Spaghetti with Creamy Mushroom, Beef, & Balsamic Sauce

Spaghetti with Creamy Mushroom, Beef, & Balsamic Sauce ~ Spaghetti covered in a creamy sauce of mushrooms, ground beef, tomatoes with a hint of balsamic.I started collecting recipes at around age eleven.  I don’t know if there were any cookbooks in my mom’s house, I honestly can’t remember.  But one Sunday after reading the comics, I started clipping coupons and noticed there were recipes in some of the ads/coupons. I begun cutting out any recipe that looked even remotely decent to my unsophisticated palate.  I still have some of these recipes today.  There are a staggering amount of recipes that require a can of cream of this or that.  Please, don’t get me wrong; some of my most favorite recipes call for several cream of cans.  They are part of the long list of comfort foods.  But I am happy to say my palate has evolved beyond the condensed cream of cans.

I still clip recipes, but now I have fifteen print magazine subscriptions, online newsletters, and so many more things to clip from. My single envelope to hold these recipes has grown into over a dozen three-ring binders completely organized like any cookbook would be.Why do I share this with you?  Well this recipe is one of those that once upon a time I clipped, put in my notebook, cooked, adapted, and have made my own.  I have been making this recipe for several years now, but I knew that it was a recipe that I had once clipped.  The task was formidable. I needed to find the clipped recipe and hope some kind of evidence existed to indicate where I had taken it from so I can properly cite my source.  As a person who has been in education and academia, there is nothing worse than plagiarism.

When I located the recipe in one of my notebooks, I, of course, had eliminated all evidence of where it was from.  I cut so closely around just the recipe.  But, luckily, I have been reading the same magazines for years to recognize their particular fonts and layout.  I took to the internet to verify my guess and I was right, this was taken from Real Simple Magazine.  Their recipe is delicious, but since I can’t just follow directions, I have altered it over the years and mine is delicious too. Enjoy.