Roasted Garlic and Basil Pasta Sauce

This is a very flexible sauce. I've included a vegetarian variation for you within the recipe and a few carnivorous suggestions at the end. Use fresh tomatoes whenever possible. If none are available, I like a brand of tomatoes that come in a box from Italy. Beautiful and just the right consistency without any of the BPA you would get in cans. BPA is still not one of my preferred seasonings. 

If you grow tomatoes, you can save them for the sauce by rinsing, coring, chopping, and putting them into freezer bags. Measure 1 - 1 1/2 pounds of tomatoes into each bag and you won't need to buy canned tomatoes.

Roasted Garlic and Basil Pasta Sauce

nutrition facts

Ingredients:

2 full heads of garlic, separated, roasted*, and peeled - do not chop the cloves they must be left whole

3 1/2 pounds tomatoes

1 T pure olive oil

1 onion

A good cup or more of fresh basil, rinsed and torn

6 oz (or more if necessary) of good imported Italian tomato paste

1 cup of beef stock (**vegetarian variation below)

1 cup of good red wine

1 bay leaf

I do not use salt. If you do, don't tell me.

1/2 t or so of fresh ground black pepper

1 t dried oregano

1/2 t dried crushed rosemary

if you are a true fan of garlic, add a few teaspoons of powdered garlic too. I do and it's delicious. Granulated garlic has a distinctly different flavor from fresh whole roasted cloves and add a terrific depth to the flavors.

1 Tablespoon or so of brown sugar (depends on the acidity of your tomatoes, you may not need any sugar)

What to do:

*roast the garlic on a pan in the oven (a toaster oven is fantastic for this). 375 degrees Fahrenheit for about 12-15 minutes. Let them roast until the papery part starts to brown and they feel softened when you poke them. Allow to cool naturally on the pan while you start the rest of the sauce. I find it easiest for my arthritic hands to peel them if I chop off one end. This is another of my favorite rather messy jobs that make the house and your hands smell simply wonderful!

Rinse, core, and rough chop the tomatoes (see Note). Put them in a bowl and dig in with your hands and squish them a bit.

Note: If you like your sauce smooth, you will want to peel the tomatoes. Unfortunately, if you do that you pitch a great lot of vitamins and fiber, which is not very mindful. This sauce will take a couple hours to cook and much of the peel will break down. I prefer a rather “lumpy bumpy” sauce instead of smooth and love the peel. Give it a try, you may be like me and never peel again!

Rough chop the onion and put it in a bowl. Rinse, pat dry, and tear the basil into pieces; place in a bowl. Measure the stock and wine. Measure and place all seasonings in a bowl.

**you can skip the beef stock if you are a vegetarian. Replace the cup of stock with more tomato and wine in the proportion you prefer.

How to cook the sauce:

In a very large pot, heat the oil over medium heat. When the oil begins to shimmer and dance, add the chopped onion. Sauté until the onion has softened. You can brown the onions or not. Browned onions add a wonderful savory element to the sauce, but it is not absolutely required by law.

Add all the remaining ingredients to the pot and bring to a nice simmer. The sauce will be a bit thin. That’s ok. Let it simmer at least two hours to reduce a bit. If at that time it is not thick enough for you, add a few more squishes of tomato paste (I love the tomato paste that comes from Italy and is in a tube just like toothpaste!). Stir frequently. As you near the two hour point, taste and adjust the seasonings. When the sauce is as thick as you like cover it with a lid and keep it simmering on low until the pasta is ready. I usually cook this sauce at least three hours, but it has also gone on a simmering quite a bit longer.

You may “need” to check the taste a few times. A nice piece of chewy bread is good for dipping into the sauce…. as often as you like. A cook cannot be too sure, after all, your reputation is on the line…

Optional:

If you are a meat eater, this is a wonderful sauce for adding ribs, meatballs, or your favorite sausage. Make sure you brown the meats well first. Depending on the meat, you may want to extend the cookery time another hour or so. Meatballs will be fine with an hour or two of cookery, but ribs will enjoy a longer simmer until they are tender.

Hot Pepper Vinegar

What do you get when your garden has the following pepper plants?

Part of a morning's pepper harvest

two habaneros

two jalapeno

two hot chili peppers

two Carribean hots

two long thin cayenne

two sweet bananas

Answer: about 12 pounds of peppers... so far.

Interestingly enough, it is not easy to get people to accept care packages of the habaneros... lovely things though they are ... and they are most beautiful. Everyone wants the sweet banana peppers.

So, most of the hot peppers are getting rinsed, dried, and stuffed inside a freezer bag where they now take up about half of my freezers acreage. We had to do something with them so I made some hot pepper vinegar! It's easy and you can use it on any food you would sprinkle with Tabasco. There is simply no need to make bunches of the stuff unless you plan to gift people with these with the understanding that most will not ever sample the goodness, but will instead place them in the kitchen as a decorative item.

What you need to get:

2 clear glass oil and vinegar containers that have a nice seal or can be capped (thought nice canning jars are fine, but they are so wide mouthed it would be difficult to get just a dribble at a time)

about two cups or so of white distilled vinegar

a bunch of hot peppers in a variety of colors

cloves of garlic

a pair of thin cheap disposable gloves

a funnel

How to prep:

Clean the containers either in a dishwasher, by boiling them, or in super hot sudsy water (I did the latter and added a pot full of boiling water to the dish pan as the containers soaked. Rinse and dry.

Pour the vinegar into a medium sized pot. Set it on the stove.

Put on the gloves. Rinse the peppers well. Slice off the stems. Make a slit from top to bottom but leave them whole. If they will be too big to fit into the opening of the container, cut them in half, but they are prettier when left whole so consider looking for a container with a large enough opening.

Peel the garlic cloves. Leave them whole... or cut in half, but don't cut them small.

How to assemble:

With the gloves still on, stick the peppers and garlic into the containers. Alternate colors of peppers - red, yellow, green. Add a garlic clove every now and then. Stuff those bottles full. Dispose of the gloves. Wash hands well.

Boil the vinegar. Using the funnel, pour the vinegar into the containers. Do this very mindfully as I do not want any of you to burn yourselves with boiling vinegar. Take great care, ok?

Fill only to about a quarter inch of the top. Carefully tap the bottles every now and then. This will help the vinegar get inside the peppers. You'll notice the vinegar level drop in a few minutes. Funnel in more vinegar to raise it to the same level as before. Repeat until the vinegar level stays constant.

The finished sauce!

Allow to cool. Seal and put in your pantry. 

After a day or so you can start to sample. Depending on what kind of peppers you used and your tolerance to hot stuff, be very careful when you taste. A drop at a time and upward is better than a serious dosing and a flame on mouth.

24 Hours later, we had green beans for dinner. I put a teensy bit of Hot Pepper Vinegar into a bowl and we all touched a green bean to the vinegar and tasted. I used mostly habaneros in our bottle with a dashing of jalapeno, chili, and cayenne. On a scale of 1-10, the sauce was an 11 and totally delicious. 


7 Days later, we had a fajita grill out for dinner. I put a teensy bit of Hot Pepper Vinegar into a bowl and we all dipped shrimp into the vinegar and tasted. On a scale of 1-10, the sauce was only a 3 with a sustained warmth that was very pleasing and a nice flavor that very much appealed.

I've seen other recipes note that the bottles should be kept out of direct sunlight and it makes sense, so do that. If at any time the vinegar looks a little cloudy or the peppers look funky, dispose of it. You probably have about a million more peppers in the freezer so just make up a new batch.

Enjoy this sauce on simple vegetables (it rocked the green beans), chili, tacos, or just about anything you want to zap with a dose of heat.

Scalloped Potatoes with a Scandinavian Variation

These are the traditional Scalloped Potatoes that so many of us grew up with. The modern and mindful twist here would be to leave the skin on as that is where so much of the nutrition resides. I like using red potatoes instead of baking potatoes because I think they have a superior texture and don't just turn to mush. But, if you prefer baking potatoes, by all means use them. If you are interested in the calories, here they are (minus the optional cheese).

Scalloped Potatoes

Ingredients:

2 T butter

2 T flour

(if you are a salter, you will want to add a bit here)

1/8 t pepper

1/4 cup onion, grated or very finely chopped

2 C milk, whole is best, but you can use 2%. Do not use skim

6 cups red potatoes, skin on and sliced to 1/4 inch pieces (You really cannot easily measure cups for slices of potatoes. There will be a lot of air space in the cup, so make the cups very generous and you will be close enough.)

Cheddar cheese, grated, is optional and quite tasty

Scandinavian Variation ingredients:

Use 1-3 leeks instead of onion - only the white and light green part, thinly sliced, sautéed in 1 T olive oil for about five minutes.

Add 1 cup or more of grated Jarlsberg cheese (I rather like the words "or more" here)

1 t dried rosemary in addition to the pepper.

More options here include adding gently sautéed cut asparagus or fresh peas to the white sauce.

Yes, I know the cheese is Norwegian. But my Grandmother came from Sweden, so I compromised on the name of the variation - don't want to upset my Grandmother. :D

Prep:

Always measure and prep all your ingredients first. It's the mindful way. That way you do not suddenly realize you forgot the onion when you are at the point where you must constantly stir the sauce... not that I have done such a thing... *cough cough*

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

In a medium pot, make a white sauce (Béchamel). Melt the butter over low heat, blend in the flour, pepper, and salt if using. Stir constantly until the mix bubbles and the flour incorporates with the butter.  Add onion and then slowly add the milk mixing well as you go to avoid floury lumps. Stir and cook over medium until it nearly boils and thickens. If you are using cheddar cheese, add it to the sauce and stir til it melts. For a sauce so thick you can stand a spoon in it, increase the butter and flour to 3 T ea but keep the milk to 2 cups.

Spray a casserole dish with Pam or lightly coat with butter. Lay half of the potatoes in the casserole. Pour half of the sauce over the potatoes, lifting them with a fork so the sauce covers them all. BTW - leave some room at the top - a good 1/2 inch or so. Otherwise you had best put a sheet of foil under the dish to catch the boil over drips... been there.

Scandinavian Style with grilled chicken and grilled pineapple

Repeat with the remaining potatoes and sauce.

Cover and bake for about an hour and a half. The dish is done when the potatoes are soft - use a fork to check. Allow to sit uncovered for 5-10 minutes to "set" before serving. Very excellent reheated.

Basically Bechamel

This is one of the primal sauces. Master it and you will be able to cook so many things without having to open cans or packets. Put it in things, on things, next to things. Gussy it up, dress it down, it's one of the most versatile sauces around. Make sure you read the Variations for a few suggestions to get you going.

Learning to cook a few basic sauces is beneficial on many levels - you are in control of the ingredients (this may be very important to you if your are on a fat or sodium restricted diet), it's often cheaper, it tastes a lot better, and the simple act of creating a sauce that has been made by not only You, but nearly every famous chef in existence is incredibly mindful.

The next time you are tempted to buy a packet of white sauce mix and read the ingredients on the package. Bechamel is simply the French name for what many refer to as White Sauce. Then compare that list on the package to the recipe ingredients below and think about what you really want to eat.

The recipe makes two cups, a fairly standard amount that can be used to scallop potatoes or drizzle over veggies. Add cheese and pour over cauliflower and you have the famous English delicacy Cauliflower Cheese.

If you are interested in nutrition facts, here they are (set for those that use skim milk as I am assuming that if you click the word here, you are a calorie counter and looking for lower calories).

Basically Bechamel

Ingredients that do not include anything with a lengthy chemical name or something to make sure there was no settling or glumping of powder:

2 T unsalted butter is best, but use the kind you prefer
3 T flour
2 C hot milk (use whole, 2% or skim as is your preference. The calories above are run using skim)
Salt to taste
Ground white pepper to taste
A pinch of nutmeg or thyme is very good in this sauce.

Directions that are almost as easy as those on the packet:

Melt the butter in a medium sized sauce pan over medium heat. Stir in the flour until it is thoroughly incorporated into the butter - about two minutes will help remove the "floury" taste and that's where many people mess up when making Bechamel. Remove from heat.

Heat the milk in your preferred way - I've done it in a small pan or in the microwave. Either way is fine but get it hot. It should be heating while you are prepping the butter and flour.

Dump the hot milk into the butter/flour mixture and vigorously stir or whisk to make sure the sauce is not lumpy.

Return it to the medium heat and bring it to a boil - stir or whisk the entire time it is coming to a boil.

Then lower the temp and simmer for another two minutes. Season with the salt, white pepper, and nutmeg to your taste.

Variations:

Add cheese after the final simmer if you are making something deliciously cheesy.

Or make it even more savory - skip the nutmeg, add some black pepper or browned and drained breakfast sausage, it's great over a biscuit.

Skip the salt and make sure you use skim milk to lower the fat and sodium. You may want to ramp up the pepper and definitely add the bit of thyme.

Need to lower the calories even more or do not use milk? Make Veloute instead!

Chimichurri

My husband brought back a few bottles of Malbec after his recent business trip to Buenos Aires and I wanted to make a dinner to match the deeply colored highly flavored wine. What to serve with Argentinian wine? An Argentinian meal of grilled steak, Chimichurri sauce, Argentinian Black Beans (recipe link will be added here later), salad, and as an appetizer Grilled Provolone with Grilled Ciabatta Bread (recipe link to be added for this wonderful appetizer later).
Chimichurri sauce is green because it is is packed so full of parsley! Mine may not be the authentic Chimichurri, but it's tasty!

If you are interested in the nutrition and calories, you can find them here. I ran them assuming a fairly large serving. If you use less and are a calorie counter, take that into consideration.

Ingredients:

2 cups packed finely chopped flat Italian leaf parsley
5 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
pinch of salt
1/2 t freshly ground black pepper
1 t hot red pepper flakes
2 T fresh oregano leaves
2 T shallot, finely minced
3/4 cup cold pressed extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 T white wine vinegar*
1 1/2 T fresh lemon juice*

* many people like a more acidic Chimichurri. If you are one of them, please feel free to double the vinegar and lemon juice. A recipe is but a template, you take it and make it yours.

Directions:

Chop and measure everything.

Put everything in a large bowl (or blender) and finish the "chopping" with an immersion blender stick.  I love the blender sticks because they are so much easier to clean than traditional blenders.

Refrigerate for a couple hours, taste and adjust the seasonings - but remember, it will taste different when it is sitting prettily atop a forkful of steak.

Serve the steak and Chimichurri with a hearty Malbec wine. If you cannot find a Malbec, then one of the more assertive Zinfandels will do in its place...I do NOT mean that pink wine that too many people think of when they hear the word Zinfandel. I mean a serious red Zin.

 A more feminine Pinot Noir or a subtle Cabernet would simply be lost on the palate under an avalanche of highly seasoned Chimichurri, making them most un-mindful choices.

As you make and then eat this wonderful sauce, spend a few moments in the most mindful way you can. Appreciate the color, the silky texture, the aroma of the fresh ingredients while you chop, the aromatic mingling of aromas once it is mixed, and explore how the flavor changes when it is sampled alone and then when it is added to a bite of grilled beef. Enjoy.

More Fun with Oxtails and Rich Gravy

"Does she still make that incredible oxtail gravy?!" This question came from friends that nearly 15 years ago had moved to Alaska. I thought that was a pretty nice compliment. Primal Sauces such as this one implant a culinary memory that becomes permanently etched in our psyches. The extremely rich sauce needs a robust pasta so do not put it on thin spaghetti or angel hair pasta.

If the idea of oxtails grosses you out, no worries. Just cook up some Sicilian or Hot Italian sausages instead. The meat needs to be particularly well flavored or it will become lost in the sauce which is not at all mindful. Mangia!

Oxtail Gravy for Pasta, but not Wimpy Pasta, Only Nice Substantial Pasta
nutrition facts

raw ox tail

Ingredients with special notes and all that stuff:

2 T pure olive oil
1 nice sized onion, chopped up nice and fine to hide, from my onion hating son, the fact that an entire onion is in there
2 full heads of garlic, separated, roasted*, and peeled - do not chop the cloves they must be left whole
2 pounds or so of oxtails**
3 pounds or more tomatoes, squished by hand*** (more fun! very mindful) or chopped or from a can
6 oz (or more if necessary) of good imported Italian tomato paste
1 cup of beef stock
1 cup of red wine - now in a perfect world, you have a bottle of port on hand, because let me tell you there is absolutely nothing better in this dish than port. Use red wine if you are subbing sausage for oxtails.
1 Tablespoon or so of brown sugar (more if the tomatoes are particularly acidic. Use less or none at all depending on your tomato source. With homegrown fresh tomatoes, sugar is usually not necessary)
1 bay leaf
2 t dried basil or a whole mess of fresh basil grabbed by the handful rough chopped and dumped in until the flavor and aroma is just right
I do not use salt. If you do, don't tell me.
1/2 t or so of fresh ground black pepper
1 t dried oregano
1/2 t dried crushed rosemary
if you are a true fan of garlic, add a few teaspoons of powdered garlic too. I do and it's delicious.
1 pound of your fave sturdy pasta such as ziti or those lovely little wagon wheels cooked al dente

Methods of various sorts and even more notations as I think of them:

Heat the oil in a nice big heavy pot over medium-high heat. Brown the oxtails well on all sides - best done in small batches so they don't crowd and "steam" instead of brown. The brown adds flavor to the sauce. Seamed meat does not add much extra oomph. Set aside on a plate for a moment while you proceed.

If there's too much oil in the pan, drain some off and if you drained too much then stick in another tablespoon or so of pure olive oil - oh, do not use extra virgin because the smoke point is too low, just regular pure olive oil. Heat the new oil or reheat the old if you left some in there, and add the onion. Saute over medium heat until they start to brown. No need to caramelize them, just brown them.

the sauce with whole wheat penne pasta

Put the oxtail back in the pot. Add the crushed tomatoes (do crush them with your hands, so much fun!). Most people seem to like to use canned tomatoes which means they will already be peeled. If you are using real live actual unprocessed tomatoes, you may want to peel them. I do not peel. I think mainly people peel them because the floating tomato skin bits may not be particularly attractive. They are dratted tasty though and if the sauce is cooked long enough they incorporate well and are not noticeable. If you used canned tomatoes add the liquid from the can. I also do not remove the seeds my tomatoes. I like a lumpy bumpy texture filled sauce.

Add everything else but the pasta and bring to a brief boil. Lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, for about three hours. Yes three hours. Lid on for the first hour. Lid off until the sauce is as thick as you like. You cannot over cook this sauce. It "matures" the longer it cooks. I've let it go for six hours and the results were awesome. Do not minimize time cooked as the oxtail needs to meet with all the nice other ingredients, overcome its natural shyness, become good friends with the seasonings, and tenderize to the point where it is about to fall off the bone.

Stir now and then so it doesn't burn. Sometimes when you cook with oxtails a bit of foamy stuff floats to the top; just skim it off. If the liquid reduces too much, taste first, then add more of whatever you think it could use more of - fresh squished tomato, beef stock, or port. If you add more liquid you may need more spices too, but hold off on more oregano and rosemary, they are just supportive notes and not front and center. Garlic and basil are center stage here.

If the sauce is too thin and dinner is only an hour away, add more paste. I love to use a paste that comes from Italy in a tube. The ingredient list says only tomatoes and salt. Not much salt at that because I could tell if it had a lot. I can detect a grain of salt in a cup of sauce. I'm magical that way.

Taste and adjust the seasonings. If you are a salter, I'll avert my eyes here and sing songs to cover the sound of the grinder. If you want to try what I do when a sauce asks to be salted, add several drops of Tabasco sauce. It does the same accenting of flavors that salt does with less sodium (yes, I know there's salt in there, but there's not that much in a half dozen shakes). Depending on your tomatoes and what you are used to, you may need a pinch more of brown sugar. Italian-Americans often do this to remove the acidic notes of some tomatoes.

Cook the pasta, drain, and put on a platter. Serve with the pot of sauce and let everyone top the oxtails with gravy and select their preferred size of oxtails. Serve with a ton of good fresh made Italian bread so every last drop of the sauce can be mindfully consumed.

Notes:

*roasting garlic: separate the cloves but do not peel. Place on a small baking sheet - I like to use my toaster oven as there is no need for a large oven for this little bit of garlic. Roast at 375 F for about 20 minutes - or until the papery ends start to brown and curl and the house smells simply divine. Allow to cool and then peel. Yes. You eat them whole and fights will break out over who gets the last ones so make sure you roast a lot.

**we love the small oxtails, but some people prefer the larger pieces. I find those too difficult to extract the meat from. You can just put the small ones in your mouth whole and suck off the meat like you would a rib. If you buy a package already wrapped from the store, it will have both small and large pieces, so if you've not made this before do that and then you can figure out which size you like and then ask the butcher for a special package the next time. It helps to be friendly with your butcher. Likely he's squirreled away a bunch of the lovely small oxtails for himself.

***I do not peel the tomatoes. There's lots of good stuff in the skin, and I like a sauce with texture instead of a smooth liquid. I do not very often use my blender stick for that reason. If you don't like the skin mixed in with the sauce and prefer to peel, then do it. But please put the peel in the compost bin. Then you can salvage some mindfulness. :D

Barbecued Spareribs with Italian Style!

Italian Style Barbecue Spare Ribs!

Want the most awesome lip smacking, sticky finger licking amazingly meaty ribs ever? Then you have got to try Italian Barbecued Spareribs.

My plan - first make a great Italian BBQ sauce, then apply to ribs and bake. Easy peasy! When making your Italian spareribs, remember that a recipe is nothing but a template, a springboard for you to begin to create something just for you! So taste and change the sauce to suit you and your family. I modified the following recipe from a wonderful recipe by my Aunt-in-law, Mama D! 

Prep the Ribs! (preheat oven to 350)

3 lbs of nice lean spare ribs (whatever kind you like, I used the St. Louis Cut in the photo)
rub with 1/8 cup of pure olive oil.

Mix together 1/2 t fresh cracked black pepper, 1 t oregano, 2 cloves minced garlic or equivalent powdered, and 1 t of dried rosemary and rub all over the ribs.

Place the ribs in a great big economy sized baking pan (I used Pyrex for ease of cleaning later), brown a bit in the oven on both sides and then drain off the grease. I think it took me 20 minutes on one side and another 15 on the other. It will depend on how hot your oven runs.

Top with a few rings of onion slices if you like and then cover with every bit of the delicious Italian Barbecue sauce (below). Then bake in the oven for about another 2 hours or until the ribs are as tender as you like. Baste frequently. The amount of final baking time will depend on the weight of the slab of ribs. Make sure your side dishes are flexible timing-wise in the meal so if it takes a little longer there is no problem. I cooked mine about 45 minutes longer than the 2 hours, but then, it was nearly 4 pounds of glorious ribs!

Italian Barbecue Sauce

Ingredients and a few notes of stuff as I think about it:

1/4 cup pure olive oil
4-6 cloves garlic (all depends on the size and more would not hurt it at all), minced
1 onion, chopped (now Mama D specified two onions chopped, but I have a member of the household that is not the biggest fan of onions so I just used one)
1 29 oz can of tomato puree (or a #2 1/2 depending on where you live your cans are numbered instead of weighed in ounces!)
2 T wine vinegar - get a good one, I used Colavita
2 T packed brown sugar...packed firm and maybe even rounded a bit!
1/2 t fresh ground black pepper
1 t oregano

Sauce Directions:

Heat the oil in a sauce pan, add onion and saute til starting to soften, add garlic and saute another couple minutes to release the glorious garlic aroma! Add the remaining ingredients and stir frequently while simmering for about 30 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings after about 20 minutes of simmering.

It is impossible to not be very mindful indeed when eating these ribs, so enjoy!

Some Sauce to Put on Those Pizza Bones

I gave you the pizza bone recipe, but not the sauce recipe! I make Mama D's sauce because I usually make her crust and they do rather suit each other nicely. When I make a Mama D recipe, I almost always change the same things. I reduce the oil, either eliminate or dramatically cut the salt, increase the garlic, and jazz it up with something like red pepper flakes and some other spices depending on what's needed. The doctor would not like it if I used all that salt and when you cut salt you really do have to ramp up the other seasonings.

Pizza Sauce 

The nutrition facts for the sauce and for my favorite toppings can be found at Calorie Count!

Ingredients:

1 29 oz can tomato puree
3 T olive oil
1/2 t salt
1/4 t or so of fresh cracked black pepper
1/2 t oregano
1 t or so of garlic powder
A dash or three of red pepper flakes
Often I add a small pinch or two of sugar it all depends on the acidity of the tomatoes.

Directions with cautionary notes:

Combine all ingredients in a medium pot. The seasoning amounts are the minimum, not the maximum or the precise amount needed. Start there and then tweak til it suits you. I add about twice or so what is listed. Simmer uncovered for about 30 minutes. Ok, NOT uncovered or you will get a lot of pretty red blotches all over your kitchen, so put the lid on but leave it tilted so steam escapes and stick that spoon in and stir fast when you stir - a chef's apron is highly recommended or keep the stain stick handy.

Taste and adjust seasonings so that it's the way YOU like it. Ladle on a couple of pizza crusts and top with some wonderful things like basil and gorgeous hunks of fresh mozzarella. This makes more than enough sauce for 3-4 pizzas. Save your leftovers and put it on flat bread or muffins and use your toaster oven to make great individual pizzas!

Homemade pizza is the ultimate Mindful experience and well worth the effort. Enjoy!

Grilled Angel Food Cake with Warm Wild Blueberry Sauce

Some desserts are just so incredibly rich and glorious that we know they must be oh so very bad for us, calorie laden as well as full of wonderful fat. Such desserts are Things We Crave and do our best to resist using self-righteous terms that speak of our supreme sacrifice, and ultimately the depth of our failure as we give in to temptation.

Grilled Angel Food Cake with Warm Wild Blueberry Sauce.

Words worthy of their own sentence in italics. Yes grilled cake, over coals. The grilling creates beautiful brown stripes of caramelized crispness on the outside while slightly softening the sugar spun insides of the cake. That alone would bring the simple cake to near perfection making it enough to swoon for, but topped with warm gently simmered blueberry sauce, Angel Food Cake is taken to a totally new level of beauty and deliciousness.

 

If I were a chef I would have found the perfect Angel Food Cake recipe and made it from scratch. However, I just like to prepare and eat good food, so I bought a grocery store made cake and make no apologies for it. Slice and grill 2-4 minutes on each side. How long depends upon how hot your coals are, do not put the cake slices too close to the coals and watch carefully so that the cake does not burn or flame on.

The sauce can be prepared ahead of time and then just reheated, or made fresh in about 10 minutes.

Warm Wild Blueberry Sauce

Ingredients -

2 10 oz packages of frozen wild blueberries
1/3 C orange juice
1/3 C sugar
2 T lemon juice
4 t cornstarch

Directions -

Combine blueberries, juice and sugar in a medium saucepan. Cover and gradually bring to a boil over medium high heat, stir every now and then. After it begins to boil, reduce heat and simmer for four minutes.

While it's simmering, combine the lemon juice and cornstarch in a small bowl. Add this to the berries after the four minute simmer concludes and return to a boil for a minute or two stirring often. Remove from heat and either use it right away, or cool and put in the fridge for reheating while the angel food cake is grilling. Can be made 3-4 days in advance.

I saved a surprise for the end. The calories in a typical slice of Angel Food Cake is 72. The calories in the sauce is a mere 67. Thus this beautiful impress the company dessert has only 139 calories. For a nutrition breakdown on the sauce, click here.

This sauce can be used on anything you want - pancakes, oatmeal, cakes, ice cream, cheesecake, or eat it out of hand with a spoon. Lovely and remember, blueberries are good for you. Don't use a wooden spoon that you love very much while stirring as it will turn very purple.

Enjoy this beautiful dessert in a mindful way.

A Primal Sauce

I love finding one new recipe to mix in with the traditional required elements of our Thanksgiving dinner. This year I found a fabulous recipe at Saveur, a website which I strongly recommend to everyone for an outstanding collection of wonderful recipes. The new find was for Broccoli with Sicilian Sauce. I am determined to eat well and save calories so I always look for ways to reduce calories but not at the expense of flavor. This recipe took only a few minor tweaks.

You can find the calorie and nutrition analysis here.

Anyway, the dish was absolutely outstanding and the hit of the dinner. Yes, broccoli was the hit of a Thanksgiving dinner. Ok, not the broccoli, the sauce was so superb we had a great time coming up with other foods you could us it on.

The recipe made quite a bit of sauce so there was a ton of left over. Last night we decided that it must be consumed on ravioli. Again, sublime.

Now, this is a picture of my plate. The husband and son added Sicilian olives both on top of the broccoli and the ravioli as that is what the recipe called for. However, olives are just one of those things that I cannot abide and the sauce truly did not need them no matter what the husband says. Pine nuts would be pretty, but I am trying to drop a few pounds and all they really add are pretty, some crunch, and calories.

Unfortunately, that killed every last scraping of the wondrous sauce. As we concluded this meal conversation again extended to the incredible nature of the sauce and what else it would be wonderful on. Next up will be baked potatoes in Sicilian Sauce. Here's the Recipe for Sicilian Sauce - you put it on whatever you want and let it become one of your primary "go to" sauces.

Ingredients

1/8	t Sea Salt
1/8	t black pepper, fresh ground
3	tbsp. olive oil
1/4	c parsley, finely chopped
2	red onions, medium sized, thinly sliced
1/2	cup red wine, dry wine
2	tbsp. vinegar, red wine
1	tbsp. tomato paste, generous tablespoon
3/4	tsp. dried oregano
1/8	tsp. red pepper flakes
2	tsp garlic, thinly sliced
28	oz. tomatoes, crushed include liquid
1/3	cup seedless raisins

Directions

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add parsley, onions, and salt and pepper as you like, stir often til onions are softened and browned (10 minutes or so).

Add wine, vinegar, tomato paste, oregano, pepper flakes, and garlic and continue cooking stirring occasionally until it reduces a bit to a lovely glaze (about 4-5 minutes).

Stir in the tomatoes with the liquid and bring sauce to a boil. Lower heat to medium low and simmer uncovered stirring every now and then til it thickens a little (about 8-10 minutes).

If everyone likes olives, you can add about 1/3 cup of black Sicilian olives at this point or you can set them on the table for people to add as a topping - ditto with pine nuts.

Stir in the raisins and simmer a minute or so and serve with broccoli, fried cheese, ravioli, baked potatoes, etc.....

A Primal Sicilian Style Sauce

Enjoy slowly and mindfully with family and friends in as many creative ways as you can.