Papa Mack's Spaghetti Sauce

I can't believe that this one hasn't been posted yet. It has quite a history and contains a host of memories.

Growing up, this was Mom's famous spaghetti sauce. She actually inherited it from her father who received it from an Italian during World War II.

Mom fed large groups with this recipe. During high school, members of the football and soccer teams would "ask" to come over for dinner when she served this. It was always accompanied by her homemade bread.

Here is her recipe:

Papa Mack's Spaghetti Sauce

4-5 lbs. lean ground beef*

2 (14.5 oz.) cans stewed tomatoes

2 (15 oz.) cans tomato sauce

5-6 large cloves garlic

3 stalk celery

2 green pepper

2 large onion

1 Tbsp. oregano leaves

1 Tbsp. rosemary (No)

3 whole bay leaves

2 Tbsp. salt

2 Tbsp. Italian seasoning

3 (6 oz.) cans tomato paste

1 can sliced mushrooms or 1 cup fresh mushrooms (**I omit this sometimes.)

Variations:
1 Tbsp chopped fresh basil

Brown ground beef and drain off fat. In blender, combine tomatoes, celery, pepper, garlic and onion. Do not blend too fine. Add this mixture to your ground beef in a 4 quart pot or a large crockpot. Add remaining ingredients. Best if you let it simmer all day or a minimum of 3 hours. Best if cooked a head of time and put in refrigerator over night or frozen and brought out another day. Seems to blend the flavors. Remove bay leaves before serving over pasta.

Note: I like to have it simmer for 6-8 hours in a crockpot.

* I reduce the amount of ground beef when I make this.