Thorburn Family

Lydia should be back in Houston in a few hours, and then home to New Hampshire tomorrow.  Here she is with part of the team, before boarding the plane.

Early this morning, Lydia left for Honduras.  She’ll spend about 3 days in Houston first with her uncle Dan, aunt Kerilyn, and cousin Danielle.  On Thursday she will meet the rest of her mission team and leave from Houston for a 10 day trip to Honduras!  Here she is at the Manchester, NH airport, ready to go!

We loooove smelling sauce simmering all day!  For the heck of it, here is my sauce recipe, just a conglomeration and adaptation of at least a few recipes from friends, slowly changed over 20 years till it suited us & was our own.    No tomato peeling here.. all the tomatoes are from a can.. this is “authentic” enough for us!

About the meat:   I buy 3 lbs or so of uncooked Italian sausages, cut them in half and sear them as directed below (then set aside).  I also make about 6 lbs worth of meatballs and cook them in the oven (then set aside).  Incidentally, if you use frozen meatballs, the sauce will be too thin.  After the sauce is put together in the big pot, I add *all* the seared Italian sausage first b/c it needs to cook all day, and then start adding meatballs till it is about to overflow (I need a bigger pot).  I wait a few hours for it to have cooked-down, and then add more meatballs if I want.  Obviously, I have tons of meatballs leftover for picking during the day, sandwiches, and the freezer.   At the end of the day, the sausages and meatballs have absorbed incredible flavor cooking in that sauce!  I usually serve them in the sauce, but I’m told that the Italian way is to take all the meat out of the sauce and serve in a separate dish for people to serve themselves.   I do that if I feel Italian. :) 

Here are the sauce directions:

On the stove, in an enormous pot, brown at least 10 cloves of garlic, a little oil, and Italian sausages cut in half.    Don’t cook through, just sear.  Don’t burn the garlic.  Remove the meat from the pan and set aside.  You can leave the garlic in the bottom of your big pot.  (Meanwhile make and cook meatballs)

Next, in your pot, add to the garlic and whisk well:

72 oz. of tomato paste

72 oz. of water

Next, add to the pot:

145 oz. diced tomatoes

174 oz.  crushed tomatoes

2 c. red wine (Merlot is good)

2 T. fennel seed

1/2 t. red pepper flakes

10 T. sugar

3 T. garlic powder

6 T. dried basil leaves  (I usually use a lot of fresh basil cut up roughly in addition to this)

2+ jalapeno peppers, diced

Add meat in again (uncooked sausage first, then cooked meatballs).  Simmer about 6 hours.  Do not boil.   I start the pot on med-high, stirring constantly, till it gets hot.   Then turn to simmer and let it truly simmer all day.  If you boil this more than occassional bubbles, it will scorch b/c of the sugar!

Cool completely before putting in freezer containers.