Spaghetti Sauce

Today's high temperature was: 61

Rainy in the a.m.

Bad storms rolled through--quite a bit of damage with 75 mph winds--all safe here.

Now--40 mph consistent winds with 50 mph gusts.

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This is how the spaghetti sauce recipe reads.  I got it in 1978 from my dear little 4'11" Italian friend, Francine.

In large stock pot

Brown:

2 # ground beef

3 Hot Italian sausage links--Johnsonville

          (slit skin, peel off and make small meatballs out of sausage.)

Add:

1 medium onion chopped

1 green pepper chopped

2 garlic buds, diced

Cook with meats until tender

Add: 

2 quarts diced tomatoes

1 quart tomato sauce

48 oz. tomato juice

2 Tbls. Oregano

2 Tbls. Sweet basil

2 Tbls. Italian seasoning

2 Tbls. Garlic powder

¾ cup granulated sugar

(Can add 1 can mushrooms)

Cover and simmer for hours and hours J stirring occasionally—about 5 hours

Uncover and simmer to thicken.

Can be frozen in quart freezer bags

Make about 6-7 quarts of sauce

Use for all Italian dishes

Makes a nice chunky sauce that is out of this world!!!!!

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First: Put on your long, bib apron to keep red, staining, tomato stuff off your clothes.

 Then get out your favorite stock pot.  This is the one I bought last year just for this project (and making chili) because this Farber Ware will not stick and burn!!

I sometimes start with a bit of olive oil, but usually there is enough grease from the ground beef .

The Johnsonville HOT Italian Sausage Links are not HOT--I make it into small meatballs and everyone loves coming across one while eating the sauce.

After I get everything all in the pot, I have a special "simmer" burner on the back right of the stove and that is where I let is simmer--for about five hours.

I uncover it and throw in 4 of these capsules, to break up the fat.

Let it simmer, uncovered to thicken--I don't know how long--you will know when it is ready.

Then, I put the pot in my sink to cool and so I won't make a mess when I transfer it over into the quart Zip Lock baggies.

Using my handy-dandy wide mouth funnel and ladle, I put the

sauce into the quart freezer bags--about 5 scoops full.

Put them in freezer.  Later, I will take a gallon zip lock freezer bag, label it with their name, and put two quart bags into it.  Even Pammie gets some this year :-)

If there is any small amount left over, I usually just use it and have spaghetti the next day for myself.

The nice part is, when it is re-warmed, it is even a bit thicker.

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Friday, I paid $40 to get this job done.

Then the bad storms were predicted, so I went out, moved the bags over to the east side of the drive and parked my car next to them to protect from the south-west gales.  If the gales tip over my car, it will pin the bags nicely to the drive and they won't blow onto my neighbor's yard :-).

Man--it is roaring out there right now!!!