Spaghetti Sauce

This one comes from my step mom. She doesn't know I'm putting it on here, and would probably make me eat spaghetti until I died if she found out.

(That was a reference to the movie Se7en, which I don't expect any of you to have seen or ever seek it out to see it...)

Mix the following together in a large pot. Clearly you'll want to brown the beef in a separate pan while combining the rest of the ingredients in the pot.

• 1.5-2 lbs. browned ground beef (1.5 lbs for slightly thinner sauce, 2 lbs for thicker sauce)
  
• 1 12-oz. can tomato paste
• 2 14.5-oz. cans diced tomatoes
• 1 tsp. onion -OR- 1 small onion diced. (probably more like 1/2 onion, but a full onion works too if you like it)
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 2 tsps. oregano
• 1 tsp. Tabasco (or any hot sauce)
• 1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
• 12 oz. ketchup (one small bottle? Or you can use the 12-oz. can from the tomato paste to measure)
• 5 bay leaves
• Pepper to taste

Basically, the longer you let it simmer the better. Three or four hours is ideal, but it will still be delicious after just 30-45 minutes.

By the way, for those who like sloppy Joes, I've found this also makes really good sloppy Joe material. If you may decide to use it for that, I would recommend using the 2 lbs. of ground beef.

p.s. my step mom is not a psycho.