I'm back, pork stew and all

I hope to be back anyway. I'm home with my new baby for the next 5 months and I really, really want to cook more. We had a couple recent endeavors...

Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce, Martha Stewart Favorite Comfort Food
Rating: great

Easily adaptable, simple spaghetti with a simple sauce. Jar sauce is good, but also thick, sweet and sometimes overwhelming. This sauce makes the most of a small list of ingredients like extra virgin olive oil, garlic and red pepper flakes. Use high quality stuff. We particularly love our buttery L'ESTORNELL organic EV olive oil (you can order through Williams Sonoma).

Caribbean Pork Stew, Best Recipes of the Great Food Companies
Rating: ok

Bland. Not much else to tell. Potentially doctored with sweet n sour sauce, soy sauce, pineapple, curry, or some other typical Asian/tropical flavor.

Griddle Cakes (aka pancakes), Juniors!
Rating: great

Our new favorite pancake recipe that doesn't use buttermilk.