My mother's pasta Bolognese (les pâtes bolognaises de ma mère)

My son loves to sing.

But when I say “he loves to sing”, you just have to know two or three little things about it …

First, the Gnome has a baritone’s voice.
We use to say he changed at 3 years old...

He plays tennis and when he began, at 6, his tennis teacher told me once :
“Yesterday, I heard a teenager’s voice, behind a wall. Then the teenager walked to me and it was the Gnome ! Macaulay Culkin with Johnny Cash’s voice !”

For years, he didn’t know how to pitch his voice, when he used to sing. Sometimes, it was too high, sometimes too low.
So I told him to respect his tone. He had the chance to have a very male voice, he just had to respect it and to try to find the right way of using it.

Sometimes, in our life, we made mistake … but we know it too late.

Finally, my son found the right way to pitch his voice…
Now, he wakes up, singing. He makes his homework singing. He plays Wii singing. He eats singing …
And the best of the best, of course, under shower…

Is there someone who can explain to me why water falling from a shower brings this strange reaction to make a person “scream and shout” ?
He gives the full power of his voice, with tremolos, under water…

Secondly … I don’t know why, children don’t seem to have the same song saturation's level than us…
I mean, when I heard a song I love, I can hear it a two or three time in a row and that’s fine.
My son can hear his favourite song twenty times without growing tired.
And most of all… he can sing it fifty times without growing tired either …

And thirdly … Even if he seems to be talented for foreign languages (he’s got a very good English accent and speaks well Spanish), he doesn’t know lyrics of every English songs, of course.
So he does what we call in French : “to speak in a Yogurt way”.

We use this expression when someone doesn’t know to speak English (we use it only for English) and yet tries to make a sentence, with the right accent but with totally invented and wrong words.

PAY ATTENTION PLEASE : Here’s a game ! The first one who will guess what is this song that my son and my daughter sing together will win a CD of their performance ! …

Ready ?? GO !

“I've got cheeeese
they're must to ply in
And the bluuuuue
went to caall
So to ply in,
you're the baying
It's that you cry...
You better shake up
Cause I need a man
and my heart is spell on you
You better shup up
You better understand
to my heart I must be truue
double up, double up, oh baby too !...”

That's a good demonstration of “English yogurt”.

Now, I’m sure you can imagine the mixing of those different elements.

Some days, everything’s fine …
I’m not too much tired, I’m in a good mood, there’s sunshine, birds are in trees, love is in the air and blablabla … And I accept with resignation and a kind of proud his singing exercises.

And some days, less cool than others, the monster in me comes out. 
The gnome has just to begin … : 
“Don’t wake me uuuuup...”
And then, I smash down the separating wall kitchen between this room and bathroom, yelling like a T-Rex :
“SH….. UUUUUP !!!”

Generally … there’re five minutes of silence, then he does it again lower. For five other minutes. And he pushes on his personal volume button and sings again at the top of his voice.

Then I cry.
I'm an awful mother and I don’t have any authority with my children… 

SO... Why did I tell you all that ?

Just because I’m going to share with you my mother’s pasta Bolognese recipe and my mother is an expert in English !!!

My parents have a swimming pool, in French : “piscine”.

When our children were youngest, with my sisters, we used to speak in English to not be understood by them.

Years ago, in august, at the end of lunch, my mother wanted to ask us if we would authorise children to go to the swimming pool. 

So she tried in English :
“Girls ?... (one point !) We go to the piscine ?” … Which was the only word children understood.

They shouted :”YEEEEEEEESSSSS!!!”…
Our children are really talented in English !

This recipe is not the traditional bolognese recipe, but we just like it so much ! I cooked it for friends and make the ingredients double. 

But here what you'll need for 4 persons : 

• 200 grammes of ground BEEF ... nothing else.
• 500 grammes of tomato purée
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 teaspoon of dry thyme
• 1 teaspoon of oregano
• 1/2 glass of veal or chicken stock. Mine is in powder. So I mix water and powder. But if yours is liquid, just take 1/2 glass of it.
• And 500 grammes of pasta, of course.

PS : Don't forget, on my pictures, ingredients are doubled. 

Step 1 : 

I'm sure you guessed it ... Let onion become transparent with a pinch of salt, on a low fire. Then add garlic. Let them brown a little bit.

Step 2 : 

Add your meat and let it brown too.

Step 3 : 

Pour your tomato purée and chicken/veal stock. Stir all that. Don't add salt and let it simmer for 30 minutes.

Step 4 : After 30 minutes, pour the herbs. That's it.

Bon appétit !

Recapitulative for 4 persons : 

• 200 grammes of ground beef
• 500 grammes of tomato purée
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 teaspoon of dry thyme
• 1 teaspoon of oregano
• 1/2 glass of veal or chicken stock. 
• And 500 grammes of pasta.

Let onion become transparent with a pinch of salt, on a low fire. Then add garlic. Let them brown a little bit.

Add your meat and let it brown too.

Pour your tomato purée and chicken/veal stock. Stir all that. Don't add salt and let it simmer for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, pour the herbs. That's it.