Garlic anyone?

I wish I'd paid more attention to your Mom's cooking when I had the chance.  As the days turn cooler, my thoughts revolve more around comfort foods.  It's nice to feel like cooking again after hot summer months.  Near the top of my comfort food list is homemade sauce.  One thing I clearly remember your Mom doing was using garlic in making her sauce.  Not garlic salt or powder, but real garlic from real cloves.  They would often be leftover on the table along with breakfast and coffee!  She would start early in the day, I guess. 

When I how she used these real cloves, I was released from my reluctance to do the same.  Now I'm a garlic nut (well, on the occasion that I actually cook, anyhow).  I freely use garlic in many recipes, but it's always when I put it in the sauce that I think of your Mom and smile to myself.  I thought you should know that.

I think this conversation has been held around the table a time or two already but it bears repeating.  We each have our own spin on our homemade sauce recipe.  It's been ages and ages since I've used fresh tomatoes for my sauce, but there was a time in my life when I did!  My ingredients include diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, garlic, a little sugar, chopped onion, spices, and a dash of grated parmesan or romano cheese.  I usually throw this in the crock pot, but sometimes on the stove.  I think the stove method produces better (thicker) sauce, but I don't do this very often mostly because I really love the idea of coming into the house after work and smelling the sauce waiting for me. 

I throw meatballs and/or sausage right into the sauce without pre-cooking.  I like the taste the meat adds to the sauce and I think that gets a little lost in the pre-cooking though I know that's a very popular method--if I recall,  your Mom would pre-cook her meat (am I right?).

I'm certain your methods for sauce incorporate your Mom's techniques along with your own touches.  We can expect our children to do the same.  Of course, sauce is not the only hand-me-down from our mothers and it's not the only thing that make us smile remembering her.  But, for me, your mother is forever tied to the garlic clove!  It's not a coincidence that L-O-V-E  is part of that.