Crockpot Tomato Sauce

Anyone who makes homemade tomato sauce knows that it takes time. The flavor needs to develop and the sauce needs to thicken. But there’s nothing better than a spoonful of freshly made tomato sauce when it’s done.

In this tomato sauce recipe, the crockpot minds the sauce and you get the same rich tomato flavor. If your crockpot tends to allow steam to escape, make sure to add at least half a cup of water to the recipe. In the end, you’ll still have a thick and chunky sauce that’s perfect for pasta, pizza, or a slice of Italian bread. I think this is my new go-to recipe for tomato sauce!

2011 Recipe Review

Happy New Year! It seems fitting that this post is a few days late, since I always felt like I was running behind schedule this year. There were times in 2011 where I had an entire day to ponder recipe ideas, gather ingredients, prepare a meal, and enjoy it leisurely. And then there were times I had about 15 minutes to scour my cupboards and make something for dinner with enough leftover to throw into a container for lunch the next day. So when I sat down to try to make a list of the best recipes of 2011, it just wasn’t a fair comparison. Instead, I offer a set of scenarios I encountered in the past year, and the recipe which fit best.

Best Big Pot of Soup for a Chilly Day – Chard and White Bean Stew
You’ll love this soup when you make it, and you’ll be ecstatic later when you find a container in your freezer.

Best Ethnic Cooking Experiment for a Group – Vegetarian Pad Thai
You don’t need to go out to have good Thai food, and this was a fun group project.

Best Breakfast on the Go – Waffles
To be fair, my mom actually kept my freezer stocked with these waffles. Sometimes I got to enjoy them at home with sliced bananas. But on rushed mornings, they were in my hands as I ran out the door.

Best Grilled Meal for a Crowd – Mediterranean Chopped Salad
Not your traditional BBQ fare, but a delicious way to enjoy grilled vegetables in season.

Best Meal when you’re craving something spicy – Ethiopian Chickpea Stew
You can make this as spicy as you like, but you’ll still want to keep eating it.

Best Replication of a Restaurant Dish – Chicken Taquitos
These taste almost as good as the taquitos served at SolToro at the Mohegan Sun.

Best Crockpot Meal – Stuffed Mushrooms
I made a lot of crockpot meals this year, and it was hard to pick just one. These are not fancy cocktail party mushrooms, but a rich and flavorful dish of mushrooms and tomatoes.

Best ‘Lunches for the Week’ – Zucchini Black Bean Enchiladas
You’ll actually still be excited by Friday to have these for lunch. This not only includes the recipe for enchiladas, but also a fantastic homemade enchilada sauce.

Best Opportunity to use Local Food – Rhubarb Muffins
My Mom and I set out for a walk on the beach and ended up harvesting rhubarb from the yard of a generous neighbor. Then we came back and made these muffins. It doesn’t get more local than that, and the muffins were delicious.

Best way to satisfy a chocolate craving – Red Wine Chocolate Cake
This cake was a hit with everyone who made it. And don’t forget to be generous with the mascarpone garnish.

Thanks for reading, today and throughout the year! I look forward to cooking more new recipes in 2012. Cheers!

Roasted Root Vegetable Megamix

In addition to the Brussels sprouts, Jamie Oliver inspired the roasted root vegetable megamix that we enjoyed on Christmas Day. I figured it would be easy to get local (Connecticut) root vegetables to use in the recipe. Our first stop was the Billings Forge Farmer’s Market in Hartford, where we were able to purchase a nice bunch of carrots. One of the vendors also offered beet greens, but unfortunately did not have beets or turnip available. Our next stop was the Wethersfield Winter Farmer’s Market, which did not really have any produce for sale. We did buy some fresh lemon thyme though, and incorporated the herb into the recipe. After stopping at two different grocery stores, we had turnips, beets, and parsnips and were ready to roll.

First, we parboiled the parsnips, carrots, and turnips for about 7-8 minutes in a large pot. We parboiled the beets for close to 30 minutes in a separate pan. Then, each vegetable was mixed with the ingredients listed below, and placed in a homemade foil compartment.

Carrots: olive oil, salt, pepper, juice of 1/2 orange, dried rosemary
Parnsnips: olive oil, salt, pepper, splash of white vinegar, fresh lemon thyme
Beets: olive oil, salt, pepper, splash balsamic vinegar, dried oregano
Turnips: olive oil, salt, pepper, splash red vinegar, dried crushed bay leaves

Finally, we roasted the vegetables at 375F for about 45 minutes and mixed them together to serve.

The real benefit to this method is that each vegetable tastes unique, but complements the other vegetables. The beets were my favorite, with a nice flavor from the balsamic vinegar and oregano. My second favorite though were the parsnips which were roasted with the lemon thyme. While this recipe was a little labor intensive, it was fun to experiment . Root vegetables are going to be in season for a while, so there’s plenty of time to try some combinations and see what you like best!

Jamie Oliver’s Brussels with hustle

I roasted Brussels sprouts a couple of years ago and I admit I wasn’t all that impressed. But I think part of the problem was texture; I didn’t like eating tiny heads of cabbage. So when I saw this Jamie Oliver recipe for Brussels with hustle, I wanted to give the vegetable another try.

In this recipe, the Brussels sprouts are finely shredded, and then sauteed in olive oil, butter, bacon, and herbs. You could argue that any vegetable prepared this way would taste good, but this method really worked for the Brussels sprouts. They were tender and delicious, and while I wouldn’t prepare them this way everyday, it was a nice addition to our Christmas meal.

Stuffed Chicken Breasts

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! Our Christmas Eve buffet was splendid, featuring a beautiful antipasto salad, stuffed shrimp, meatballs, kielbasa and sauerkraut, and homemade manicotti. And of course, a dessert buffet featuring fruit salad, apple cranberry crisp, candy, and lots of cookies.

Christmas dinner was a much smaller affair, and so we planned a simpler meal centered around these stuffed chicken breasts featured on the Today Show. If you’ve ever struggled to cut a pocket in a chicken breast, you need to watch this video and see Mark Bittman’s easy method for making stuffed chicken.

The stuffing in the original recipe calls for pine nuts and raisins, but my Mom made a more savory stuffing. We started with Connecticut-grown spinach purchased from the Billings Forge Farmer’s Market in Hartford. After the spinach was sauteed, we added panko breadcrumbs, pancetta, vegetable broth, and Parmesan cheese. Then my Dad pounded the chicken breasts and placed the stuffing between two pieces, securing it with string. We sauteed the chicken breasts on each side until lightly brown.

This pan went right into the oven, and in about 15-20 minutes, the chicken breasts were cooked through. The chicken was removed from the pan, and we made the sauce with balsamic vinegar and mustard as indicated in the original recipe. Accompanied by potatoes, root vegetables, Brussels sprouts, and cranberry sauce, it was a great meal.

We all loved the chicken, and this method of stuffing the breasts was so much easier than traditional methods. The vegetable recipes are coming up next!

On your mark, get set, bake!

It’s that time of year again, the annual Christmas Cookie Swap. I am not even going to mention how many consecutive years we’ve had this event. But I will say that there have been a lot of cookies….

Last year’s winner were these Maple Pecan Bites.