"The sauce"

Ragu, Prego, Barilla, Classico, Emeril... Take your pick and you can have dinner on the table in 20 minutes. However, what happens when you take on the challenge of attempting your first homemade spaghetti sauce and homemade pasta? Blissful, yet utter, exhaustion. Six hours of carefully measuring, chopping, stirring, deglazing, and simmering rendered a meat stew rich enough to knock Chef Boyardee off his microwaveable can, but left me needing a bottle of wine to kill the back pain and onion seared eyes. Ah, yes, there is definitely something special about the hazards of homemade goodness! While I would change up the recipe next time by trying several different cuts of meat (perhaps ground veal and chuck instead of ground pork and chuck), using a different wine, and adding more fire roasted tomatoes, the base recipe is good for beginners. I give credit to Mr. Alton Brown for his careful consideration of flavors and consistency: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/meat-sauce-and-spaghetti-recipe/index.html. As my patience was slowly melting away, my loving partner in crime helped me out and made the fresh pasta for the evening. Any man that can knead dough is alright by me! Overall, I think the first attempt of "the sauce" was successful despite my overenthusiastic use of meat. The fat cats hovering in the kitchen should have been the first sign that I used too much. Oh well. Homemade bruschetta