I haven't done The Thrift Shop Tour for awhile, as I've been just a tad busy lately with long hours at work. But last weekend my boyfriend, Tom, and I went to one of our favorite stores -- Value World -- and I found something absolutely priceless: a generous serving bowl.

Now, this is not just any ol' bowl -- this was originally from Williams-Sonoma. Yes, indeedy, I found a bowl that would normally have cost about $100 just sitting on a shelf at the resale shop.

It admittedly has a very fine two- to three-inch crack along one side; both Tom and my son Jeremy pointed it out to me as though it were a fatal flaw ... men! They see damage, I see fabulous deal. Because you'll never guess what I paid for this bowl --

"$20?"

Nope.

"$10?"

Nope. Lower.

"$8.50?"

Uh uh. Lower.

"$5???"

Keep going.

"I give up -- you couldn't possibly have gotten it for so little!"

$2.87. That's right -- less than $3 for a huge, beautiful serving bowl! Just look how perfect it was when I made pasta a few nights later:

I don't particularly have a recipe to offer for the sauce - which was amazing, I might add! - though I can give you guidelines.

I took tomatoes from my backyard garden and cut them in half, then placed them into a greased baking dish. I drizzled them with a bit of extra-virgin olive oil, sprinkled them with salt and pepper, and roasted them at 400 degrees for 30 minutes until they were very tender. The tomatoes were then drained and placed into a blender, then pureed into a thin sauce.

I removed the casings from some sweet Italian sausage links, and browned the meat while breaking it up into small pieces. I added a chopped onion and some minced garlic, and a bit of salt and pepper. Pour in the tomato sauce, stir in a few tablespoons of tomato paste, sprinkle in some Italian seasoning, and add some chopped basil at the very end. And there you have it! A simple, nutritious, and homemade dinner, made elegant with a beautiful bowl ... it's the little things that matter ....

Mary Bilyeu has won or placed in more than 60 cooking contests and writes about her adventures in the kitchen. The phrase "You Should Only Be Happy" (written in Hebrew on the stone pictured next to the blog's title) comes from Deuteronomy 16:15 and is a wish for all her readers as they cook along with her ... may you always be happy here. Check out her blog -- Food Floozie -- in which she cooks, reviews restaurants, and generally enthuses and effuses over all things food-related. Or send an e-mail to yentamary@gmail.com.