This is the recipe I’ve perfected to my taste buds. I like it, I hope you will as well if you try it 🙂

1. Cook ground beef thoroughly in large pot on medium heat. While that is cooking, saute onions & mushrooms in a medium sized pan that has been sprayed with cooking oil (medium heat). Once done, add to ground beef (beef will be cooked at this point). Add jar of spaghetti sauce. Pour wine into jar and shake to get all the sauce left over inside. Pour into pot.

2. Saute celery, green peppers, carrots for 2 minutes. Add garlic and cook for an additional 30 seconds to a minute. Add all to pot with sauce mix.

3. Add basil, oregano, pepper, wine, & ketchup. Simmer for 1 hour.

This is the sad state of my spice drawer…this one holds the cooking spices…baking is in another drawer just as bad as this. To be changed one day when we redo the kitchen.

4. When almost ready for dinner, cook spaghetti noodles for 6 minutes as per directions.

We like to have garlic toast and shredded parmesan cheese (the real stuff) with it. Yum yum!

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NOTE: Secret ingredient and favourite wine for spaghetti sauce is this one:

I’ve tried a lot of different wines but none can top this one for the flavour of the finished product (a bonus is that it’s inexpensive)….

plus I like to have a glass with dinner 😉

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As an aside….while in the kitchen cooking I caught movement on the floor out of the corner of my eye. It was what would have formally been a BIG black spider……..since my spider experience in the Dominican Republic I now see a spider this size as small (see story below). So I did a quick catch and release with a paper towel and free’d Willy who is now residing outside happy in the sun.

True story: In early February of 2012 we were in the Dominican Republic looking for vacation property when we rented a house 20 minutes outside of town amidst farmland but right on the beach.

It was 11pm and I was in bed reading while David was sleeping soundly. I got up to go to the bathroom and do my business prior to turning in for the night. While sitting on the “royal throne” I glanced up at the wall which was about 20 feet high and all white. There on the wall was a very dark spot.
Keep in mind that at this point I wasn’t wearing my contacts or glasses. I was as blind as they come as my prescription is pretty strong.
I began to have a conversation in my head something like this: “Hmmmmm………that better be a bathroom plumbing “thing”………it’s not moving………that’s a good sign. Please don’t be what I think it is………S**T!. Hmmmmm…….it’s not moving……yup, it’s a bathroom “thing” (I never really decided what a bathroom “thing” was….I was really in denial at this point”). I’m ok…..I’m ok……just breathe……”. At this point I’d finished what I came in the bathroom for (made quicker by panic). I got up and washed my hands. The whole time my back was to the black spot and I was still running commentary in my head.
I picked up my glasses case and took them out…”please god, please god, please god…” put them on my face, turned around, and……..OMFG!!!!ACCKKKKK ACKKKK!! AKKKKCKCKCKCKCKKC!!! &#$$%** 😮 and ran screeching from the bathroom into the bedroom where I kept on my tirade not only at full volume but also while jumping up and down in panic. Yup. It was the BIGGEST FREAKING SPIDER I’VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE…..FOR REAL!!!! ACKCKKCKCKCKCKKKKK!!!!.
David at this point had woken up all dazed and confused to the maniac I had become. I quickly screetched out “SPIDER!!!” and pointed to the bathroom. He walked in and said “HOLY S**T!!!” and jumped away from the door frame. Me, the trooper that I am, pushed him back towards it saying “do something!!!”. He then began throwing a barrage of toilet paper rolls at the interloper (quickly grabbed off the counter). The monster was what is known locally as “the fast spider” and was running around the ceiling and walls at lightening speed.
Eventually knocked down into the shower by David’s fastball speed toilet paper rolls, he met his demise at the end of a broom in one swat. David’s comment after all this was….”Wow, I had a shower in there before bed….it could have handed me my towel” (he had a horrified expression which I’m sure matched mine). I went to bed with all the lights on, and the blanket totally covering me with exception of a small breathing hole. I did wake up a few times (when I did manage to sleep) when my hair touched my face due to the breeze from the ceiling fan….it totally creeped me out & I’d have to do a quick visual scan of the area to make sure there were no creepy crawlies. Yup. That was an experience I hope never to repeat! 😮 Sweet dreams everyone haha…