Maggie: You asked ! I peeped in for some thing else and saw your Post. Used to do just about like you, at one time. But now, I don't brown fresh Garlic anymore. I put a large pot on the Range, throw in the Tomatoes and start cooking. Add a little sugar later, to taste, if needed. Just use, Mc Cormicks fine ground Garlic powder, in the Sauce and Meatballs. I buy a large canister in BJ'S Market. Also use 1/2 of an Onion Chopped fine and more Spices in the Gravy and Meatballs. For Tomatoes I use, 1 can of Crushed and one can of Puree and a small can of Paste. Usually make about 3 gallons at one time. For the Bread Crumbs, I cube day old Italian Bread and put it on a cookie tray, in a warm oven. When dry, I put them in one gallon Zip Lock bags. A rolling pin does a quick job on them,while in the Zip Lock, to make fine crumbs,for meat balls. I mix all of the Spices, Onions and Parmesan in the dry Crumbs, for the meatballs, so they are blended evenly throughout, when mixed with the meat. Only use about 5 tablespoons of Parmesan Cheese. I mix some Chicken Soup Base in the water, beat in the eggs, to moisten the Crumbs. They are baked a 380 Degree oven, to brown. Then into the Gravy. For the gravy, I drop the Italian sausage in raw, along with a Chicken Leg and Thigh. Take the Chicken, out when cooked, before it comes apart. Make the Gravy a little different for a Meat Sauce. I do it this way to save a lot of time. The results are the same, good, delicious. !!! We had a cookout of 7 families, to see who made it like Gram's . Mine won. This is what I do !!!!! Bye ! LOU

I grew up in New Jersey....we called it spaghetti sauce, b ut knew that Italians called it gravy. sometimes we ate "deli" if unexpected company arrived....and sometimes as a treat. Eating deli meant going down to the German deli and getting 1/2 pound of boiled ham, 1/4 pound of hard salami, 1/4 pound of head cheese and half a pound of balogna...Oh yes and some hard rolls and half a pound of sliced Swiss cheese....and a pint of potato salad and one of slaw. Packing a lunch for school you packed a salami sandwich or a balogna sandwich or maybe some olive loaf and Swiss or braunschweiger....not lunch meat. Then I moved to Iowa and was served "lunch meat?...WTF? I opened the sandwich and it was baloney. I discovered that lunch meat always is balogna...if Mid westerners want salami they ask for it...or braunschweiger. A stove is a stove, not a range...a cook top is not an appliance with an oven beneath...it's just a cook top. I used to carry a pocket book but that seems to have turned into a purse. Tennies are little white things with rubber soles. Sneaks are a little more...like Reebocks with serious soles and cushioning. I eat dinner, unless it's a "light supper" like before a show or even after an early show. A light noon meal on sunday is Sunday Brunch....while a heavier one is sunday Dinner. It used to be that the kid who works at the grocery is a bagger or a bag boy....while in the mid-west he's a sacker and he puts your stuff into a sack not a bag. Iced tea is never served sweetened and it used to be that unless you specified "black" your coffee came with cream. And "Rye" when asked for in a bar means a blended whisky like Seagrams 7. And why can't anyone outside of New jersey, New York and eastern Pa make a real honest to God hard roll? Soft inside, hard outside crumby and delicious? Anyone got a recipe? Linda C

I sometimes use potato starch instead of a roux, but I also do not use cornstarch in gravy, partly because it often gets too thick. I also tend not to use the term "gravy" because it means different things to different people. My Sicilian roommate in San Francisco used "gravy" to mean tomato sauce. I tend to use terms such as Bechamel, Mornay (if it has cheese), or Velouté (if it is made with stock instead of milk), and velouté is what I normally make, either for meat or vegetables, but often I just call all of them "sauce", which seems to be a nice catch-all. I tend not to like sauces that have milk or cream in them, and I especially do not like Alfredo sauce, partly because many people put nutmeg in it, but I do not like it even when no nutmeg is used. My favorite sauce is chili sauce, and it must not have any tomato in it.

I love "giblet gravy" with boiled eggs and the giblets from the turkey. We had it every Thanksgiving and Christmas. My grandmother and Mom also put boiled eggs in the dressing. I make curried eggs when I have too many eggs sitting around. We eat it on noodles or rice. I have never had the eggs in tomato sauce. I think I will try it, though. Lisa