Chopped Beef Mounds with Noodles Women's Day June 1951 (FAIL!)

The beautiful cover of the June 1951 issue of Woman's Day.  

This should have been a success.  Beef and noodles were in the title.  My girls could live on pasta alone and my men could live on beef.  So what went wrong?  Following are the actual quotes I jotted down as everyone came to the table:

"Wow!  It looks like poooooop!!!!!!!!"

"What's wrong with the pasta?"

"Mom… I just don't think I can do this."

"Why does it smell like meatloaf?"

After a little encouragement begging I got everyone to try it.  And then I got to enjoy this:

"It tastes better than it looks.  I think it nom nom nom…" (The blessed child's mouth was too full to make out the rest.)

"Ok, I tried it.  Now can you make me a pb and j?  Pleeeeeeeeese???"

"Sorry, mom.  I just can't eat anymore."  (This was after one bite followed by what I hope was fake gagging.)

"What kind of meat is this??"  

I got one thumbs up and I liked it so I'm posting the recipe despite it being a "fail".  (It's a "fail" if not everyone likes it.)  Just be forewarned that if you don't like meatloaf you may want to skip it.

Here's the original recipe:

I doubled the recipe so here's what mine looked like:

1 15.5 ounce can of Tomato Sauce
1 LB Ground Beef
1/3C Italian Seasoned Bread Crumbs (I'm thinking It could have used more- like 1/2C)
1/2C Hot Water
Dash of Cayenne
1t Garlic Powder
Dash of salt
1 16 ounce package of corkscrew pasta
(I forgot the parsley!)

Preheat oven to 400.

Mix the ground beef with the tomato sauce.  (This is gross.  Use a spoon and just keep mixing it until the beef looks like really thick beanless chili.)  Then measure the hot water in a large measuring cup.  Add bread crumbs and seasonings.  (This will also look gross.  A bit like baby vomit.)  Mix well and add to the beef mixture.  Mix until it's all uniformly together.  It will be loose like… oh never mind.  I'll leave the analogy to you.

Spray a large baking sheet with cooking spray.  Using a large spoon or ice cream scoop spoon the mixture into 6 or 8 "mounds" on the baking sheet.  Bake in the oven about 30 minutes until done.

Make the pasta according to the package directions.

When "mounds" are done remove and place on a plate.  Tent with foil to keep warm.  Spoon the drained pasta onto the baking sheet and stir to pick up all the yummy drippings and greasy bits.  Keep moving the pasta around on the sheet until it's well coated.

Serve "mounds" on top of pasta.  Top with chopped parsley if you wish.  (I bought fresh and forgot to use it!!  I wonder if it would have made a difference to my table mates?)

Here's the finished product:

Make at your own risk!  ;)

Sarah