Spaghetti Sauce Is the Same Thing as Love

There's a saying in my house.  Okay.  So it's a saying I say, though I'm not sure anyone else does.  "Caramel cake is love."  That's because, every single year of my life, my grandmother--we called her Bopum--made me a caramel cake for my birthday.  When she missed my birthday in 2008 because I lived in Georgia, she made me one for Easter.  In fact, that was the one time she let me help, and it's one of the last things we did together before she died suddenly a few weeks later.  (That's her with my daughter in the picture.  She'd just flown in for what would be her final visit with us, though we didn't know it at the time. Can you tell they loved each other?)

Well, my grandmother-of-German-ancestry had one other favorite dish.  Spaghetti.  Yep.  She could rock a spaghetti sauce like no one else. I used to sneak into the kitchen while that pot was on an all-day simmer, eat a bowl full, then clean up like she had no idea what I was doing.  (She did. She always knew what I was doing.)

When I sat down to write my novel Quilted by Christmas, my Bopum showed up on the pages in the form of Jemma.  Yep.  Caramel cake, spaghetti, and all.  And today, I'm sharing her spaghetti recipe with you.  Simple as it is, I have never been able to get it to taste the same as she did. Wonder why?

Bopum's Not-so-secret Spaghetti Sauce

1/2 to 1 pound ground beef

1 package Lawry's spaghetti seasoning (there's the secret. It must be that brand!)

2 8-oz cans tomato sauce

1 16-oz can tomato paste

1 can diced tomatoes, undrained

1 large can sliced mushrooms

small onion, diced

1/2 green bell pepper, diced

3 tomato paste cans of water, pluse 2 sauce cans of water

dash of garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and oregano to taste

Brown beef and drain.  Saute' green pepper and onion 'til tender.  Add remaining ingredients and simmer on low for no less than two hours.  Longer is better.

And there you have it.  Now that I'm sitting here, I think I may need to make a pot.  Along with some caramel cake.

How about you?  Are there any favorite family recipes you're willing to share?

Jodie Bailey is the author of several Love Inspired novels, including a novella in Holiday Defenders, releasing in October. Her contemporary romance, Quilted by Christmas, also releases in October. She currently lives in North Carolina, in her grandmother's house, and her desk sits in the exact same place as her grandmother's sewing table. She has not yet mastered caramel cake... or spaghetti sauce.