Simple Sausage Marinara

I've made this a few times now and I find it super savory! This red sauce with sausage is super easy. Its one of those meals you do a bunch of prep work for, and then you relax while the sauce simmers it's way into the juiciest parts of the sausage. Let's get started.

You will need:

• 6 hot or sweet Italian sausage, whichever you prefer or mix it up
• 14 oz. can of crushed tomatoes
• 14 oz. can of whole peeled or diced tomatoes
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, diced
• fistful of basil, chopped
• salt & pepper to your taste
• olive oil

Start prepping by filling a medium sauce pot 2/3 full of water. Set that on medium-high heat and let it come to a boil while you're dicing up the onion, garlic, and basil.

Pour olive oil into a large sauce pot, enough to cover the bottom of the pot, and put it on medium-low heat. Once the olive oil has heated up a bit, dump in the diced onion. Let the onion cook until it looks a little translucent and then stir the onions to the sides of the pot to make a little landing pad for the garlic. Let the onion and garlic simmer for a while until the garlic looks yellow, then stir it up. If the onions start to burn or cook to quickly, definitely turn the heat down.

Before you place the sausage in the boiling water, use a fork to poke each sausage three or four times. Let the sausages cook for 4-6 minutes each at the most. After they're done, I like to cut them into twos or threes so the sauce gets in. My Nonno (grandfather) preferred cooking them whole. It's alright if they aren't cooked through because they're going to be in the sauce which is still thickening.




Turn the heat way down and let your sauce simmer for at least 30 minutes. I like to simmer my sauce for as long as possible. Well, go try this and tell me what you think. Whatever, you'll like it.

Love,

Liz

Lily's Chili

As you should well be aware of, we're hosting a Chili Cook-Off Reader Giveaway!! Send in your 100% original chili recipes for a chance to win! The winner of the Chili Cook-Off will receive a free copy of The Parchment Paper Cookbook! The Chili Cook-Off ends February 14 so get your recipes in time for Valentine's Day for we all know chili is the food of love.

In the spirit of the Chili Cook-Off, I decided to throw my hat in the ring (of course, I can't win). Last night I gave my sister, the Queen of Soups, if she had a chili recipe and what do you know, she did! I tweaked it a little bit, but pretty much, this is Lily's Chili.

Gather up your fixin's:

• 1 lb. ground round
• 1 fat clove of garlic (diced)
• 1 medium white onion (diced)
• 1 green bell pepper (sliced and cut into bite size)
• 1 14.5 oz. can pinto beans
• 1 14.5 oz. can kidney beans
• 1 packet chili seasoning
• 2 red chili peppers (sliced & optional)
• 3-4 14.5 oz. cans stewed tomatoes

Drizzle a bit of olive oil on the bottom of a big sauce pot and set the heat to medium-low. Brown the ground round with the diced onions and garlic, mix thoroughly. Once the meat is browned through and the onions are translucent, drain the grease out and return the meat mixture to the pot.

Dump out all the stewed tomatoes into a blender or food processor. Give them a couple of quick pulses just to chop them up a bit. Pour the tomatoes into the pot as well as the diced, green bell peppers, chili peppers, beans, and chili seasoning.

Stir up the ingredients well. Keep the pot on medium to medium-low heat at a steady simmer. Stir often and make sure none of the chili is sticking to the bottom. Simmer the chili for 30-90 minutes.

Chili is one of the most versatile foods and one of my favorites. There's so much you can put on it and so much to put it on! Hamburgers, baked potatoes, tortillas, nachos, french fries, and my personal favorite, the CHILI DOG!

As for my chili dogs and my chili fries, I need it with as many toppings as I can fit. Sour cream, shredded cheese, chives, tortilla chips, diced onions, crackers, or jalapenos, whatever you got - I'll top it on.

A recipe that takes a long time to cook always seems a little daunting to prepare. I hope I've successfully demonstrated how truly easy it is to make. The total preparation time couldn't have taken more than 15 minutes!

I hope this inspires you all to turn in some terrific chili recipes for the Chili Cook-Off and Reader Give Away. Don't forget to get those recipes in before 2/14/12, that's this Valentine's Day! Good luck and good appetite.

Love,

Liz

Light and Healthy Pasta Salad

I'll tell you about the pulled pork later, oh my GOD.

So I couldn't decide what to do as a side for this scrumptious swine. Fortunately, I had enough time to decide during the 12-hour period I slow-cooked the pork roast. The day started with me positive I was going to have potato salad, then I got lazy because it was a holiday. So I picked up a few fresh ingredients, spent around $5, and ventured to try my first pasta salad!

You will need:

• red wine vinegar
• olive oil
• red wine vinegarette
• salt
• black pepper
• 1 small garlic clove
• 1 shallot
• 1 cucumber
• 1 tomato
• 1 12 oz. boxes of tri-color rigatoni
• 3 green onions

First, boil the pasta, dur.

Dice up them cucumbers, green onions, the tomato, and shallot. Smush the garlic clove with your palm or the side of your chopping knife, then dice it into small bits.

Once the pasta is fully cooked, drain it and set it aside to cool for about 2 minutes. Run the pasta in the colander under a light stream of cool water. Let the pasta dry, then transfer it to a serving bowl. Mix in the cucumbers, green onions, tomato, shallot, and garlic. Season with fresh cracked sea salt and black pepper, then splash some red wine vinegar, olive oil, and red wine vinegarette on to suite your pallet. If you want, you could substitute the red wine vinegar for your favorite salad dressing or just add a little olive oil.

It's just as good as a light snack as it is a side dish for a hearty sandwich (par examplar: pulled pork sandwich), the likes of which (sandwich) I'll reveal in the coming weeks.

I apologize profusely to the slothful performance of this blog in previous weeks, but you see I've been in the Big Apple! YES, I'm due for a change of scenery and culture. The bonus is that my new roommate is a chef and a butcher. Get this, the fridge has 3 lambs heads in it! Dude, I want to try that.

Love,

Liz

Pasta Sauce RE-RE-RE-RE-MiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiX!!!

It's been over 4 years since I started this blog and since then I've matured, and so have my recipes. Tonight I'll tackle the pasta sauce. I've definitely changes things around and updated ingredients. I hope you'll enjoy this new version as much I do!

Believe me once you realize how easy it is to make you own really good marinara sauce, you'll never eat it from a jar again.

This time, you'll need:

• 1 14 oz. can whole tomatoes peeled (with or without basil)
• 1 14 oz. can crushed tomatoes
• 1 tiny can tomato paste (you only need half the can)
• 1 whole tomato (diced)
• 1 giant onion or 2 medium sized onions (diced)
• 2 cloves garlic (diced)
• 2 fresh basil leaves or 1 TBSP or chopped basil
• 2 TSP oregano
• 1 hot pepper (diced) or 1 TBSP hot pepper flakes
• 1 lb. ground sirloin (browned and drained)
• 4 TBSP olive oil
• 2 TBSP salt
• 2 TBSP sugar
• 2 TSP black pepper 

Fist, heat up a medium sized frying pan, then add 2 TBSP oil. Once the oil is hot, sautee theonions until the are almost tender, then add garlic. When the garlic is golden brown, stir into the onions and remove from heat. While this is going on, pour the rest of the olive oil into a medium cooking pot and brown the ground sirloin.

Next, combine crushed and peeled tomatoes, diced tomato, onions, garlic, basically everything, into the pot with the browned sirloin. Bring to a boil and stir. Then, reduce heat and simmer, stir regularly. For hours. On end. Make sure you mush up those big chunks of tomatoes and onions once they tender. Unless you want it to be chunky, then leave it be and simmer for at least an hour.

The changes I've made, such as the quality of beef and extra herbs are definitely noticeable from my earlier attempts. Trust me, the ground sirloin apposed to beef is RIDICULOUSLY striking.

Love,

Liz

Lemon Garlic Lamb Chops

I never cooked with lamb until tonight and OH MY, GOD. These are so freaking fantastic. And easy AND cheap which is also important.

Ok, so, I got these three pretty good sized lamb chops for about $5, and the ears of corn were 3 for $1, and the Rice-A-Roni was something like $2-3. So that's a $7-8 meal with leftovers because there's no way you can finish all that Rice-A-Roni in one sitting by yourself.

Now for the recipe!

You Will Need:

• lamb chops
• garlic powder
• lemon pepper
• salt
• black pepper
• olive oil
• a lemon
  

Just take the lamb chops out of the packaging and plop 'em down on a cutting board. Cover each side with an even spread of garlic powder, lemon pepper, black pepper, and salt.

While you're seasoning the chops, get out a frying pan and pour some extra virgin olive oil in the bottom of the pan. I didn't measure anything in this recipe since I was flying by the seat of my pants, but I'd say about 3-4 TBSP of olive oil will do it. Set the heat on medium or medium-high.

Now, take your lemon and roll it around on the counter with the palm of your hand. Press kind of firmly. This with smoosh the lemon and make it more juicy. Cut it in half and squeeze it into the oil.

When the oil is hot, gently place the lamb chops into the frying pan. If you just plop them in there, the hot oil my fly up and burn you. I had to learn that the hard way and now I have a scar on my chin!
In this photo, they're not fully cooked, for me anyway. I don't really like my meat to be bloody. The time it takes to cook really depends on how rare you like your meat:


Rare: 3-4 minutes on each side
Medium-Rare: 5-6 minutes on each side
Medium: 7-8 minutes on each side
Well Done: 9-10 minutes on each side


Mmm, yummy. I ate one of the lamb chops while I was waiting for the corn and rice to cook. But, so, yeah, this was a very filling meal, my friends. And it was soooo good! I was actually startled at how good it came out so I hope you'll like this recipe, too.


Oh, by the way, to boil corn: boil the water first, duh, then corn. Boil for 3-4 minutes. Smother with butter and salt because that's the way it's done. Scrumpty!

Love,

Liz