The gift that keeps on giving.

I couldn't come up with a present for James for our anniversary OR Valentine's Day. He said that I could just make him a dinner. He said that he really liked my meatballs so I decided to make him some spaghetti and meatballs. With homemade spaghetti sauce. I've never made homemade spaghetti sauce.

So I searched for one that seemed good and that actually used spices. I found a few that were literally like "dump in spaghetti sauce and some crushed tomatoes. Add garlic and onions."

That was kind of scary. No basil, anything like that. So I found one that seemed like it would be good, and I knew that I would add a few more things if it needed it.

Now one thing that I hugely DISLIKE is when people don't put the sizes of things. The recipe I found didn't list the ounce size of the cans. I hate that. Thankfully, I could only find one size of the can at the store I went to and it was the bigger can, which made more sense.

So here is the recipe for the sauce. I had to add a little bit more seasonings than the original recipe because it was sadly under seasoned. And I like garlic in my sauce. Garlic rules.

2 28 oz cans crushed tomatoes (I used one regular, one with basil already added)
2 29 oz cans tomato puree
1 small can tomato paste
2-3 tbsp. olive oil
7 cloves fresh garlic
1 fresh onion
1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder
2 tsp. parsley
1 1/2 tsp. dried basil
1 1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning
1 1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 1/2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes (I don't like too much spice.)
1/2 tsp. brown sugar
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. garlic bread seasoning

In a large heated pot (about medium heat) with olive oil, add finely chopped onions. After about 2 minutes, just before they start to brown, add minced garlic. Cook until browned. Add tomato paste and mix well. Then add tomato puree and crushed tomatoes. Add in your seasonings as listed above and mix well. Cook for at least 6 hours on low heat.

Now, I added the oregano, crushed red pepper flakes, sugars and garlic bread seasoning on my own. The sugars doesn't add a whole bunch of sweetness, just a little bit. And as for the rest of the seasoning they said to only add 1/2 tsp. That was SO not enough flavor. James tried it and said "put more in". Can't say I blame him really. It helped. I just didn't put in more of the onion powder because I'm not extremely up with onion. Just garlic.

And when I am saying large pot, I mean LARGE POT. This will make a lot of sauce. After we ate dinner, I was able to fill 2 large containers for freezing so that we would have some for later.

I also made him homemade meatballs. He was so excited about that, especially it makes quite a few and he could have sandwiches the next day.

I would of taken pictures, but we ate the food too quickly. It was really good too. Can't waste food when it's hot and waiting.

So, my Valentine's day gift was a success. And when James likes something Italian, it really is a big moment.