The Kitchen Wiring is Done So Let?s Make Marinara Sauce!

(Originally posted on Monday, August 2, 2004 by Tim)

We still have a bit of reconstruction to do, but we have finished all the wiring in the kitchen. The ceiling fan is now controlled by a switch rather than a pull cord. Huzzah! We were able to wire the ceiling fan without conduit by using the drop ceiling and the molding where the tile meets the wall. The molding is almost 2 inches wide so we pulled it down (slightly challenging) and punched a 1 inch hole in the ceiling and in the wall in the under the molding space.

It turns out that kitchens are circuit hogs. To meet code, you need to have two small appliance circuits in the kitchen that do not share with anything else. In addition, we have a floor outlet circuit, a light fixture circuit, a dishwasher circuit, and a stove circuit. The stove circuit eats two slots in the breaker box bringing us to a grand total of seven circuits for the kitchen.

We actually didn?t make marinara sauce tonight, but I?ve been meaning to post my recipe. I think it?s my own original recipe that I made up in graduate school. However, in graduate school, I compulsively followed recipes to the letter. I actually did very little, if any experimenting with cooking then and would refuse make a meal if I was missing an ingredient. Needless to say, it seems a bit out of character that I would have made up a marinara sauce recipe, but that is how I remember it. If I adapted it from someone else?s recipe, la la la la la la I can?t hear you.

Marinara Sauce
1 can diced tomatoes (28 oz)
1 can tomato paste (6 oz)
1 can tomato soup
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 tablespoon dried oregano
½ tablespoon red pepper flakes

Mix all ingredients together in a saucepan and stir frequently over medium heat for 15-20 minutes. Cathy had commented that this sauce gets more flavorful with sitting in the refrigerator and I agree. It might be better to heat it over very low heat for a couple of hours. I seem to remember Mom and Grandma cooking marinara sauce for a very long time and that might be the trick. If so, this could be a great crock pot recipe. It could be set up in the morning and acquire flavor over the day?s work. I serve this with rotini because I find the twists in the pasta hold the sauce quite nicely. In addition, rotini are just the right size to eat with chopsticks.