Eronn’s blog

So, I know that most of you who will read this are in college and probably live off of take-out and frozen meals.  Not exactly the healthiest diet (and yes, I do it too).  So, I thought I'd offer up an easy recipe for pasta sauce that my Italian grandmother taught to my mother, and then to me.  It's simple, and best of all, it's great for freezing, so you can simply defrost and boil some pasta, and voila!  You've got a meal.

This does take awhile to cook, though, so make sure you do it on a day where you don't have plans to go out.

You Will Need:
4 large (28 oz.) cans of crushed tomatoes (Hunts or Redpack is preferred)
1 can (16 oz.) of Hunts tomato sauce
1 package of mild Italian sausage
1/2 lb. ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped

Here's What You Do:

In a large pot, brown the sausage in some olive oil.  Don't worry about cooking it all the way through, just brown it.  When that is done, take it out and set it aside.

In the same pot, cook the onion and ground beef together until the ground beef is brown and the onion is clear.  Add some salt, pepper and garlic powder.

Add the crushed tomatoes and the sauce to the pot, then add the sausage back in, and some more salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste.  Fill each of the cans of crushed tomatoes with water, then add that as well.

Stirring occasionally, let the sauce simmer for a few hours.  There is no set time, but the longer it cooks, the better it will taste.  You want it to cook long enough to lose that tomato-ey taste and smell.

When it's done, I like to have pasta that night (of course) and then freeze the rest in small containers that are good for induvidual meals.

Well, I thought I'd finally write something about my trip to Lourdes, France, since it's so easy to upload pictures here.  I took over 300 pictures, but I will only post a few so as not to bore everyone.

This is Vy and I when we first arrived at the hotel in France, after a looong plane ride.

And this is Vy, with her guide dog Missy.  Vy was a malade, which was one of the special guests of the Order of Malta (a Catholic group devoted to assisting the sick and disabled).  The malades had to ride in these carts at every event we went to, which Vy did not like.  She kept saying she could walk, and we kept telling her that most of the other malades could walk, too, but were in the carts anyways.

This is a (slightly lopsided) view of the cathedral above the grotto at Lourdes.  Actually, it might not be a cathedral.  I can't remember.  But the whole point is that it's actually not one church, but three churches in one...

...which you can see better from this view (the grotto is right behind those trees there, fyi).  The top part is one church, there's a crypt church beneath that one, and then there's also the church in front.

And here's another good view of the front.  Very pretty.

And here's the dome of the bottom church, with the hospice off in the background.  You can see one of the walkways towards the front of the shot.  They led to the upper church.

And this is a view of the street right outside our hotel.  We were less than a block away from the domaine (the area where the grotto is) but in the opposite direction.

And here's another street shot.  You can see how tiny the streets are, and how crowded it was with tourists (although I saw it a lot more crowded than that at some points).  The streets are one way, and they change direction on the 15th and last day of each month so that "everyone is happy" (according to our French bus driver).  The SUV on the right is the only one I saw in France the whole time I was there.

And this is the French countryside around Lourdes.  My camera ran out of batteries while we were on this day trip, otherwise I'd have more pictures of it.

And here we are again, getting ready to go out.  Tom (the guy to the left) was one of our volunteers that day (we had people assigned to take care of us and make sure we had everything we wanted every day), and he was great.  Told me all about his girlfriend (he's in his eighties) and how they both know they can never be married because she's divorced.

And this is a terrible picture, but it's the best I could do.  It's French Seasame Street!  Big Bird looked weird!  He was fuzzy all over instead of feathery (even on his beak and hands!) and had these weird, round ear things coming out of his head.  It was funny.

Elmo was just as annoying in French.

And here Vy is with two of our volunteers.  I loved the women's outfits - the capes, especially.  The woman on the left was really inspiring because she had been a malade the previous year (she had cancer, although I can't remember exactly what type).  She helped us convince Bob, our team leader (we were on the green team) to let Vy walk the very rocky Stations of the Cross.  He kept saying no, I don't think you can do it, and Vy kept saying yes, I can, and she insisted.  Bob made me walk on one side to guide her, and he also insisted that she bring Missy along, too.  We did fine, of course, although Missy was panting up a storm.  She's not used to that much exercise!  Every day after that, Bob would go, "What'd you do today, Vy?" and she'd go, "Oh, I walked the Stations of the Cross, Bob!"

And here is Missy's favorite spot - on Vy's pillow!  Also, you can't see it very well, but on the far right, there's an alarm clock that one of our volunteers bought us - it has a picture of the grotto scene, and it plays an awful version of Ave Maria to wake you up.

And this is right before we got on the plane to leave.  Vy is on the right, and Mary Grace is on the left.  Mary Grace was an eleven-year-old who came with her grandparents, who are members of the Order.  She sat behind us on the plane on the way there and back, and she was adorable.  Very chatty, loved Missy, was incredibly cheerful. 

The trip was just amazing.  Those of you that know me well know I'm not a very religious person now, despite having been raised (and being, for awhile) a very conservative Catholic.  But this was just a wonderful experience.  The best part for me was bathing in the grotto water.

To the right of the grotto area, they have a building that houses the baths.  Because Vy was a malade, we got to go in first.  Basically, you go in a curtained room with about five other people, and a woman volunteer (at least, in our case, because we're female, obviously) holds a sheet behind you while you get undressed, then wraps it around you when you are done.  Then, one by one they take you into the next curtained room where the bath is.  It's a very plain area, with a simple marble tub, filled with about two feet of water, with a statue of Mary at the opposite end.  The volunteers quickly take off the sheet and wrap you in another one.  A wet one, actually.  Women on either side of you take your arms and guide you into the tub, then once you get to the end, they instruct you to sit down.  Once you're sitting, they pull you back into the water, so that you're submerged up to your neck.  They pull you back up in a matter of seconds, say some prayers, and then you go back to the other room to get dressed again.

There are no towels, no way to dry yourself.  You aren't that wet because of the sheet and because you're barely in the water for so long, but it's still odd.  They also put your bra back on for you, because apparently French people think women are incapable of putting bras on themselves.

But all joking aside, it was such an amazing experience.  Something completely different from anything else I've ever done, and am ever likely to do again.  It didn't suddenly make me a different person or suddenly very religious again, but it felt peaceful and invigorating.  I can't even really describe it properly, I just know I'll remember it forever.

So yes, that was my trip to France.  It was great, and customs in both the US and France didn't even bother to look at all that paperwork we worked so hard to get for Missy.  The plane rides were long, but Missy did wonderfully, and didn't even go to the bathroom for 8+ hours!  Most importantly, though, I think Vy had an amazing time, which is really all that matters.

This is confusing...