One pot or two?

Today I am cooking for a family from the local homeschooling group who just gave birth to their 9th child. I intended to make them a lasagna, but lazy, tired, pregnant me decided a giant pot of spaghetti was a more attainable goal. I'm using my 12 qt. stockpot, which gets used about once every year or two. It's 2/3 full. That is a LOT of spaghetti!!!

Inquiring minds want to know... When you cook spaghetti, do you boil the spaghetti separately in water and then serve the marinara sauce over it? Or just cook the noodles in the marinara sauce? I was taught the first way, but my husband prefers it the second. It's also much easier/takes less time/attention. And there's one less pot to clean up. (Hey, every little bit helps!) So that's the way I'm doing it today.

Do you make your sauce from scratch, or get it from a jar or can? I prefer to make it from scratch, and did today, but I'm not above a jar if I'm pinched for time or feeling extra exhausted. We got a really good sauce with white zen in it from Costco that is my current favorite, when I'm not up to making it myself. But my tastes change a bit between pregnancy and non-pregnancy, so I may hate it in another 4 months.

Also, in case you ever wondered, I can *not* eat pasta without meat in the sauce. (It's a hormone-balancing thing, not just a personal preference.) I also prefer rice pasta over wheat. But today I'm doing wheat because it's a lot cheaper and this is a BIG pot!

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(8:09 p.m.) Correction - he was their 10th child, not 9th. And his name is Samuel. And Katie wanted to stay there and watch Calliou with his big sister and his 1.5 year old nephew.