Tales from a Saucy Wench

This week was a little challenging, food-wise. Last weekend, N and I both got sick. Thankfully, I didn’t get as sick as she did, so I didn’t have as far to recover.

Since her tummy was touchy and her appetite sparse, we were kind of limited to what sounded good to her. So we had grocery store fried chicken and boxed mac and cheese a couple of nights. G loved it. :o) And guiltily, so did I.

But finally, mid-week, she decided that spaghetti sounded good. So I decided to break out the family red sauce recipe, but make it in the crock put instead.

Now, before you get too excited, my family is not Italian. This is not a from scratch kind of recipe. This is a middle-American, doctored up kind of recipe. Which makes it great for the crock pot!

The Family Sauce Recipe
(or at least one version of it)

1 jar spaghetti sauce (Dad always used Ragu. This time I used Barilla Tomato & Basil)
1 14-oz can tomato sauce
a few dashes garlic powder
a few dashes onion powder
a small palm-ful of Italian seasoning (about ½ - 1 tsp)
1 lb ground beef, browned and drained of fat

Put all that in a crock pot; set it on low and let it cook till you come home. Boil one pound of spaghetti according to the package directions. Serve with grated parmesan cheese (lots! And from a can, of course).

Okay, so the ‘original recipe’ just gets simmered for an hour or two on the stove. But that was in the days when I started the sauce when I got home from school at 2 in the afternoon and dinner wasn’t until 5 or 6pm.

Other versions used a couple of small cans of tomato sauce plus a can of tomato paste. Usually there was a pint or so of ‘starter’ in the freezer (leftovers from the last time we had spaghetti) which, once thawed, dictated what we would add to the mix. There were also occasions where the protein addition was bulk pork sausage.

This time, since I’d seen several recipes for spaghetti sauce in my crock pot cookbooks, I decided, why not give this a shot?

And you know what? It turned out pretty good. I also added a package of Lawry’s spaghetti sauce seasoning mix, which I won’t do next time. The sauce was a little too salty for my taste and I think the packet was to blame.

But otherwise the sauce was rich, dark and flavorful.

And it was gone in two nights. We both have our appetites back now! :o)

Next time I want to add some red, orange, and/or yellow bell peppers and a good splash or three of red wine. And maybe some of my rosemary olive oil.

There was only one thing missing from dinner to make it perfect. Okay, really two things. A glass of red wine (all we have in the house is Pinot Grigio. It’s tasty, but not that exciting with a red sauce) and a big hunk of garlic bread to sop up the sauce.

Ah…memories.