The Ultimate Tomato Sauce

There are lots of ultimate tomato sauces. I make different varieties with the same core ingredients.

First, unless you're using fresh-grown tomatoes, ya gotta buy Muir Glen.

Today's sauce:
- 8oz sliced cremini mushrooms
- 8oz sliced shitake mushrooms
- a handful of chopped morel mushrooms
- 1 28oz can of Muir Glen Diced Fire Roasted tomatoes (the whole can)
- 1 28oz can of Muir Glen Crushed tomatoes with basil (the whole can)
- six chopped shallots
- 1 chopped Vidalia onion

Put a smidge o' extra virgin olive oil into your six quart saucier.
Pour in the shallots-n-onions.

I was forced to leave out garlic because my folks don't like it. Grr. So, I snuck it in via garlic powder. That came later.

Saute for a bit.

Pour in the mushrooms. Add a pat o' butter. Saute for a bit.

Add the tomatoes. Saute for a bit.

Let's see.

I went out to the deck garden and snipped off three marjoram twigs, two twigs of thyme and a handful of parsley. Put all of the leaves in and stirred them up. Added garlic powder. Added celtic sea salt and ground pepper. Added a small handful of sugar. Swirled a bit of balsamic vinegar in there just to be a showoff.

Cook and cook and cook on low heat to your heart's content. If you have a newer stove that cycles on and cycles off, cook on medium-low heat. My parents have an old-style stove that can boil water on low if you don't watch the thing.

Today I added meatballs to the sauce. I used ground sirloin, some tomato sauce, breadcrumbs, chopped vidalias, salt, pepper, italian seasonings and a mite o' ketchup. Baked the balls in the oven to get them crispy and then added them to the sauce.

It was so good it was unreal.

Lunch & Dinner, Part 2

Lunch - the mashed potatoes and meatloaf were great. The celery root was great but I didn't have enough of it to enhance the flavor. And the potatoes were smashed, not mashed. Came out awesome. The seasoning combination I used was such that the cold (s)mashed potatoes actually taste good and have flavor. Or maybe the celery root affected things more than I thought.

Dinner:
a) cut chicken breasts into strips
b) coated them in a basil pesto
c) coated them in breadcrumbs
d) baked them in the oven

I made a quick tomato sauce with Muir Glen Fire Roasted tomatoes with chopped Vidalia onions and a smoodge of tomato paste.

I didn't like the golden beets. They weren't as sweet as I would have liked. I didn't end up roasting them. But, my folks liked them.

Dessert was a blackberry and apple cobbler. My first attempt at making a cobbler. Fantastic flavor. Needed to cook it a bit more in the middle (this convection oven thing stymies me), but it was perfect otherwise. I want to do that with strawberries. Lots of strawberries.

Oh, and french bread.

So, I'm happy with it. And once my Dad got over the green chicken, he was good.

Chicken Pasta Tomato Casserole

Had cooked up some chicken breasts in the crockpot on Thursday, in some diced tomatoes. Tossed in a few dried herbs and left it.

So, I shredded up the leftover chicken tonight in the remainder tomato "sauce".
I boiled up some elbows.
I chopped up an onion and sauteed that in a small can of fire roasted tomatoes.
Added some tomato paste and garlic powder.
Cooked that up for a while...
Mixed the shredded chicken in with the "new" tomato & onion mixture.
Chopped up an 8oz block of sharp cheddar.

Then, I tossed the chicken mixture and the cheese with the elbows.
Covered it with a layer of shredded mozzarella.
Cooked it in the oven for 30 minutes at 350F degrees, covered in aluminum foil.
Uncovered it and then cooked another 10 minutes.

Added a salad and some garlic break and it was awesome!

DIY Tomato Paste

DIY Tomato Paste
from The Apartment Farm