As many of you know from reading my stream on Twitter and Face Book on Jan. 4th 2009 I was making a Special Spaghetti Sauce for my 23 year old’s Birthday. This has been a tradition for probably 16 years now. I use to just take Francis out to eat on his birthday, but with being a single mom with a very fixed income we had to stop doing that. So I decided I would just make him his favorite dinner for his Birthday, that would make it a little more special since we weren’t going out to eat.  He has chosen this dish every year, without fail for the last 16yrs. So this year, since I do have my own website I figured I would photo blog it for you all, to see how I do it, I really hope you enjoy.

Here we are at Ground Zero, these are the products that begin our Venture into the Land of Yumminess…..

We start by  taking Garlic and frying it up in a little oil. I only had jarred Garlic for this batch, but I usually use Fresh

While your frying the Garlic you’ll want to start cutting up some Green Pepper, Onion and Tomatoes like so

Then add these to the Garlic as shown here

I usually cook these for about 10 minutes before adding my Hamburger

Brown your burger until it is slightly pink in spots then add a package of Sweet Italian Sausage like this

Once you get all the meat browned add more Green Pepper, Onion and Tomatoes…..

Cook these together for about 4-5 minutes……..

Now it’s time to add my Liquids, as you can see I do use Jarred Spaghetti Sauce, mainly because of the seasonings they provide, along with cans of Tomato Sauce, Tomato Juice, Beef Broth, Tomato Paste and Stewed Tomatoes along with some Italian Seasonings

I don’t add all of these item’s at once, usually at this point I add the Spaghetti Sauce, half of the Tomato Juice, one big can of Tomato Sauce and the Italian Seasonings. Your going to notice we don’t have much room left in the pan we started with. We will start the Simmering Process in this pan though.

I let my sauce simmer for about an hour and a half on a very low heat. Stirring it about every 15 minutes to prevent sticking, it should have a darker color now and be ready to transfer into a larger pan.

I know your looking at this and thinking why add more, it is a lot, but this is a bit too thick and the longer it cooks the better the flavor. But if it stays this thick it will stick like no other. Burnt Sauce is not a Happy Sauce so on we push from this size…….

To this….

Big pan I know but it is will be filled almost to the top very soon. Now we will add the rest of our Tomato Juice,  the Stewed Tomatoes and a smaller can of Tomato Sauce, along with some Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder and Onion Salt. Let it simmer again for another hour stirring every 15 minutes like before.

Now I add my fresh Mushrooms a little more Garlic and a small amount of Onion. Your sauce is going to look like this at this point………

Your also going to want to add the Tomato Paste along with Meatballs, Italian Sausages, Chicken Breast or any type of Meat you would like to serve with your Meal at this point of the cooking process.

About a half hour before we are ready to serve the sauce I would start the water for our Pasta.  We chose Angel Hair Pasta for this meal since it’s the Birthday Boys Favorite.

And now our finished product……..

Your going to notice the sauce has a rich brown redish color and thick but not too thick texture, this sauce turned out quite lovely in my opinion

And now we Eat…..

So now the conclusion  of my blog, I am not sure how you end a blog like this except to say The meal was enjoyed by all who consumed it, even my friend Joe who is Italian told me it was very good, what better compliment is there!