Sunday, Spices and Spaghetti

I've been inspired to organize so I've been picking one area to organize each week.   One spot in my kitchen that has been in constant disarray is our spices.  I dried all my herbs from my herb garden and today (Sunday) added them to some mason jars and made some delicious spaghetti sauce with the herbs which brings me to todays post:  Sunday, spices and spaghetti.

DRYING HERBS

As soon as winter was imminent, I cut back all my herbs from my summer herb garden and hung them upside down to dry (except for parseley which I kept upright in the fridge).  

Drying Herbs

SAVING THE HERBS

My herb garden has a home on my deck during the warm months so when I'm cooking I can walk out onto the deck and cut what I need.  To save the herbs though through winter, I cut them down to their roots and put them in our dark storage room so they would go dormant.  I water them once a month so they will bounce back this Spring (can't wait).

Oh, my herbs look pathetic but they are safely hibernating until Spring

ORGANIZING THE SPICES

The spices are now all together and in alphabetical order - no duplicates and I can readily find what I need.  LOVE IT!  My Aunt Paula bought this magnetic spice holder for me from a kitchen store for my birthday a few years ago and I love it.

Dried Herbs and Organized Spices

With my spices dried from my garden, I made one of my few masterpieces - spaghetti sauce.

SPAGHETTI SAUCE inspired from Bill Frane (Chad's dad)

Ingredients

1 pound lean hamburger
1 quart of tomato sauce (I use the sauce I canned this summer)
1 6 ounce can tomato paste
1 6 ounce can tomato juice (if I don't have, I add some diced tomatoes)
6 ounces of water
1 medium onion
5 cloves of garlic
4 - 5 stalks celebery
1 cup of fresh mushroom
Optional:  3 sweet Italian sausage cooked, cut and add to sauce
Add 1/2 teaspoon of each:
black pepper
oregano
celery seed
rosemary
onion powder
garlic powder
parsley
basil
1 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. parmesan cheese

Directions

Brown meat and cook veggies.  Once meat is brown, add tomato sauce, paste and water.  Then add spices and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours until thick.  I usually double this recipe.  I usually make it Sunday morning and it's ready for supper.  Gus had 4 helpings tonight.

Spaghetti Sauce has been cooking all day long on our wood stove

I had such a wonderful weekend!  It started with a great Thanksgiving with family, a shopping extravagenza at Mall of America, an amazing light show at Irvine Park in Chippewa Falls and today I was able to get out skiing and the kids played in the snow all day long!

The kids playing in the snow with Festis

Skiing on the groomed Birkie trail - as you can tell, I'm out of breath!

What have you organized lately?  I just feel better and lighter being more organized, and I've got a lot to show you but I need to save it for another day.  The Packers are on tonight, so I need to get everything done pronto.   

Do you have a masterpiece recipe?

Thanks for reading!

Kristin