Simple tomato sauce

Here is another great recipe from my favorite blog Sweet Paul. I made this simple tomato sauce the other day and it was really good. Sometimes when I make my own I get a little to complicated with it. Simple is better! This has only a few ingredients (most of which you might have on hand already) and tastes so fresh. I'm going to make this my new standby.

{Super cute photo from here. }

The thing that's so great about this sauce is that you could make a double batch and freeze some for a rainy (or lazy) day. When I made it the other day I added spicy Italian sausage and spooned it over pasta. Tonight I'm using the leftovers as pizza sauce (yup...doing the BBQ pizza thing again). The possibilities are endless.



Serves 4

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 28-ounce can good quality crushed tomatoes
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 cup fresh basil, chopped
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
2 cups water


Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat.
Add onions and garlic, cook until soft.
Add the crushed tomatoes with their liquid.
Add brown sugar.
Add the basil.
Season with salt and pepper.
Add the water.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until sauce has reduced and thickened. This takes 20 min.

BBQ pizza: It's easy!!

I have heard about BBQ pizza but never tried it at home. Last week I saw that one of my favorite bloggers Sweet Paul posted a recipe and video about it so I decided to get off my butt and give it a go.

I like making pizza at home but usually go the easy route by buying dough at Trader Joe's. I don't know why I've been so lazy!!! Making dough at home is sooooo simple plus it tastes much much better then store bought.

Recipe:

Makes 2 pizzas
2 teaspoons dry yeast
1 1/3 cup lukewarm water
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 1/2 cups plain flour

Mix yeast and water in a bowl. Leave for 5 minutes and add honey, salt, oil and flour. Mix until you have a smooth dough. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise for at least 1 hour. Get your grill going, remember it needs to be really hot!

Here is my dough after it has been left to sit for about 1 hour .

Divide your dough in two and place it on well greased parchment paper.

Press it out using your fingers and coat it with a layer of olive oil (coating with olive oil is an important step. It prevents dough from sticking to your hands, parchment and the grill)


Get your toppings all ready- I used prosciutto, goat cheese, pesto, heirloom tomato and basil. You can use anything you want. Have fun with it!

Once your grill is nice and hot flip the paper upside down on grill and slowly remove the paper. Let the pizza cook for 3 minutes.


Flip dough over, place toppings on and let grill for another 3 min or so. Mine got a little charred but that's OK. It added to the flavor. Once the dough seemed cooked I turned the heat off to allow cheese to melt. Remove from grill, cut and serve. YUM!

I really loved this pizza and had a good time making it.

Thanks to Sweet Paul for the great recipe. If you don't follow his blog, you should!! Hes a food stylist, crafter and cook. He has some really amazing projects, recipes and drool worthy food photography. If he lived in San Francisco I might force him to be my friend. Hes so crafty!!

Whats in this weeks CSA box?

I just got this weeks CSA box from Farm Fresh to You. It looks really good! I cant wait to dig into it.

Here is what came:

Heirloom Tomatoes
Cucumber
Romaine lettuce
Radish
Mini watermelon
Blueberries
Peaches

When I first signed up for the produce delivery I ordered the "small mixed" box. I ended up getting a few to many zucchini and bell pepper which I wasn't jazzed about. I decided to switch to the "small fast fruit & veggie" box because it includes more things that we will eat in our house and its the same price. Now I don't have to worry about wasting the stuff we don't really like (or figuring out how to include some random veggie into our meals)

If you haven't considered produce delivery you should. Its all organic, supports local farmers and the price is the same (or less) then what you would pay at the supermarket. I am paying $23 every 2 weeks which includes the delivery charge. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me.

Tri tip w/ fresh corn salad and scallion cheddar cornbread

I was down in Palo Alto yesterday and stopped by Schaubs Meat and Poultry which is one of my favorite little butcher shops. They sell this tri tip called "Freds Steak" and it is ohhhhh sooo good! I have no idea what the secret marinade is but its tasty. After picking up some Freds Steak I stopped over at the produce stand next door and got some fresh white corn.

Ive been wanting to duplicate a corn salad I had at Karens Bakery Cafe in Folsom last week while out to lunch with my girl Kerry. It was so flipping good. I cant say my corn salad turned out as good as Karens but it wasn't bad. I need to tweak it a bit....if anyone can get me the recipe from Karens Bakery I will love you forever!





This dinner was super easy...not much cooking involved other than throwing tri tip in oven (375 for 35 min) and cooking corn and bread. Perfect for a weeknight meal.

You don't need to actually have "Fred Steak" to make this dinner. Any tri tip with your favorite marinade will do.


Corn Salad:

4 ears white corn (boil in water for 10 min, cut corn off cob and refrigerate)
2 tomato (diced)
1 cucumber (diced)
Salt & Pepper
Dash of balsamic

After corn has been cut off cob and cooled toss all ingredients together. Add balsamic to taste.

Corn bread:

I use the Marie Calendars brand mix. Its really good.

Toss in diced scallions and enough shredded cheese to suit your liking (I use about 1/2 cup). Bake according to package directions.

Recipe rewind: Jalapeno bacon cheeseburgers

Tonight im making one of my old favorites. Jalapeno bacon cheeseburgers! I sense a bacon theme with my posts today...hmmm.

These are great burgers. Try them!

Bon Appétit July 2005




Spicy Ranch Sauce
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
6 tablespoons fresh lime juice
4 green onions, finely chopped
2 tablespoons minced seeded jalapeño chile
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

{if making less then 8 burgers you can half this recipe}

Burgers
2 pounds ground beef
1 small onion, chopped (about 1 1/4 cups)
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon chopped seeded jalapeño chile
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Worcestershire-Coffee Glaze
1/3 cup light corn syrup
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 teaspoon instant coffee crystals
2 teaspoons (packed) golden brown sugar
3 tablespoons butter

8 bacon slices
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
8 hamburger buns
8 lettuce leaves
Cheddar cheese slices
Assorted additional toppings (such as tomato and grilled onion slices)


For spicy ranch sauce:
Whisk all ingredients in medium bowl to blend. Season sauce with salt and pepper.


For burgers:
Gently mix all ingredients in large bowl. Form mixture into eight 1/2- to 3/4-inch-thick patties. Place on small baking sheet. Cover and chill.


For glaze:
Stir first 5 ingredients in small saucepan over medium heat until coffee is dissolved. Remove from heat. Whisk in butter. Season glaze to taste with salt and pepper.


Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Working in batches if necessary, cook bacon in large skillet over medium-high heat until crisp and brown. Transfer bacon to paper towels to drain.


Grill burgers about 5 min, basting with glaze. Turn burgers, baste with glaze, and grill until cooked to desired doneness about 5-6 min more for medium. Press cheese on top of each burger and allow to melt. Place some ranch sauce, then 1 burger on each bun bottom. Top each with 2 slices bacon and desired additional toppings. Cover with bun top. Serve with remaining sauce.


{Time}
About 30min prep time then more time for grilling (but its worth it!)

STK cooking tip: Baking bacon

We LOVE bacon in our house. Maybe a little to much. We buy it in bulk from Costco...if we ever run out its like a serious travesty.

I love eating it but cooking it is a whole other story. Standing over the stove while grease splatters on me and everything else really drives me nuts. Plus, I super extra hate the cleanup. The greasy pan and stove top. Ugh.

For the past few months I have been baking my bacon and let me tell you...its so much better! There is no splatter to worry about, clean up is 100% easier and it frees you up to do other things while its cooking in the oven. No need to hover over the stove anymore! Also, I think it gets crispier and shrinks less this way.

Here is what I do....line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and place a cookie cooling rack on top. Lay out the bacon on the rack and pop in a pre-heated 400 degree oven for 20 min (or until crispy). That's it!

Here is the before:

And after: Perfectly crisp bacon without the hassle and very little clean up.

To clean up I wait for the pan to cool and grease to harden a bit then roll up the foil with grease inside and toss in trash. Wash pan and cookie rack. Pretty easy.

I bought a cow!!

Well...not exactly. I actually bought 1 share of a cow through the Bay Area Meat CSA.

{image from here}

I have been wanting to find a place to purchase local, grass fed, hormone-free, humanly treated beef for a while now. I didn't know where to even start my search. But, a few weeks ago I stumbled across the Bay Area Meat CSA website. I joined the message boards for San Francisco and discovered that lots of people are doing this already and I didn't even have to do much investigating on my own. Today I saw that one of the members was organizing a purchase so I jumped right on it and placed my order.

The way animals are treated, mass produced and slaughtered in the meat industry has been weighing on my mind for quite a while and I wanted to do something about it in my household. I have friends who feel the same way as I do and decided to go vegetarian. But, for me that wasn't an option. I love meat way to much and I think H would die without juicy steaks in his life. I know I cant control the mega huge meat industry in general but if I purchase the product I eat in a more responsible way and support ranchers who are doing the right thing then its a start. Plus, I know what im feeding my family and where it comes from and that makes me feel really good.

What is a meat CSA?

Meat CSA is a network of people who cooperate to buy meat directly from local ranchers. It's the most cost-effective way to buy good, healthy, local meat and it's an opportunity to connect with the ranchers and processors whose work feeds us

What do you get when you purchase a share?

You can buy different sizes of shares. Im doing 1 share which is = to 20 lbs. There are 9 shares to half a cow, 19 shares to a full cow.

What do you get in a share?

A 20 lb share contains 10 lb ground beef, about 5 lbs of braising meat (for ex. brisket, bottom round, chuck roast), 3 lb of grill and slice steaks (such as sirloin tip, skirt steak, flank, tritip), and 1.9 lbs of strip/ribeye/filet

How much is a share?

The prices can vary slightly depending on where you are getting the meat from. The one I am purchasing is $120. I figure this is about a 2 - 3 month supply of meat for our household. So about $40-50 per month which is about what I would pay if I purchased my meat from the supermarket.

All the meat comes trimmed, portioned, vacuum packed, labeled and frozen straight from the rancher.

Where does the meat come from?

There are many different ranches throughout the Bay Area (find them here). The beef I am getting is from the organic herd at Prather Ranch in Siskiyou County, CA .

{from their website}

The Prather Ranch has become a stellar example of a self-sustaining agricultural operation that promotes strong environmental philosophies, holistic management practices and the humane treatment of livestock. Those at the ranch understand that the first step is to be good stewards of the land, which includes caring for the soil, the water, the air, the cattle and those who work the land. Food safety and a superior tasting product is the primary goal of the ranch.

- The unique “Closed Herd” status ensures that our animals are the healthiest, most documented cattle you can find. No new animals have been added to the herd since the early 1990’s

-The majority of the feed fed to the cattle is raised on the Prather Ranch.The ranch raises all of its own hay, which is chopped and mixed with barley and organic rice for their feed ration

-The beef is carefully hand-cut by our artisan meat processors in our own USDA inspected facility

And my favorite part

-Prather Ranch is committed to food safety issues by testing for e.coli three times more frequently than required by the USDA and has never had a positive test for e.coli to date.

Here are some more reasons why buying directly from the rancher is so great.

I have a feeling that some of you are thinking im a total wack-a-do for doing this. Which is totally OK. I don't mind if you think im crazy. I'll invite you over for a steak and THEN you can tell me if im still nuts.

Later down the road I will look into chicken and pork too. For now I want to see how this first purchase works out for us. I'll keep you posted!!

Pasta with chicken sausage and broccoli

This is a recipe from the Sept '09 issue of Real Simple magazine. It was pretty good but didn't knock my socks off. I added artichoke hearts to spice it up a bit but it still needed more zest. Maybe ill throw in some sun dried tomato next time.

One thing that's great about this meal is its SUPER EASY (plus, H loved it). It only took about 20 min total.




12 oz rigatoni
1 tbs olive oil
1 onion, sliced thin
6 oz fully cooked chicken sausage, sliced (I used Aidells spinach and feta)
1 small head broccoli, cut into florets and trim stems
1/4 cup grated Parmesan

1. Cook pasta according to package directions

2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over med-high heat. Cook the onion until slightly browned. About 3 min. Add the sausage and cook until brown. About 3 min. Add the broccoli and 1 cup water and simmer until broccoli is tender. About 3 min.

3. Toss the pasta with sausage mixture and any remaining liquid and Parmesan

** NOTES: Recipe calls for 1 1/4 water to be added in step 2 but I only added 1 cup. I still felt like it was to much. I ended up removing about 1/4 cup after broccoli was done cooking just so there was not to much water mixed in with pasta and sausage in the end.

Blueberry peach cobbler w/ oatmeal cookie topping

I made this a few weeks ago and it was SO good. The blueberries were something not in original recipe but I thought they would pair well with the peaches and I was right!! I loved the combo. Also, the oatmeal cookie is so different...not your average crumbly cobbler topping.



With fresh fruit overflowing at farmers markets this summer I bet you could make this with just about anything and it would be good.

* Note: I halved the recipe and used a 8x8 baking dish. It was enough for 4 people plus some leftovers.

Recipe from Cooking Light

12 servings (serving size: about 1 cup)

Ingredients
Topping:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
4.5 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Filling:
11 cups sliced peeled peaches (about 5 pounds)
2 pints blueberries ** STK addition
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Cooking spray


Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350°

2. To prepare topping, place first 3 ingredients in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and egg; beat well. Weigh or lightly spoon 1 cup flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine 1 cup flour, oats, baking powder, and salt; stir with a whisk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture; beat at low speed until blended. Cover and chill 30 minutes.

3. To prepare filling, combine sliced peeled peaches, 1/3 cup granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, and fresh lemon juice in a bowl; toss to coat. Spoon mixture into a 13 x 9–inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Dollop 12 mounds of chilled dough over peach mixture at even intervals. Bake at 350° for 40 minutes or until lightly browned and bubbly.