Family means the world to me

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Tammie McClure's regular cooking column will return next week, staff writer Dustin Faber was kind enough to fill in for her.)

I do my best to talk to my mother once a day. I look at my grandparents with great reverence and respect. My father's tattoo two bright red cherries on a stem, with an arrow piercing the bottom cherry makes an appearance on my arm as well, not only because I love the design, but because I am immediately reminded of the 22-year Navy veteran who had a nasty temper when it came to our Microsoft-powered computers breaking down.

This confession is not an attempt to get a pat on the back, for many readers have just as much love and respect, if not more, for their respective families.

But it makes for a nice set up to this spaghetti recipe, straight from my father's kitchen. I've eaten my father's spaghetti recipe for years (with every other sauce falling short). Out of all the meals that were cooked for me growing up, the spaghetti sits right beside my mother's Rice Meatballs recipe as my favorite foods.

Even when I started cooking for fun in middle school, I never touched it. It was the holy grail of recipes, and any attempts to duplicate it would have been futile. But after getting out of college, I asked my father, a die-hard New York Yankees fan (Boston Red Sox fan typing this) for the recipe, which he lovingly gave to me.

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The first attempts didn't yield anything special. But I kept striving to emulate my father's recipe, experimenting and tinkering with it (adding Coca Cola to the mix failed terribly). And after many attempts, I finally did it. The sauce no longer emulated my father's: in my opinion, it had surpassed his and had become my own (mainly from not adding meat).

It's not out of arrogance that I tell of my triumph. My mother and father taught me to strive to be the best at everything, to give a 100 percent effort. I know my parents would be pleased to know that his talents rubbed off on me. So thank you. For everything (including your food).

Enough of the mush, I know you are hungry. This is the recipe I've created, slightly different from my father's in that there is no meat (done out of budget concerns while living in Pittsburgh), and the presence of Samuel Adams Boston Lager. Keep in mind that this recipe has a little spice.

Dustin and Sam's

spaghetti sauce

28 ounces Tomato sauce

16 ounces Tomato puree

6 ounces Tomato paste

1 can whole tomatoes, drained

2 teaspoons Garlic powder

1 tablespoon of onion flakes

1/8 cup of sugar

6 ounces Samuel Adams Boston Lager (EXTREMELY important to use this brand)

1 teaspoon red pepper

1 teaspoon black pepper

Italian seasoning to taste

1. Combine all ingredients into the a large stock pot. You can chop up the tomatoes before putting them into the pot, or if you'd like, leave them whole for a vegetarian version of meatballs. The Samuel Adams Boston Lager is extremely important: if you try to go cheap and add Coors Light, Budweiser, or Miller, you might as well just add six ounces of water. Not only is Samuel Adams Boston Lager (Boston Ale and Cherry Wheat also work wonderfully) the best tasting beer, it truly blends in with the sauce and makes this recipe come alive.

2. Stir the sauce until the ingredients are mixed in well, and the foam from the Sam has disappeared.

3. Cook on low temperature for about 30 minutes, stirring every 3-4 minutes.

4. Turn the heat up to medium temperature for up to 30 minutes or until done.

5. Serve with cooked spaghetti noodles, garlic bread, and a spinach salad. The leftover spaghetti can be frozen, and used for another spaghetti meal, or for lasagna.

Variations

If beer is unavailable, substitute with another 1/8 cup of sugar, bringing the total amount of sugar in this recipe to 1/4 cup.

If you'd like a little meat with the sauce, the way my dad did so, brown 1 pound of ground beef and three italian sausage links, cut up into one-inch pieces, in a separate skillet, Drain grease, and add to rest of ingredients in stock pot.

Enjoy!