In the spirit of Thanksgiving (and mostly because I was home alone until 4 pm on that day and had two pumpkins lying around),
I attempted my first pumpkin pie – from scratch! Delicious idea, yes. Delicious result, yes. Happy process? Not at all.
Being new to pumpkin-cooking, I naturally googled how best to get 
to become 
The internet told me I could either cut and peel the pumpkin and then boil it for 25 minutes, OR I could halve and bake it for one hour and then scoop out the pulp.
Spaghetti sauce is one of the most varyingly flavored sauces around. Depending on the type of tomatoes, the amount of sugar, the types spices put in the sauce (if any!), and the meat that goes in it, one chef’s spaghetti sauce will taste completely different from the next’s. Ashley is super picky when eating spaghetti sauce; very few sauces have ever appealed to her.
The sauce that we made the other night was easily the best sauce I have ever had, and Ashley agreed (yes, she did create it, but that aside it was delicious). Simple, but full of flavor. Sweeter than the average sauce, but still savory. We were in the middle of watching
and decided to use the recipe that Peter tells Michael in the kitchen when he is making spaghetti. We tweaked it a tiny bit, but his use of a splash of red wine is really what piqued our interest, and also is what made the sauce have that robust flavor previous attempts had been lacking.
(Please note that we cooked just enough sauce for two people. If cooking for more, adjust accordingly)
It starts with the sausage. Cook two links of sausage in some olive oil (we also added a bit of walnut oil for taste), breaking the sausage into chunks as you cook it. Once the sausage is mostly cooked, put in one 8 ounce can of tomato sauce (plain) and one 8 ounce can of tomato paste (again, plain, but the Italian-seasoned ones would work as well). Also add some mushrooms and onions (if desired). Cook these down for a bit, while adding freshly ground pepper, salt (kosher of course), a tiny bit of oregano (not too much! Please do NOT over oregano your sauce), thyme, and sage. Next, add brown sugar. Yes, BROWN sugar. That is what gives the sauce it’s delicious flavor. Stir all of that in, then add some red wine to taste (a splash or two will suffice). We used Francis Ford Coppola’s wine, however it was the last we had and we threw away the bottle so I’m not sure what type of wine it was. We are not that familiar with wine, so some testing will need to be done to find the perfect type of red wine to pour into this sauce.
Let the entire thing cook down until the sauce is nice and thick. Then plate it on some spaghetti or similar noodle of choice, and enjoy!