The Sunday Recipe: Simple Marinara Sauce

September 27, 2020 at 6:00 am (Recipes)
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My husband had a bumper crop of Roma tomatoes in his garden this year so my daughter and I ended up doing three batches of marinara sauce over three days for the freezer, refining our skills as we went. Here is where we ended up.

I based the seasoning on the simple sauce I make from canned unsalted tomato sauce.  I just stir together 1 eight ounce can of unsalted tomato sauce, 1 teaspoon of basil, 1 teaspoon of olive oil, ½ teaspoon of oregano, ½ teaspoon of garlic powder, and a pinch of sugar. I use that for pizza, spaghetti squash, zucchini, and eggplant recipes.

Now we have a small supply of sauce from home grown tomatoes.

Simple Marinara Sauce

Ingredients

  • 9 to 10 pounds tomatoes (preferably roma)
  • 1 head of garlic, peeled and crushed
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 1 cup of water
  • ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
  • ¼ cup dried basil
  • 2 Tablespoons dried oregano
  • If not using head of garlic, 2 tablespoons of garlic powder (NOT salt)
  • 4 teaspoons sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

Directions

  1. Clean and quarter the tomatoes to make sure there are no bad spots inside.
  2. Combine tomatoes, crushed garlic, chopped onion, and water in a large stock pot.
  3. Bring to a boil.
  4. Stir and reduce to a simmer.
  5. Leave lid on and stir every fifteen minutes for the first hour.
  6. Tip the lid so steam escapes and continue to simmer for about 3 hours.
  7. Run the cooked tomato mixture through a food mill with a fairly large whole strainer. You’ll get some seeds but not too many. Can also be pressed through a colander but the food mill is much easier.
  8. Place the tomato sauce in a pot and bring to a simmer.
  9. Cook until desired consistency, about an hour.
  10. Add seasonings and simmer another 15 minutes.
  11. Allow to cool.
  12. Package and freeze until needed.

Makes approximately 12 cups of sauce.

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The Friday Poem: Silent Contemplation

September 25, 2020 at 6:00 am (Poetry)

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The Sunday Recipe: Lekvar Cake

September 19, 2020 at 5:27 pm (Recipes)
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This was an attempt to recreate the Lekvar cake my mother makes for Christmas using only paleo ingredients. It did and it didn’t work. It creates a dense, dark cake, but it doesn’t quite recreate the flavors of my childhood. I think next time I will try swapping out some of the pecan flour for tapioca flour. I also may try it as an upside down cake in a pie plate rather than sandwiching it. Make sure you cook the lekvar down until it is a true jam consistency.

Lekvar Sandwich Cake

Ingredients

  • 3 ounces pitted dried prunes 
  • Water to cover the fruit
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1/4 teaspoon each cinnamon and nutmeg
  • ½ teaspoon lemon juice

Directions

  1. Place prunes in a small saucepan and cover with water.
  2. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until fruit is soft, adding more boiling water as necessary.
  3. Remove from heat and purée fruit in a food processor or blender.
  4. Return to saucepan, maple syrup; and cook until thick 30 – 45 minutes.
  5. Remove from heat and stir in cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon juice.

Ingredients

  • 6 ounces pecan flour
  • 2/3 cup maple syrup
  • 5 large eggs (separated)
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ teaspoon salt

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Grease and line a loaf pan with parchment paper.
  3. Separate the 5 eggs into 2 mixing bowls. (I highly recommend you do the actual separating over a small bowl and then dump the egg yolk into the one bowl and transfer the egg white into the mixing bowl.) If you don’t know how to separate eggs, here’s a simple 1-minute video on it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAGX-54iR30
  4. Mix the maple syrup into the egg yolks then stir in the vanilla and pecan flour.
  5. Using a mixer, beat your egg whites and salt until stiff peaks form. (Tip: for best results make sure your bowl and beaters are clean and dry, free of any oil.)
  6. Fold the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture, about one third at a time. (Basically, folding means to use a large rubber spatula to stir up gently from the bottom.)
  7. Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes, until a knife or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  8. Cool completely, at least 4 hours or overnight.
  9. Slice across under the top third of the cake.
  10. Slice the remaining two thirds of the cake across to create a third layer.
  11. Spread half the lekvar on the bottom slice of cake.
  12. Place the middle layer on top and spread with the other half of the lekvar.
  13. Place the top layer on and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
  14. Slice to serve.

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The Friday Poem: Hollowed and Lost

September 18, 2020 at 6:00 am (Poetry)
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It’s angels versus demons, or is it?

September 15, 2020 at 8:34 am (Marketing)

It’s angels versus demons, always has been, always will be, or is it?

#angels #demons #paranormalromance #tirgearrtuesday

http://www.tirgearrpublishing.com/authors/Johnson_Melora/earthbound.htm

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The Sunday Recipe: Oven Fried Zucchini

September 13, 2020 at 6:00 am (Recipes)
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These are an old favorite snack. I usually use garden zucchini these days and put the leftover back in the fridge. When I made them years ago I just used a small-ish zucchini, egg beaters, and Italian bread crumbs. These days they make some really great gluten free bread crumbs.

Oven Fried Zucchini

Ingredients

  1. 1 small to medium sized zucchini
  2. 1 egg, whisked
  3. 1/4 to 1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs
  4. Olive oil cooking spray
  5. 1/4 cup grated parmesan (optional)

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 425.
  2. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
  3. Beat an egg in a bowl.
  4. Pour approximately a half cup of Italian bread crumbs into a second bowl.
  5. Sliced the zucchini into 1/4 inch to 1/3 inch rounds.
  6. Dip the zucchini slices into the egg with one hand, then shake off the excess.
  7. Drop the dipped slice into the bread crumbs and shake bowl to coat.
  8. Use the tines of a fork to carefully prick the slice, lift it, and shake off the excess crumbs. (I tap the fork on the edge of the bowl to facilitate this.)
  9. Place on the prepared baking pan.
  10. When you’ve breaded all the slices, spritz the top of the slices with cooking spray.
  11. Bake for ten minutes.
  12. Flip the zucchini and bake another ten minutes.
  13. Enjoy!

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The Friday Poem: Separated

September 11, 2020 at 5:00 am (Poetry)

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The Sunday Recipe: Apple Cider Doughnut Cake

September 6, 2020 at 5:54 am (Recipes)
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If you’ve read any of my recipes you might have noticed, I tend to work with what I’ve got and switch things out to avoid wheat flour and refined sugar. If you want the original recipe with sugar and wheat flour, I adapted this recipe from https://theviewfromgreatisland.com/apple-cider-doughnut-cake/#wprm-recipe-container-84520

Now, I didn’t have any oat flour on hand, nor any applesauce but I did have apples and quick oats. So, I peeled, cored and diced up a couple granny smith apples. I happened to have some plums and thought, why not? So, I cut up a plum and put that in too, with just enough water to keep things from sticking to the bottom of the little pot. I brought it to a boil then turned it down to simmer for half an hour. I processed some oats up. (1 ½ cups of oats yields approximately 1 1/2 cups of oat flour.) Then I processed the applesauce when it was done cooking and cooled in the fridge for 20 minutes.

My daughter asked if we could make another before we finished the first cake. This time we are going to glaze it instead of using the butter and sugar on top. We’ve also agreed to add ½ teaspoon of nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon of ginger, and a dash of cloves.

By the end, I was wishing I had mixed in the Kitchen Aid mixer because it’s a LOT of batter. If a Bundt pan cake seems like too much, I’ve also had good luck cutting a Bundt pan recipe in half and baking it in a glass loaf pan.

This cake is definitely best after totally cooled, and even chilled.

Apple Cider Doughnut Cake

Ingredients

Dry ingredients

  • 1 ½ cups white rice flour + ¼ cup tapioca flour
  • 1 1/2 cups oat flour (1 ½ cups of oats processes into the same for oat flour.)
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Wet ingredients

  • 1 cup apple cider
  • 3/4 cup applesauce
  • 6 tablespoons each melted butter and light olive oil
  • 1 cup + 2 tablespoons maple syrup
  • 3 large eggs 
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
  2. Grease and flour, or spray a Bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray. (Mine came out with the spray, but greasing and flouring is more reliable.)
  3. Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
  4. Whisk the wet ingredients together in another bowl. (There are a lot of wet ingredients, go with a big bowl.)
  5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and whisk until just combined.
  6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until a knife inserted near the center of one side of the round comes out clean. (Mine took 60 minutes.)
  7. Allow to cool in the pan for 15 minutes.
  8. Loosen the edges of the cake, I used an offset spatula. Place a plate over the cake pan then, using hot pads, turn them both over together.
  9. Brush with a couple tablespoons of melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar if desired, or glaze with a couple tablespoons of cider mixed with a cup of sifted powdered sugar.
  10. Cool thoroughly, and/or chill, and enjoy!

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The Friday poem: Return: Sept. 2020

September 4, 2020 at 6:00 am (Poetry)
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ReturnSept2020

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