Quilt Shows This Weekend

This weekend I have the opportunity to go and visit two quilt shows.  One is in Bloomington, Illinois put on by The Hands All Around Quilt Guild.  I'll probably go here tomorrow:

Then on Sunday I'll probably head up to see The Salt Creek Quilters Guild Show in Hinsdale, Illinois.

I've never been to either show before so this will be a new adventure!  I'll have to try and remember to charge the camera batteries!

In other news, some of you know I like to cook.  I test recipes all the time and end up tweaking stuff and changing it to suit the likes of my family.  Well, I finally after a few years of trying have tweaked my spaghetti sauce recipe to near perfection.  Not one person complained at all.  In fact the two "boys" in the house who love spaghetti ate way to much and kept commenting how good it was.

So, here is a little recipe for you to try - quick, easy and simple - in a crock pot of course!

Spaghetti Sauce in a Crock Pot

1 pound ground pork (we used Bob Evans Brand - mild)

1 1/2 pounds ground beef

1/4 pound bacon (we used maple flavored)

1 cup chopped onions

3 garlic cloves minced

1 - 29 ounce can tomato sauce

1 - 29 ounce can crushed tomato's

2 small can's mushroom pieces

2 - 6 ounce cans tomato paste

1  tablespoon Italian seasoning

1/4 tsp. pepper

1 1/2 tablespoon sugar

dash of salt

1. Cook bacon until crisp in a skillet.  Remove and let cool.  Reserve grease. Crumble bacon into tiny bits and set aside.

2. In the grease from the bacon, add the sausage, ground beef, onion and garlic.  Crumble and cook until brown.

3. Pour crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce and tomato paste into large crock pot and stir a bit.

4. Add crumbled bacon and the meat and onion mixture from the skillet.  When I cooked our sausage and ground beef, there was not much grease remaining in the skillet - maybe a tablespoon or two, so I did not drain the fat off - just added it to the crockpot!

5. Add all the remaining ingredients.

6. Cover. Set heat on crockpot to low and cook overnight. Mine cooked from 10 pm at night until 5 am the next morning when I woke up.  I turned the crockpot off in the morning and then about an hour before dear husband got home from working midnights - I turned the crock pot back on to warm it up for him.  So - 6-7 hours of cooking time set to low in the crock pot was perfect.

This sauce is thick and chunky and sticks to the spaghetti noodles perfectly.  Also - my family prefers a sweeter spaghetti sauce - if you don't - skip adding that tablespoon and a half of sugar.

I think what made this sauce and helped me to finally perfect the recipe was adding the bacon.  Don't ask how I came up with the idea - I have no clue, but it worked.  2 guys in one household finally agree that it was an awesome dinner. No complaints from either one of them - they were both to busy eating.  Oh and the smell in the house was fabulous while this was cooking.  Dear daughter and I do not care much for spaghetti.  I taste tested the sauce and it had a great flavor - dear daughter stuck to eating garlic, butter noodles for dinner and me - a salad - I'm trying to be good! LOL

We had plenty of sauce left over for meals again today.  I'm wondering if I could can this sauce????  Any ideas???  Canning season is coming up quickly and normally when I've canned spaghetti sauce it hasn't had meat in it....... hmmmm.....  I bet this sauce would freeze well too!  If we have any leftovers after today, I'll test it in the freezer and see if the consistency holds up well!