Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Easy as pie.. pasta pie.. pie pasta sauce.. wait, what?

This is a suuuuper easy marinara sauce that i make. It's very easy to alter to your tastes too.

You'll need:

1 can crushed tomatoes
1 carrot
1 onion
garlic
basil
olive oil

As soon as my tomato plants start yielding mass amounts of tomatoes, I won't use canned. I most definitely prefer fresh tomatoes when making sauces, but alas my toms are babies right now.

Heat up a saucepot and drizzle in some extra virgin olive oil. Finely chop a carrot, about 2 tbs will be fine. The carrot acts as a natural sweetener. I find that canned tomatoes are too salty, so the carrot helps balance that. Chop up 1 medium sized onion (or half of a large one) and throw it and the carrot in the pot. Hit it with some pepper and a tiny pinch of salt (to make it sweeeaat). After a few minutes add some chopped garlic to the party. I usually go with about 3 cloves, sometimes more. You can use as little or much as you want, it's up to you. After a few minutes add the tomatoes and let 'er cook. Add to that about half a cup or so of fresh cut basil. You can use dried, but don't use half a cup. That's a LOT. ha. If you're using dried I'd say... about... 2 tbs maybe. You can also add oregano, but I don't always have that on hand (and the puppies ate the plant I was growing...) so I don't usually worry about.

Let it all cook until everything is super soft, then blend it! I don't like my sauce chunky so I blend the crap out of it. But to each their own, leave it chunky if that's what you like. Taste it and make sure you've added enough salt/pepper. And then EAT IT!

Puppies and gardens don't go together

So as most, or all, of you know I fostered two puppies for a few days. It was great! And I wanted to keep them! But I digress... These little girls loved my garden. LOVED TO EAT AND DESTROY IT. However, they were just too damn cute for me to be mad for very long. Here are a few pics of the little destructors plotting the death of my plant babies.


Grill-a-thon twentyten

So a few days... week(s)ish back I felt the need to break out the ol' stovetop grill and drop some grilling knowledge on a few vegetables. I also brought some tofu to the party and that worked out well.

I had acorn squash, zuchini, and onion. Well, and tofu. I would recommend cutting the acorn squash smaller than I cut it. I was too lazy to cut it thinner. Don't be lazy like me. Do the right thing. Anyway, cut up your other veggies and toss it all in a liberal dose of salt and pepper, and some olive oil. The acorn squash needs a lot of flavor help so make sure it gets a little more s&p. I also used a little thyme and dill for more flavor, and topped it all off with some chives. It's easy!!

I also had a little quinoa sidecar. Quinoa is great! You feel like you're eating a super-starchy carb but... it's actually a great source of protein. You cook it just like rice. I like to sautee mine with some onion and garlic before I add the liquid (I like to use veggie stock instead of water - more flavah!).


Monday, May 17, 2010

lo siento

So I realize that I haven't posted much about actually cooking. Sorrs. That will change soon I promise. I got too lazy and was busy stewing at my pity party for one. But I'm feeling the itch to cook and blog and cook and blog and cook... and blog. So it shall be done.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

It's ALIIIIIIIVE!

My garden is growing super fast! It's like my lil plants are all on the 'roids. It's ridiculous. Anyway, quick photo update on the kids. Those 4 giant plants in the back are my heirloom tomato plants. It's crRrRraAaAzZzZy!