From Scratch

Hmmm…. recipes, recipes…. do I have any recipes? I wonder…..

Hummus- 1 15-oz can chickpeas, 1/3 c. tahini, 1/4 c. lemon juice (fresh), 1-2 cloves garlic, minced, 2 T. olive oil, salt and pepper to taste and a little water to help smooth it all out. Rinse the chickpeas then spin everything in a food processor. For delicious additions, add kalamata olives, or some roasted red peppers, or fresh tomatoes and a handful of torn basil.

For pie crust, try this recipe. I use it all the time. You must use shortening to get that flaky texture. In the oven, shortening heats up and explodes, basically, which causes those nice pockets of flakiness in your crust. It's a MUST. Imagine telling people you make awesome pie crusts due to exploding shortening.
http://kateinthekitchen.com/2008/10/06/piecrust-c…

The key to a good piecrust isn't often the recipe, it's the technique. You can't overwork the dough or it just doesn't turn out flaky like everyone loves. Be gentle with it and be sure to let it rest and chill thoroughly before you try and roll it out. Getting good at making piecrust is worth the time involved. You may have to make lots of pie to find what works best for you.

Aaaaand….. that's all I got. For now anyway.

love u, miss u

Making Veg stock is simple, provided you have plenty of veggie scraps to flavor it. You would need carrot peels, celery stalks and leaves, onion scraps and the thin outer papery layers. You can keep a container in the fridge and collect them until you have a large amount, remembering that it will all cook down significantly. Add them to a large stockpot of water with peppercorns, bay leaf, parsley stems (collect those too) a whole clove or two and some thyme sprigs, bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer on low for 3 or 4 hours. Strain and keep in the freezer in smaller containers. You can use other veggie scraps, but don't use mushrooms or the stock becomes murky and cloudy. You can, however, collect mushroom stems and make mushroom stock with them, which would be awesome for soups.

Spaghetti sauce can be made from cans of whole tomato, tomato paste and plenty of good herbs. Or you can use fresh tomato, but I've found the result of both to be similar enough that the canned product wins out for convenience. BUT…. buy GOOD canned tomato products like San Marzano or Dilallo. Simmer whole tomato, garlic, thyme sprigs, bay leaves, bell pepper, onion and celery until the sauce is thickened and reduced, then stir in tomato paste to pull it all together and season to taste with salt and pepper. Get creative with the veggies, using mushrooms more towards the end of the simmer so they don't dissolve. You can grate carrots and zucchini in too for flavor. Carrots will make it a little sweeter, so go easy on them.

Taco seasoning- use ground cumin, cayenne, mexican oregano, chili powder (chipotle chili powder is awesome), garlic powder, onion powder and white pepper. This is a really arbitrary thing as everyone's tastes vary with what they want from their seasoning. You may have to experiment before you find a balance you like, or you can get Penzeys Taco seasoning, or try their Adobo seasoning. I love both of those for Mexican dishes.

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Hummus: I totally agree with Kate's recipe above – I use pretty much the same thing. Tip: My roomie taught me to heat the garbanzo beans in their own juice (or water if you started with dry beans) first, because they will blend together in a smoother fashion. Also, you can basically add anything you want to that recipe for flavored hummus. Last night I roasted a large red pepper right on the stove, scraped off the blackened sides and then threw it in the blender – delicious!!

Sangria: 1 bottle red wine (we like cabs for sangria, but you choose!), 1/2 cup rum, 1/2 cup brandy, 2 limes squeezed, 2 lemons, 1 cup simple syrup (equal parts water and sugar, make sure to heat the water so the sugar dissolves easily!) and any fruit you want! We usually use strawberries, apples and pears. You can additionally soak cinnamon sticks in it if you want! I really like soaking the fruit in the wine overnight and then adding everything else the next day, but you can make it the day of too. This makes a stronger sangria, if you are looking for a sweeter taste add more lemons, limes and simple syrup.

Great post Doni!

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I need to give you my family's homemade spaghetti sauce recipe – I have it at home, so remind me/I'll put a reminder for myself. It's a must and actually pretty easy, it's SO good!

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Yes to Renee. GET the Joy of Cooking rightnow.

#6
Salad dressing is the best, because you totally don't have to be that creative to make a great one (aka, me). This also works for marinades. You can do this in a blender or food processor, if needed. But I like the awesome little "herb 'n serve" (http://thatloudgirl.com/the-food-category/food-week-the-big-finish/) for things that don't need an aggressive blade.

So, the formula is acid + fat + flavors = dressing. The possibilities are srsly endless.

Whole Foods has a great post with some dressing combo suggestions but there are some of my favies:
- lime + avo + cilantro (great for a shrimp fiesta type salad)
- sundried tomatoes + oil from sundried tomato jar + fresh basil and oregano (and maybe a little touch of sour cream for good measure) <–acutally I just made this one up.
- red wine vinegar + extra virgin olive oil + black pepper and garlic salt = a perfect standby for a nice crisp salad.

PLEASE let me know about your creative combos?

#7
Spaghetti sauce, I think has to be treated as one of those "recipes" similar to your alfredo sauce. At least that's how we approached it. We found ourselves one day with WAYTOOMANY cans of chopped tomatoes that were about to expire. We also happened to have some carrots and garden-fresh zucchini (the best).

I think we just looked up a recipe as a guideline, but it went approximately like this:

Saute a buncha onion (one big one or two small-to-medium) and garlic (3-5 cloves, depending on your desire to smell like garlic) until translucent. Add in your favorite herbs. Ours probably had a ton of fresh basil and oregano. Salt and pepper.

Once that looks good, add in your favorite red wine (1/4 cup?) and some tomato paste. Once that's uniformly mixed in, add all your tomatoes. Let that hang out over medium-low heat for an hour or so. Then add in your other desired veggies (I think ours was mushrooms, zucchini and carrots, which was delish) and let it hang for at least another hour.

The sauce was good. But it wasn't GREAT until it had hung out in the fridge for a day or so. Reheated, it was to die for.

#10
Hummus is one of my favorite things to experiment with. The trick to good, creamy hummus is to food-process it FOREVER. And just when you think forever is over, give it another 10 minutes in the food processor. Seriously.

I know that a typical hummus is made with garbanzo beans, but other beans make great hummus, too. Navy beans and edamame are some I've used.

The other trick to making good hummus is to just use whatever flavors you like, and add only a LITTLE TINY BIT at a time, because it's hard to balance out all that garlic once it's been added.

The basics though, include:
- canned, drained garbanzo beans
- salt and pepper
- tahini (be careful w/this stuff because the flavor can be strong)
- lemon (omg! i forgot lemon in my last hummus!)
- extra virgin olive oil

I've also made edamame hummus (http://thatloudgirl.com/the-food-category/in-which-i-made-the-most-delicious-thing-in-a-state-of-delirium/), and navy bean and sundried tomato hummus.

I also WANT to make a cilantro hummus, pesto hummus and some type of cheesey hummus (sorry, is that drool? My bad).

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