Family Dinner: Spaghetti Night

It’s a miracle. You got home from work, did the grocery shopping, picked up the kids from soccer practice AND made dinner. Not just any dinner, your crowd pleasing, world famous, home-made pasta sauce over spaghetti.

As delicious as spaghetti sauce is, it tends to get a little messy. Tomato stains are hard to miss on light colored carpet. Removing tomato based stains is a difficult process and if done wrong could do more damage to your carpet than the stain did in the first place. Here are a few rules to follow when dealing with stains to make sure you don’t make the situation worse.

1. Don’t let it sit: One of the worst mistakes you can make when a spill occurs is to do nothing. The longer the stain sits on the carpet, the more difficult it is to get out. As soon as a spill happens, grab your Langenwalter Spotter Bottle and call to schedule an appointment.
2. Don’t use bleach: People often think that bleach is the right solution for fixing spots and stains. Bleach does more harm than good because it strips the color from the carpet fibers, leaving spots of discolored carpet.
3. Don’t rub: Rubbing causes the stain to sink deeper into the carpet itself, thus making it more difficult to remove. Call in the professionals to help deal with tough messes; it’s much easier and cheaper to lift a stain than it is to replace carpet.
4. Don’t over saturate: Putting too much solution or water on the stain over saturates it. This can cause long lasting damage to your carpet.

When things get messy call us in for backup. We see a lot of home remedies to carpet gone wrong and it ends up being more expensive to fix the mistakes than the original stain. Remember our spotter bottles are free to refill so stop by, fill up and keep one handy when your pasta sauce is a featured menu item.

Pasta sauce can be stubborn, but is worth the risk in taste. In case your pasta sauce isn’t crowd pleasing, world famous or home-made yet, follow this recipe for a delicious and nutritious meal.

Jennifer’s Marinara Sauce Recipe

Ingredients:

28 ounce can of tomatoes; I use Muir Glen Organic Fire Roasted Whole Tomatoes
2 Garlic cloves chopped
1 Medium onion chopped

1/3 cup virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions: In a medium to large pot over medium heat add the oil and onion and sauté until translucent add garlic and sauté for a couple minutes longer (do not brown the garlic it becomes bitter).  Add the canned tomatoes and with either an immersion blender (or transfer to a blender) puree tomatoes to desired consistency.

Reduce heat to low. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed. Tastes great served over fresh pasta, vegetables, or chicken.