Spaghetti Sauce and a fruit sauce suggestion

Okay. Time to start another blog with a least one recipe in it. I'm currently on the treadmill I don't have the access to my personal hand written cook book, so I'm going to have to wing it.

This is one of my favorite all-time recipes for one of my favorite all-time foods. Yes folks, spaghetti. As far back as I can remember spaghetti was something I could eat for lunch and for supper. It could be worse. I could have wanted to eat it for breakfast, but I'm not that far gone. I was always happy in school when some form of spaghetti, like American chop suey, was on the menu. All in all, in more than 40 years I've never gotten sick of eating spaghetti or some similar meal. As much as I adore Thai and Chinese food, none of it has the same staying power as Italian food with tomato sauce. I have to specify the tomato sauce, because the cheese sauces aren't nearly as good, a least to me.

When I was pregnant, my stomach was a bit touchy. I had really liked eating burritos. There were some spectacular ones you could get at the Lexington market in Baltimore. With my first pregnancy, all my pregnancy tests came up negative. I couldn't figure out why I was feeling nauseated all the time. I was also eating a lot of burritos. It didn't take long for my subconscious to connect the burritos with the nausea, though they were just guilty by association, and there was no causal relationship. Somehow logic just doesn't enter into it. Spaghetti on the other hand, seemed to go down just fine. I think it might have been the high carb load associated with the pasta. Remember, I was also heavily engaged in residency at the time, so I didn't have a lot of time for cooking. I could make spaghetti with meat sauce standing up with my eyes shut, half asleep. By the time I gave birth to Eric, I calculated that he was approximately 50% spaghetti. When I was pregnant with Marc, I was working at the Harbor Light Wall at a walk-in clinic that had a PapaGino's nearby. Marc came out approximately 40% PapaGino spaghetti with meatballs. Tara had a pretty high percent of PapaGino as well.

As with all the other recipes, this particular one underwent several transformations over the years. Initially, I liked it lumpy with chunks of vegetables in it. Sadly, young children aren't very fond of lumps. The idea of the peppers and onions was bad enough, but you would have thought the mushrooms were alien invaders. I was a bit stumped at first, because I really like the taste of the extra vegetables, and I knew they added to the nutrition of the dish. So here's the major lesson that I learned about feeding children: if they can't see it they don't know it's there. This is my explanation for the puréed nature of this sauce. For those of us who are mature enough to appreciate lumps in their food, you can just chop the vegetables and sauté them without having to turn them into mush.

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

1 pound hamburger, lean
1 medium onion.
1 bell pepper.
1 package fresh mushrooms, (small package).
Two to three cloves garlic, minced.
Dried basil.
McCormick Italian seasoning.
One package Splenda.
Salt to taste.
Crushed red pepper (optional, can use dried Scotch Bonnet here ).
28 ounce can of tomato purée.
14 ounce can tomato paste.

Put a large saucepan, or sauté pan, on the stove top and set at medium-low. When the pan is heated, add the hamburger and sauté. Stir occasionally as it cooks. In between, put your medium onion, your seeded pepper and your mushrooms into your food processor. Process very fine. When the meat is browned, add the vegetables and sauté as well until they are wilted. Add garlic, basil, Italian seasoning blend on salt and crushed pepper. Feel free to add as much basil and Italian seasoning as you would like. Personally, I like to add a lot. Add the tomato purée and paste, and as muc go to sleep h water as it needs to get the sauce to the right consistency. Simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes. Serve over pasta.

It's time for me to go and get ready for work. I'm going to have to post this. One final thought and food suggestion. If you take 100% chocolate from Lindt and chop it up finally, you could toss it in with your fruit sauce. This is pretty good on top of ice cream, but it makes an excellent dessert just by itself. Sort of like dark chocolate covered raisins, but not as chewy. And yes, Eric, I am sending you a bar of dark chocolate. Or two.