Sauce Round 2

Scott and I decided to try to make "Grandma's Sauce", again. We made a sauce last month for his family. They liked it, but I thought it could be better. It was thin, and not as full-flavored as Grandma's. The turkey meatballs were great. When I asked Grandma for some tips she asked what kind of meat I used. I'm a little squeamish around meat and chose nice, lean, boneless pork and beef. Grandma said, "you gotta use bones". Ewwh.
Alas, I was determined to do it. I bought bone-in pork chops and ribs. I bought some gargantuan beef bone for soup, I'm going to have nightmares about that thing. I bought the meatloaf mixture - pork and beef for the meatballs. I bought beef tips for stew. This is more meat than I've bought in the last few months!
The meat browning took a hour, I need a bigger pot and had to brown in batches. There was beautiful caramelization. Scott made meatballs. I thought we had the right ingredients. I added tomato puree, which might in hindsight be too thick. Fresh basil to top it off. A low, slow cooking; I even found my old heat diffuser.
It looked like sauce, tasted like sauce, but wasn't right. John and Rose helped enjoy the meal. While we all like the sauce, it was not Grandma's. Too tomatoey and a trifle too thick.
John asked if I had a recipe. Yes indeed I do. It is not, as it turns out, complete. I've cooked with Grandma, but she adds a little of this and that. She adjusts her sauce to the type of tomato down to the size of the pot. That's passion or dedication or what cooking is like after 94 years. A modern masterpiece if you ask me.

The Idea, at lunch

Scott and I were eating on the Square on September 20, 2014. I was enjoying my brunch but was lamenting the lack of vegetables. The idea occurred to me that a restaurant, called "Veggies and Such" should exist - supplying free vegetables to anyone who ordered an entree.

I quickly acknowledged the drawbacks to such an idea but felt I was onto something else. The idea to start a restaurant with a limited menu of things that I knew how to make sounded right. My mom and grandma are amazing cooks. I've learned many of the family Italian favorites. I knew nothing about starting a restaurant but this notion sounded good. The idea stayed with me for the next few hours and morphed again.

What about an Italian restaurant like the "Spaghetti Clubs" in North Hill? Simple food, small menu. There's a reason they've lasted for over 20 years.

On the way to my mom's house I began to think of what the restaurant would be called...Mary's Italian Restaurant? The Italian Club?...No, not sounding right. Then I remembered having to answer the phone at Grandma's. Simply, "Hello, Mary's". And that sounded perfect.

Mary's restaurant idea continued to unfold during the remainder of the day. My brother, Kevin, was home completing last minute wedding details for the following weekend. While snacking over some salads I shared the Idea with mom and Kevin. I wanted to draft a menu. Within thirty minutes the three of us were laughing over memories and interrupting each other with dishes to add. Initially we started talking about Pasta, but then Kevin said, no "Ronies". Grandma always called them that. All the different shapes and sizes of ronies in Grandma's kitchen have a special place. Home-made ronies at Easter. Thin spaghetti, not angle-hair, ronies on Christmas Eve for Macaroni Olio. "Radiators" and "Sewer Pipes", shaped-ronies for dinner at Grandma's. Oh how we loved them.