snowbanner

Archives

Homemade Pizza Sauce

1 large can of tomato sauce (106 oz)
Italian herbs (center pile)
sage (right of Italian herbs)
garlic powder (very yellow in photo)
onion powder (top, white, right of oil pour)
cayenne powder
ground pepper (above sage)
salt
sugar (not shown)
olive oil

Sorry, the ingredients weren’t actually measured.

Stir all ingredients together in large pot. Start on medium-high heat, and when it shows signs of starting to bubble lower heat to simmer. Simmer covered for a couple hours. Check on it and stir at least every 30 minutes. Then simmer with splatter screen and no lid, so it will thicken up, for at least another 90 minutes.

Turn the heat off when you decide it’s done. Let it cool down. Then bag it up in “snack” size zipper bags, and put those into quart sized freezer bags, so it’s easy to pull them out one at a time to use without having to unthaw the whole batch.

Baked Mac & Cheese, Take 2

cheddarIngredients:
1 (16 oz) bag of Fusili (spiral) pasta
4 TBL butter
1/2 cup bread crumbs (very fine)
1.5 TBL all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp granulated garlic
1/4 tsp cayenne powder
1/4 tsp smoked hungarian paprika
2 cup milk
1.25 lb cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions:
1. preheat oven to 350
2. start cooking pasta (20 mins or so), leave it a bit under done, because it’s going to continue cooking in the oven later.
3. melt 2 TBL (half) butter in small bowl or mug in microwave, add bread crumbs and use fork to mix completely. Set aside.
4. melt 2 TBL (other half) butter in medium sauce pan over medium-high heat, add flour and spices, stir, add milk, stir. Add cheese, and stir constantly until melted. Lower heat, but keep the sauce warm and stir regularly to keep it from forming skin over top, until you’re ready for the next step.
5. In regular (rectangular) baking dish pour in the cooked pasta, over this pour your cheese sauce, stir it up for even distribution/coverage) and then sprinkle the bread crumb mix evenly over the top of this.
6. bake in the lower/center rack at 350 for 25 minutes (rotate pan around half way thru the time), until just getting a little golden on top, and then move to upper rack and switch to broil for about a minute and a half to complete the GBD on top. Be very careful not to let this burn, it darkens suddenly on broil. Don’t take your eyes off of it.
7. Let it cool for at least 5 minutes before trying to eat it.