Hidden Veggie Pasta Sauce

My son Lucca loves broccoli, saag paneer, tomato sauce, and crunchy salad veggies.  Nothing else mushy, or even gently cooked in the vegetable realm will work for him.  I only require one bite of everything that's served, so most nights he either eats salad or foregoes a vegetable.  While I'm working on getting him to knowingly branch out, I'm also quite happy to slip him the varied vegetable whenever I can.  One of the best ways to hide the veggies is to remove their texture and color, and my latest favorite way of doing this is in the blender with tomato sauce.

Hidden Veggie Pasta Sauce

1 14-ounce can of stewed tomatoes
1 small can of tomato paste
1 onion, diced
1 zucchini, diced
2 carrotts, diced
1 whole garlic clove
1 T olive oil
1 T salt
1 tsp ground pepper
2-3 sprigs oregano (I have oregano in a pot on the back porch, under the snow, it's still fresh and green!)
2-3 sprigs thyme (I keep thyme in a pot on the back porch too, totally dried out and brown but still full of flavor)

Heat the olive oil and saute the onions until translucent.  Add in carrots and zucchini and saute for another 5-10 minutes, until tender.  Add all of the other ingredients and cook until the veggies are soft, 20-30 minutes.  Remove the garlic clove and any sticks still attached to the herbs.  Pour into a blender or blend using a submersion blender.  Blend until completely smooth.  The zucchini has the added benefit of making the sauce slightly creamy.  Serve over any kind of pasta.  If  you want a little extra protein, you can saute ground beef, ground pork, ground turkey, or sliced italian sausage at this point and then cook it in the sauce for another 20-30 minutes.

A Total Blank

I think I have officially run out of recipes! I've been grasping at straws for a few weeks now, and today I am coming up with a complete blank. A year and a half of recipes is not too shabby, I suppose, though it does mean I'll have to actually start working on our plan to turn this project into a cookbook. 

Lately, I've been looking in my library of cookbooks for ideas for dinners. And it feels nice; I missed them. We had skirt steak stroganoff from The New Basics the other night. It's consistently good and very easy. While at the grocery store, I took a cue from Keja and bought them out of skirt steaks. They were on sale and are often hard to find in the Whole Foods where I buy meat. So, I bought in bulk, individually wrapped them in labeled freezer bags at home, and put them into the chest freezer. And, to avoid my typical "what the heck is this freezer burned lump?" problem, I am now keeping a list on the fridge of meat I have in the freezer.

I am almost out of CSA meat and that feels good. We had ribs last night that were really nice. Except for bacon, Stillman pork is excellent. I put a medium layer of barbecue sauce all over them, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and baked at 375 for 30 minutes. Easy.

If you have an idea you'd like a recipe for, let me know. Maybe requests will get me thinking again!

Chili Beans in Honor of Mama

My mother-in-law, Rosie, passed away yesterday. I miss her. She loved to eat about as much I as I do, and when I made something she liked she showed me the best appreciation I can ever ask for: asking for seconds, taking some home, and requesting it again the next time we talked. Rosie didn’t like everything I cooked, and when she politely said that she wasn’t hungry (she was always hungry at dinner time), or pushed food around with a fork and knife (she preferred to eat with her fingers), I would feel that sinking pit at the center of the stomach that comes when I’ve had a culinary failure. And so I can credit Rosie, and my desire to please her, with many dishes that have come to be family staples (did I mention that she would ask for things she liked again and again?). I made tacos for Rosie, and pasta with meat sauce, Asian Beef and Cuban pork loin in the crock pot, and cream of broccoli soup. I was learning to make her enchiladas. One thing I never made for her that she would have liked was “chili beans.” And so when my sister-in-law Darling arrived this morning, I suggested that “we” put on a big pot of chili beans so that all of the relatives coming through can just grab a bowl whenever they’re hungry.



Darling’s Chili Beans

1 lb ground beef
2 small or 1 large onion, finely chopped
Salt and pepper
2 large cans pinto or pink beans
1 large can tomato sauce
1 package “taco seasoning”
1-2 jalapeños, seeds removed and finely chopped
Salt and pepper
½-1 cup water

Brown the ground beef, then add the onions and cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are soft. Add all of the other ingredients except the water. Stir well and bring to a boil. Add the water, bring back to a boil, then bring to a low simmer and cook for 1-3 hours. Serve with sour cream and grated cheese and of course tortillas.

Easy Desserts for a Crummy Day

The wind is whipping around the house, shaking trees and telephone poles, the rain is pouring down, and all I can think about is dessert. But, because my two-year old is "sleeping" (not really, but we both pretend and feel better for it), I can't go out to the grocery store, nor do I really want to: did I  tell you about the wind and rain?

So, I am left to get my sugar fix from what I can find in my cabinets. I pride myself on keeping a well-stocked cabinet, so I may have a leg up on a lot of you, but with a little binge-shopping the next time around, you, too, can have lots of un-necessities hanging around in your kitchen, just waiting for the perfect grey day to be made into greatness.

Chocolate-covered dried fruit

This is SO easy and really quite impressive.

1 package chocolate chips (I use Ghiradelli bittersweet)

4 cups dried fruit (pineapple rings, mango, papaya, apple rings, banana chips are favorites)

Spread out a sheet of waxed paper on a cookie sheet.

Melt chocolate chips in a double boiler, stirring occasionally.

Using fingers or tongs, dip fruit pieces into chocolate, letting excess chocolate drip back into pan for a few seconds , and lay on waxed paper to dry. Allow a little space between pieces. Let dry completely, ~ 1 hour.

Hot chocolate

8 oz. milk

optional: 1 teas. vanilla

1 TBSP unsweetened chocolate powder

sugar to taste (or honey, demerara sugar, agave nectar, maple syrup, etc.)

Heat milk (and vanilla if using) until hot but not boiling. Whisk in chocolate powder and sweeten to taste.

Super Fudge

My mother made this a lot when I was growing up. I do not know where she got it but my aunt passed it along when I was pregnant with my first child and having a hard time gaining weight. It's a nice, healthy alternative to brownies.

1 cup honey

1 cup peanut butter or almond butter

1 cup carob powder (or chocolate powder)

Suggested additions

dried, shredded coconut

sunflower seeds

raisins

puffed rice or other small cereal

nuts, chopped small

dried cranberries

In a medium pot, warm honey and peanut butter until soft and well mixed, then add sifted carob powder.

Add additional ingredients to total 2 cups and mix well.

Grease a pie plate or 8x8 or 9x9 pan with at least 1 inch sides, with butter or oil. Put fudge in greased pan and into refrigerator. When it feels firm (it may already) cut into bite-sized pieces in pan. Cover with plastic wrap. It keeps for at least a week in the fridge and freezes well, too.