Spaghetti sauce is the boss

I'm not a great cook. I'm a slightly decent cook, though I'd say my forte is baking. But, I have a few foolproof dinner recipes up my sleeve, thanks to my momma. My mom is the guru when it comes to yummy meals, and thankfully she has shared some of her secrets with me. When I first moved away from home my mom emailed me a few of her signature recipes, one of them being her spaghetti sauce. I made it a couple times, then lost the recipe and email, so I just started making my own via what I could remember. I did that for a few years and then this Christmas my mom gave my sister and I the secrets to life, aka a cook book of her recipes she makes, including her almighty spaghetti sauce. Turns out I was pretty close! I still make my version of her spaghetti, although Brendon (by himself!) made her recipe a few weeks ago and they taste almost identical. Like mother, like daughter.

So here is my version of my momma's spaghetti sauce recipe. You need:

- Tablespoon of butter
- 1lb of ground beef
- About half a cup of wine or beer
- Salt and pepper
- Garlic powder
- Onion powder
- 16oz can of tomato sauce
- 16oz can of Italian seasoned diced tomatoes
- 6oz can of tomato paste
- Few cloves of garlic
- A tablespoon or so of sugar
- About a tablespoon or so of various Italian seasonings dried or fresh (I use whatever I have on hand, this last time was dried thyme, oregano, fresh basil, and a couple of bay leaves) - really you can use whatever you like!

First I melt the butter in a big ol' pot over medium heat, then add the ground beef. I break it up so it's into the smallest pieces possible, as this is meat sauce, not meatballs (although you can totally do this whole thing with meatballs, I've tried and it's delicious, just a little more work). Then I season the ground beef with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. I pour about half a cup of beer or wine in too. Then I cook the beef until it's browned.

Next I throw in the canned tomato goodies and season up my sauce with all the other ingredients (including another round of garlic and onion powder, salt, and pepper, about a tablespoon of each). I just kind of wing it and season it to taste, I never use measurements, which is why I'm saying "about" a lot. 

Once everything is mixed in I bring it to a boil then turn it down to super low, so it's just barely simmering. Then I let that nonsense cook for a couple hours. The longer the better. I check on it every now and then to make sure it isn't getting too hot. It will go from looking like this:

To this swampy deliciousness:

And you've got some boss sauce!

This stuff is unbeatable in my book. Throw it on some noodles and enjoy. Or do whatever you want with it! We made my moms lasagna recipe this past week with a batch and it was pretty phenomenal. I've been loving the leftovers. You can also totally freeze half for later. It's amazing stuff. Mad kudos to my momma for teaching me well.