Tomayto, Tomahto

Once again with more tomatoes to use, I came to the decision that we'd have spaghetti with homemade sauce for dinner tonight. I always have an abundance of ground beef in the freezer. I HOPED I'd have everything onhand for spaghetti sauce from scratch.

Whenever I want to make a basic "something" and don't have a recipe to which I am faithful, it is becoming my habit to turn to The Basics and More, a cookbook that BFF Rebecca gave me. It has recipes that everybody should have, basic bread, pound cake, buttercream frosting, cinnamon rolls, and, thankfully, spaghetti sauce.

I cannot tell you how thrilled I am with this recipe! It's sweet and spicy. My family thought it was a bit too spicy, and I even left out some of the called for spicy ingredients. I'm all too pleased to pass this on. Here's the basic recipe, though it makes a ton - it's meant for canning - so I reduced it tonight and left out the Tabasco and hot peppers. (And it was STILL too hot. Can you imagine!?)

Spaghetti Sauce II
11 qts. thick tomato juice
6 cloves of garlic
6 medium onions
1 c. parsley, chopped
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. salt
3 T oregano
A few bay leaves, optional
2 T basil
1 t. red pepper
2 t. chili powder
1/2 to 1 T Tabasco
1/4 c. olive oil, optional
A few hot peppers, optional
1/2 clear jell (I found I didn't need this. It cooked down to be thick enough on its own. - DBC)

"Put juice in big heavy saucepan. Save some to put in blender with onions, cloves and parsley to shop. When chopped, add to juice and add spices and simmer 4 hours or until thick. Put into jars and process" - Rachel Ramer, Goshen, IN