday afternoon with one of my girls. The Duchess whipped up an all in one pan spaghetti, which looked delicious and super easy. I modified the recipe a bit, made a new name, served it up to the family and it was a total HIT.
Could not recommend this more.
Ingredients (serves 4)
5 garlic cloves, chopped roughly
3 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
2-3 shortcut bacon rashers, chopped (omit if vegetarian)
1/2 cup chopped or sliced sun-dried tomatoes (plus a little oil from the jar)
375g (3/4 x 500g packet) dried spaghetti
Handful of finely grated fresh parmesan
Handful of fresh basil leaves, torn
Several large handfuls of baby spinach
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock + 2 cups boiling water
Method
- Heat a large deep frypan and pour in a little of the sun-dried tomato oil.
- Add the fresh and sun-dried tomatoes, garlic and bacon (if you are using).
- Stir-fry for 5 minutes (maximum) and then spread the uncooked spaghetti on top of the mixture, until flattish.
- Pour over the stock and the water and place lid on the frypan.
- Cook for 10 minutes on medium heat and then gently move the spaghetti a little in the pan but don’t be tempted to stir. Test if spaghetti is mostly cooked.
- Gently fold in the spinach, parmesan, basil and a little more water if needed and cook for a further 5 minutes.
- Make sure the spaghetti is coated with the sauce and serve out with a salad.
Once you have tried this one, you might like to check out my Pesto Pasta too.
Something to Do
Over the past couple of years there has been discussion with our kids about the concept of paying board. For the brief moment I stayed at home after high school, I paid board (too much in my opinion, sorry Mum xxxxxxxx).
One daughter took the gap year (s) option and has just started uni. She paid board for the last year of the past two but now has a board break while studying. Another daughter has just begun grown-up work in her degree qualified field, and commenced paying board a few weeks ago. Third child is embarking upon a gap year after finishing school last year, so paying board will cross his path later in the year.
My husband and I agreed that these children of ours needed to be either working or studying after leaving high school. If working, then a small financial contribution needed to be made each week. We discussed this with them all. We agreed on $100 per week on a full-time salary and pro-rata on part time work.
Immediate complaints went like this. “Mum, I don’t mind paying SOMETHING but that is a LOT.” If you are an adult dealing with the daily cost of living right now, you will agree that $100 per week is merely scratching the surface.
This discussion could have gone back and forth indefinitely but then I thought, where is the concrete data? I printed out three months worth of bank statements and highlighted groceries, all the utilities, streaming services and the internet. I averaged all the numbers across the 3 months, adjusted for the bills that only come quarterly or annually and arrived at the cost per person per week to live in this house.
Well, without giving any personal data away, let’s just say that $100 per week is most definitely a drop in the ocean. I then presented this carefully calculated data and asked the boarders which amount they would prefer. End of complaints!
This was such a good exercise to do for budget purposes. We used to do this regularly but life gets busy and these routines drop away don’t they?
What are your thoughts about paying board? Got any complaints for your own parents??
