When dinner plans go wrong... eat red macaroni!

The past 2 days have been so hot that even I have been uncomfortable. Everyone knows that any time Marte Cliff says she's too warm, it's really hot and everyone else is not just warm, but roasted. I take a lot of teasing any time I utter those words. Meanwhile, everyone else freely whines about the heat.

Yesterday was up to 97 and by night we had far off thunder and sheet lightening in the sky... So today a storm blew in.

It was hot and muggy all day, with thunder rumblings and the skies getting darker and the wind stronger as the afternoon wore on. By 5 o'clock it felt pretty good to be outside puttering with the garden and picking the first strawberries. So we stayed out for quite a while.

Before we went outside, we put a little roast in the oven, and about a half hour before dinner time I came in to check on it - and found the oven cold! It seems the lightning caused a little power bump and it turned off the oven, along with "un-setting" the digital clocks.

Hamburger to the rescue! Just to make it more interesting, we added chopped onions and shredded carrots, and then simmered the cooked burgers in a combination of beef broth and mushroom steak sauce. Along with spinach, "red macaroni," and cantaloupe for dessert, it turned into a good dinner.

Our red macaroni is a version of what my Grandmother used to call "Slip and go easy." I could eat it until I burst when I was a little kid, and I still make a pig of myself on it.

You start with frying a handful of chopped onion along with a couple of strips of bacon, cut into small pieces, then add a can of tomato sauce and/or a can of tomatoes, and salt, pepper, and garlic to suit your taste. Dump in some cooked macaroni, and that's it.

May your oven always stay lit!

Marte