Tomato Sauce #2

This is the Chief Senora del Campos espeaking. I have identified the culprit as the mischievous onion. There will be absolutely no more onion in tomato sauce. Tonight it was much darker because of the lack of onion, but I forgot the sugar and overall wasn't impressed. The wine didn't seem to have a big effect. Still searching for how to make the perfect tomato sauce...

Stephxican Lasagna

If I were Mexican, I'd probably not want this called Mexican, so it's Stephxican. Don't ask me how to pronounce that. (Pictures were taken before I realized I forgot the corn.)

Last night's delicious feast was preceded by a stunning spectacle of surgical skill: I forgot the corn, but was able to lift off each layer of lasagna (take that, Italians!) to add the corn back. (The masses that told me it wasn't possible were clearly not aware of my spectacular surgical skill!) It was heavenly. It was in a springform pan.

Humble Pie

For some, the mediocrity of Friday Night Experiments would be enough to call off Saturday Afternoon Experiments, but life lived with that mindset isn't very interesting. For instance, making BIG mistakes teaches us things, like how nice nonstick cookie sheets are!

Recipe for humble pie: Great aspirations. Three zucchini sliced very, very thin. Put the slices in a bowl with some olive oil, salt, and pepper, then bake at 450 for half an hour. Have fun scrubbing the carbon-covered cookie sheets!

Once again I am reminded that it is a gift when an idea or recipe comes out the way I want it to, not something to be taken for granted. The first big lesson of this was the three attempts at making kiwi gelato (I have since given up). The Poet Mraz reminds us all how blessed we are to even have food; the ThankfulFor blog reminds us how blessed we are to hear. Not to pretend like I own a soapbox, but I think that agriculture should be an integral part of everyone's formal education; I think gratitude should have a much larger role in our lives.

Question for readers: how does one fix tasteless hummus? Is the tahini really that necessary?

Friday Night Experiments

What are weekends for? Extra time for kitchen experiments! I'm still in search of the perfect pasta sauce. Tonight it might have happened if someone had reminded me to buy dry basil. The other reason I have to go shopping again is that somehow I bought CRAP olive oil - I tasted a small spoon of it and then a bit of another bottle's oil and the one I bought today (because it was cheaper...) tasted relatively tasteless. Very sad. Horray for more shopping! If only I were in Italy and could buy olive oil at the farmers' market tomorrow!!!

In happier news, the tomatoes were the best store-bought tomatoes I've ever had. I was skeptical at first because the package said they'd been packaged more than a week ago, and they came from Arizona. Tomatoes from Arizona? I stand corrected. They tasted like I had actually picked them off the vine in my backyard!

Experiments today involved sherry for the first time. I took a tiny spoonful of it too and found it surprisingly strong and sweet; moreover I wished I had white wine because my extreme lack of knowledge about wine says white wine would be better.

The tomato sauce ended up being very light - good for summer but disappointing (everyone else who tasted it was impressed) because of the lack of spices. There was a blending basil win, however. And I am getting better at mincing garlic :). I had to suck it up and buy a $4 pound of peeled garlic because peeling garlic requires turning off the fan (or the paper blows everywhere) and turning off the fan isn't really an option.

Recipes:

Nice light summery tomato sauce: Saute minced garlic (I think I used seven cloves) in extra virgin olive oil for a few minutes, then add half a medium-sized onion. Cook for a few minutes and then add the tomatoes. Cook for 5-10 minutes then turn off the heat, put about half the tomatoes in the blender, and add the tomato puree back to the pan. Turn the heat back on and add 1/4 tsp oregano, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, and a few turns of the black pepper grinder. I made the mistake of dumping in a bit of cooking sherry which made the sauce too sweet in my opinion (a friend said she one of the the things she liked about it was that it wasn't too sweet, so just adjust to you taste). After a few minutes of heavy boiling to reduce the sauce, I put a bunch back in the blender on a higher speed because the sauce was still too thin. (In the end it was always too thin; I think tomato paste intervention might be necessary.) During the second blending, I added five large (as in 4"!) fresh basil leaves to the tomato sauce in the blender. Next time: No onion, more garlic, loooooots more basil, no sherry, and back to the tried and true 3 tbsp. dried basil and 1 tbsp. dried oregano.

QuinoaSherryBroccoli Experiment: Saute minced garlic in extra virgin olive oil, then add small pieces of cooked (or almost cooked) broccoli florets (you get to eat the stems while you cook - don't throw them out!) and a generous unmeasured amount of cooking sherry. Watch sadly as it immediately evaporates. Add more sherry, turn off the heat, and continue talking with hungry friend while sherry soaks in. Turn heat back on, on LOW, and stir while everything gently cooks. When the voices in your head say so, add cooked quinoa. I probably used about 1.5 cups, but I didn't measure. Use however much is appropriate for the amount of broccoli you used slash however much is appropriate for the number of people you are trying to feed slash however much is appropriate for how hungry people are. Stir and cook for a few minutes to let the flavors marry and get nice and warm and happy. Feed to your hungry friend. Hungry friend will be impressed. :) Kudos to my sleepy brain for this fantastic idea. Next time: use another kind of wine. Donors, anyone?

P.S. While you cook: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ige8G7qpEF8

Guess who's not doing homework Thursday nights!

She said, "What do you do with dried garbanzos? Do they become normal garbanzos when you...soak them?" And then she made brownies, and we ate them with more extravagant homemade dark chocolate ice cream, and I forgave her. Stay tuned for hummus!!!

We Cubans wear our beans proudly on our shirts! Viva Fidel!

Cuban Black Beans & Rice

Beans- Saute garlic in olive oil, then add onion and bell pepper. Cook for a few minutes, then add tomato sauce, oregano. Cook more, then add beans and bay leaves. I left it in the crock pot overnight on warm. Using three huge yellow peppers = overpowering, so they didn't taste quite normal but were still good. Had to boil off lots of water ( = lots of stove cleaning) because the crock pot doesn't let water out.

Also made quinoa to play with tomorrow. Interesting finding that quinoa is better behaved than rice when cooking (didn't try to burn like the rice did). Somehow it got splattered all over the lid and made a cute speckled pattern. Easier than I thought to pour out rinsing water; easier to use finger than another lid like when draining spaghetti.

Legitissimo Tortilla Pizza

Legitissimo Tortilla Pizza- Preheat oven. Slather tortillas with olive oil. Add chopped tomato, cheese, and ripped fresh basil leaves. Add plenty of oregano and a generous drizzle of olive oil. Bake for 10 minutes at 450. The tortillas were too thick to get properly crispy. More oil next time?

Quesadilla/Sincronizada

Quesadilla- Slather refried beans on a hearty whole wheat tortilla, then thick layers of chopped tomato, cheese, and sweet corn cut off the cob. Add another tortilla on top, and microwave until everything's melty and ideally sticking together. Next time this needs to be done in a greased (to make the tortillas crispy) frying pan because nothing really stuck to the top tortilla.