I’ve always worked. In my family, when you turned 16 you got a
job. However, up until I was about 15 ½
I thought when you turned 16, you got a car.
Nobody told me until then that the car would also require a job! It didn’t take me long to realize that if
you want something, like gas to put in your car, you had to work for it. I continued to work all through school. My early jobs while in high school and
college were as a bookkeeper, a receptionist, a student ambassador for my
college, a fashion show coordinator for the local mall and a “prep assistant”
for the college food science classes. I
wasn’t even a food science major. Isn’t
that interesting how life comes full circle sometimes?
These days, my jobs include planning weddings and events,
writing a blog, selecting/tasting/adapting recipes and speaking about food and
entertaining. I’ve had some interesting
jobs along the way but I’ve got to tell you about one of my favorites that
wasn’t really a paying job. It was an
internship.
In graduate school, I had the opportunity to work at an
advertising agency based out of St. Louis.
One of my assignments was to handle the print advertising for upcoming
concerts. Remember, this was 1981 before
the techno age hit and things were still being mailed, printed and hand
delivered. One day my boss came in and
told me my new client was on the phone.
I picked up the phone and imagine my surprise when I heard, “Hi
Crevolyn. This is John Denver.” Well, this job just got better. We talked regularly over the course of the
next few months. He was warm, engaging
and kind. The day came when my portion
of the job was coming to an end. John
made one last call and when I answered, he immediately started singing … “you
fill up my senses, like a night in the forest, like the mountains in
springtime, like a walk in the rain” (from “Annie’s Song”) then very graciously
thanked me for all of my work on his behalf. What a great gift I received that day. That alone was payment enough! I’ll never forget it.
My Daddy always said “a little hard work never hurt
anyone.” I’ll venture to say that most
folks feel a great sense of accomplishment after a job well done. So let’s get in the kitchen, make this Baked
Spaghetti and reap the benefits of some good work. This is one of our family’s favorites.
Baked Spaghetti
Ingredients:
1 ½ pounds lean ground meat
2 (24 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce
8 ounces uncooked angel hair pasta
1 ½ cups grated cheddar cheese
1 ½ cups grated Monterey Jack cheese
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Crumble ground meat in a
saucepan. Cook until no pink remains;
drain off the fat. Combine ground meat
and spaghetti sauce. Simmer together
about 20 minutes. While the sauce
simmers, cook the pasta according to the package directions. Combine the
cheeses into one bowl. Cover the bottom of a 9x13-inch pan with a third of the
sauce. Add a layer of pasta, then add a
cup of cheese; repeat the layers, ending with the last third of the sauce. Bake for 30 minutes. Top with the remaining cup
of cheese, return to the oven and continue to cook until the cheese is melted
and bubbly. Cut into squares and serve.
