Crock Pot Spaghetti Sauce

 It always amazes me how much better homegrown vegetables taste compared to store bought and when hubster brought home a big bag of organic tomatoes from a generous co-worker's garden, I was thrilled. We've tried so many times to grow tomatoes on our little apartment patio without much luck, so it feels like a real treat when people share their crops.

Beautiful, aren't they? But I was a little worried that we'd have a hard time finishing them off before they spoiled. That's when hubster mentioned that he'd always wanted to try making spaghetti sauce from scratch. I'd never done it before either, so of course I went on a Google hunt for recipes. I didn't use a specific recipe, but I did need a basic idea of what to do.

First thing's first, those tomatoes needed peeling! An old trick my mom taught me long ago is to give soft fleshed fruits and veggies a quick bath in boiling water to loosen their skins.

All they need is a couple of minutes. I suggest around 3, as hubster and I left them in the bath for 5 minutes and they felt a tad too soft.

Once done, transfer them to a cold water bath so they get cool enough to touch and the skins will peel right off for you.

Attack of the naked tomatoes!

Now you'll want to chop them up. It doesn't have to be pretty and the size of the sections is up to you. I like chunky sauce, so I went with large cuts.

Here's the base recipe hubster and I used:

5 lbs tomatoes, peeled and chopped
2 large onions, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of sugar (I used Stevia. Shhh, don't tell hubster!)
Spices to taste (we used basil, rosemary, parsley, oregano, and some other stuff. We tend to get carried away with the spice rack!)

I threw everything into my crock pot. I'm sure all this would work just as well in a pot on the stove, but to me, spaghetti sauce always tastes better the next day when I'm chowing down on leftovers for lunch. A good overnight soak gives all the ingredients a chance to get cozy and love fest-y. So, I set my trusty crock pot on low and hubster and I went to bed.

And BLAM! We woke up to this:

No, you're not seeing things and the cooking fairy didn't add mushrooms.When reheating for dinner, you can add anything else you want. When I make Italian food using store bought sauce, I'm always stuffing extra veggies into the mix. Spinach, mushrooms, bell peppers, etc... No reason to treat homemade sauce any different!

Here's the yummy sauce in action, topping some beef ravioli:

Bonus: Remember the garlic olive oil in the last post? I brushed it on the bread pictured and then sprinkled a little Parmesan over it before toasting it in the oven. AMAZING!

Garlic Infused Olive Oil

One of the things the hubster and I like doing with our dear friends and favorite dirty hippies over at the Broccoli, Bees, and Blocks blog is going to wine tastings. Honestly, I'm not crazy about wine or alcohol of any sort, really. It's not a moral thing, I've just never enjoyed the taste much. I do, however, love getting a little dressed up and pretending to be fancy with awesome people. Oh, and cheese! Wine tastings are a great excuse to hork down copious amounts of cheese and bread and that's something I can totally get on board with no matter how much my arteries protest!

I have to admit I raised an eyebrow when half a head of garlic popped up on our cheese plate one night. I'd heard of roasted garlic as an ingredient, but eating it straight? Surely, that couldn't be what that head of garlic was there for. No one seemed to be touching it, so I bit the bullet myself and popped a clove in my mouth. HOLY MOUTHGASAM, BATMAN!

That very night we tried to recreate that little bit of creamy heaven back at the stinky farmers hippie house with some not so great results. Then I simply forgot to try it again... Until, that is, I came across a recipe for garlic infused olive oil over at Pixelated Crumb and I knew I had to give it a shot, because the bonus of garlic olive oil, is ROASTED GARLIC!!

Now, I did a few things different than the recipe linked above. I used Extra Virgin Olive Oil and dried spices.

But everything else, I did the same.

Half with their heads!

Bake at 300F for 45-60 minutes. This is where things went a little wonky for me, probably because I set the timer for an hour and wandered off when I spotted something shiny. My garlic came out a combination of ways. I got crispy critters, chewy cloves, and in a few cases a pretty tasty garlic paste. I suggest maybe checking on your garlic 30 minutes in. Careful with the hot oil! I don't consider it a loss at all, though. The crispy garlic works for a fantastic salad topping and I'm using the chewy stuff in a crock pot spaghetti sauce for tomorrow's post!

Now, as far as the oil is concerned... Best. Oil. EVER!


Once it cooled, I strained it (because believe me, you don't want any buggies hitching a ride on garlic bits floating in your oil) and put it back in its original bottle.
 
This is going to be my go to oil from now on, I just know it.  

Cake or Death?

I've had a raging, psychotic sugar beast on my back bit of a sweet tooth as of late and surfing Pinterest hasn't been helping me ignore it one bit. If you've ever been on Pinterest, you know what I mean. I've managed pretty well so far and by that I mean I've started eyeing that year old box of terrible dollar store popsicles I somehow managed to never throw away, but then I came across a pin for a two ingredient cake. All you need is a 12oz can of soda and a box of cake mix. Somewhere in my head a tiny voice whispered, "Weeeeeight Waaaatcheeeers..." and another little part of me cheered! I remembered hearing the same sort of recipe in a Weight Watchers meeting long ago (using diet soda), but I'd never tried it and that's when my sugar beast sweet tooth screamed, "What are you waiting for, woman?!"

What indeed? I'd made a great dinner and my dad was visiting, so it felt like a good enough occasion for cake, darn it!

There's a real danger factor for me in keeping random boxes of cake mix in the house, so I just don't do it. I'm not above hopping in the car and speeding to the nearest store, though. Sadly, my car is in the shop, so the job fell to the hubster and good timing too, because it was just about time for him to get out of work.

I explained to him that he could pick out any cake mix he wanted, but if it turned out to be a white cake, the diet soda should probably be a clear one. He came home with Funfetti cake mix (his favorite) and a bottle of Sprite Zero and I went to work.

"I doubt this recipe," hubster told me, raising an eyebrow. "I mean, what's it going to taste like?"

"It's going to taste like freakin' cake!" I cheered. I may or may not have been dancing. I admit to nothing!

I heard my dad tell hubster: "I've never had 'freakin' cake' before. Hope it doesn't kill us."

"I still don't think it's going to turn out right," hubster called and right then and there I made a bet with him. If the cake tasted good, he had to do the dishes, if it didn't I would have to take out the trash. High stakes 'round here. I'd trashed the kitchen making dinner.


And now I present to you...

 Freakin' Cake
1 box of any flavor cake mix
12oz any diet soda

Combine cake mix with soda until well mixed and bake according to the directions on the cake mix box.

It's that easy and you save a ton of calories!

I'm guessing it was a hit since hubster did the dishes and, hey, no one died!