Now that's a spicy meat sauce!

Meat Sauce With Spaghetti
Our Favorite Meats Favorites From Home Economics Teachers Copyright MCMLXVI

1 pound ground beef
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon garlic salt
3 teaspoons salt I didn't add this and suggest you don't either
½ teaspoon red pepper (optional) That's a lot!
1/8 teaspoon black pepper (optional)
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
4 cups tomato sauce I used a 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes and an 8-ounce can of tomato sauce
1 pound long, thin spaghetti, cooked I used Smart Taste

Brown meat; drain off excess fat. Add onion; cook for 1 minute. Add garlic salt, salt (not necessary to add more salt!), peppers, chili powder, Worcestershire sauce and tomato sauce. Cover; simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally. I only cooked it for about an hour. Serve over hot cooked spaghetti, sprinkle with grated cheese.

Yield 8-10 servings.
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I wasn't thinking very clearly and added the entire optional half teaspoon of red pepper to this recipe. In fact, I already had the teaspoon measure out so I just 'eyeballed' the half teaspoon and perhaps added even more than that. That's a lot of red pepper! This sauce had a kick.

Luckily, my 5-year old is really into hot and spicy foods. After a time of Daddy telling him he couldn't share a bite of this or that because there was hot stuff on it (Daddy covers everything in some sort of hot sauce and pepper), my son decided he was going to like hot stuff too. He really does like it too. He doesn't suffer through it as one of the members of a group that I was dining with once did, when he ordered 'suicide' wings and pretty much cried through his meal. But darn, he ate those wings because he paid for them!

This sauce wasn't suicide hot but it did have some burn. I could feel my forehead start to sweat. After a few bites my son yelled out 'save some for leftovers!'. He ate it the next night too. And the next night.

So even though I only made this because it didn't require buying any extra ingredients beyond the spaghetti and an extra can of tomato sauce (which really wasn't necessary), it did turn out to be a bit special after all. Adding a bit of extra spice to our meals around here may entice my son to embrace dinner once again - he'd been getting awfully picky.
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Question of the Day: Meat sauce or meatballs? My mom used to be so disappointed if I made meat sauce instead of meatballs for dinner. I love meatballs but sometimes I just crave meat sauce.