Thursday, October 29, 2009

Pasta with Homemade Pasta Sauce

This is a combination of several tomato sauce recipes and it varies each time, especially the amount of spices I use.
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 16 oz. can tomato paste
1 cup water
1-1 1/2 cup chopped onions
1-1 1/2 cup chopped carrots
4 garlic cloves
2 Tsp sugar
2 Tsp dried Oregano
1/2 Tsp Salt

Sautee the onions, garlic and carrots in some olive oil...

...until they're nice and tender:

Add the rest of the ingredients except the ground beef:

Meanwhile brown the ground beef:

And then you add the meat to the sauce:

And there you have it! I cook it any time between 30 minutes to several hours, depending on how early I get started.

Serve it over spaghetti:

And with some Parmesan:

Pork Chops with Maple Mustard Glaze

My favorite pork chops recipe, found at Cooking Light.
And here are all the ingredients.

Brown the pork first and remove from pan:

Add the broth (I only had chicken broth), maple syrup, mustard, sage and thyme:

And let it cook:

Add the cream:

Return the pork chops to the pan:

And enjoy! I made Near East rice and some frozen veggies:

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Last Night I cheated

Every now and then I need to make something easy. That's when those yummy Knorr Fix meals come in very handy. I get them from Germany, but I am sure you can find them online. I love GermanDeli.com, because they have anything I could want from Germany.

So I saute the mushrooms and follow the directions and in less than 5 minutes I am done. It took me longer to boil the egg noodles.

Looks good, eh?

Monday, October 26, 2009

Pizza Night - Updated

First I start making the sauce:

I usually make some extra sauce and freeze it, so that I have some ready to go.

Done:

And here is the rest. I used Pillsbury crust for the first time today. I'm usually the Boboli kind of person, but we'll see.

Since I have a lot more pizza to work with, I split it up. Ham and Pineapple on one side and corn, ham, peppers and broccoli on the other side.

17 minutes later, dinner is done and I can't wait:

As far as the Boboli/Pillsbury comparison goes, I like the Pillsbury because it's thinner and the edges are crustier. I will definitely use it again.

Update: I forgot to post the recipe here so there you go:
In a meduim saucepan combine one 8 oz. can tomato sauce; one 7 1/2 oz. can, undrained tomatoes, cut up; 1/2 cup chopped onions; 1 Tbsp dried basil, crushed; 1 Tsp sugar; 1 Tsp dried oregano, crused; 2 cloves garlic, minced; and 1/4 Tsp pepper. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes or till onion is tender.
- Courtsey of Better Homes and Gardens

Bon Appetit

Alright. Let's see. This is where I will try and show off my cooking skills...or the development of them:)
Enjoy!