Now, I bet you’re wondering what the heck pizza sauce has to do with meatloaf. It’s a valid question. I myself wasn’t entirely sure after I’d pulled out my splattered card that had Mom’s recipe on it and saw listed there a mere four ingredients, none of which was tomato anything.

It was then I realized that in the manner of any good cook, I’d modified Mom’s recipe to suit my tastes. Thinking back, meatloaf is the first dish that I put away the recipe for and began to make from memory. It’s even part of something I like to call “Midwestern Madness,” a hearty meal also featuring mashed potatoes and something green on the side that harkens back to my childhood in Saint Paul. When exactly I’d begun adding garlic powder, onion powder, tomato sauce or whatever else appealed I couldn’t tell you, but I like my Italian version of Mom’s meatloaf with its pizza sauce and that’s really what’s important when I’m cooking for myself, don’t you think?

A Tip from Nikki’s Kitchen

While making up this batch of sauce, it also reminded me of a neat trick that Mom taught me years ago on how best to deal with that tiny can of tomato paste. Now, even if you have a super-skinny spatula with which to scoop out the insides of that narrow can ~ in point of fact, I have two ~ there is a much simpler method that’s a lot less messy:

1. Use your opener on both ends of the can.
2. Push gently on end until you can see the tin disc you cut emerge from the other end of the “tube.”
3. Carefully slide off the disc and set aside.
4. Push the other tin disc down inside the tube until it and the slab of tomato paste drops into your mixing bowl.
5. Slide off the second disc.
6. Using the aforementioned skinny spatula, scrape off the paste from the discs and the inside of the tube to get the remaining little bits of tomato paste into the bowl.
7. Optional, but recommended: rinse off the discs and tube, and recycle. :)

Nikki’s Pizza Sauce: the Recipe

With the above tip in mind, add the following ingredients to a mixing bowl; I like glass for this kind of sauce so it doesn’t taste metallic:

• 16 oz. (2 small cans) tomato sauce; I prefer the no salt added variety
• 6 oz. (1 small) can tomato paste
• 2 tbsp Italian seasonings (that mix of basil, oregano, etc.)

With your stirring implement of choice ~ I prefer a good mid-sized whisk, myself ~ mix all the ingredients together until well blended. If it looks a little thin on the spices side, add up to another 2 tbsp. of the Italian seasonings.

Decant the sauce into a glass jar ~ I think I used a 24 oz. one ~ and don’t forget to label it, including the date. I have these nifty “Label Once” labels that are erasable, and they’re perfect for just this scenario because you can still read them if you put whatever you’ve labeled in the freezer.

All that’s left for you to enjoy. Sure, you could go the traditional route and slather the sauce onto your choice of pizza crust; I personally use it most with French bread pizza. This time, though, I think I’m going to dollop some into my meatloaf mix when that motivation finally strikes.

Photos ©2011 NixDesk

Reblogged from jessicacorra:

for the delay in getting this post up. I love to bake. So instead of blogging, I made bagels. I’m not sorry. They’re too amazing to be sorry for. I can’t get store bought bagels after trying these. Seriously easy to make – took me three hours start to finish, half of it inactive. I followed the recipe here with some changes. I didn’t refrigerate; I used active dry yeast instead of instant (mixed in with the flour, didn’t even proof it); and instead of syrup I just added sugar to the dry ingredients. Also, …

I thought I’d share a post that my new writer acquaintance Jessica posted today about making bagels. I’m going to have to check this out because I haven’t had a decent rye bagel since I visited my aunt in NJ years ago and I’m hoping to modify it for just that purpose. Let me know what you think!

Still, I felt the need to write about something foodie-related this week. As Fate would have it, when I checked my mail on Wednesday morning before heading to work, the perfect topic fell into my hand by way of a catalog. That very same catalog kicked off numerous conversations about it, as it usually does, having left it sitting out on my desk all week. All I’d done with it so far was tear out the coupon from the back page, and left it on my desk where I could get back to it later.

This is me getting back to it later; my boss took the catalog home for the weekend.

Anyone who knows me will not be surprised by this post. I’ve been talking about this place for years. I can’t even remember when or how I first heard of them, but I recommend them to practically everyone I know who likes to cook, which is just about everybody. I’ve even given boxed sets as white elephant gifts every other year at work ~ not intentionally, mind you, but when you have extras you want to share.

I like to think of it as bringing others into my not-so-secret spices club. How do I do this? Easy! I simply keep a jar of what I consider the best seasoning for popcorn ever in my desk drawer, and when someone makes a bag in the microwave ~ the kitchen’s about ten feet outside my office door ~ I grab the jar and stalk them back to their office and say, “Here, try this!”

Sprinkle, sprinkle. Sounds of happy taste buds. Request for more sprinkles on the popcorn followed by demand to know where to get more. So I tell them:

This great little shop is based out of Wisconsin, and it’s probably one of my friends in Minnesota who first turned me onto them. I don’t know for sure, but I think they’ve got just about every spice you can think of, and a few they’ve made up themselves. A lot of the spice mixes are also salt-free, so if you’re watching your sodium intake, this might not be a bad place to look into.

They also have marvelous mixtures of peppercorns, blends for dressings and marinades, barbeque rubs, and seasoned salt combinations. For the basic spices, they’ve got different varieties that have different profiles depending on how you might wish to use it. Their stock of dried goodies isn’t too shabby either; for the cucumber dressing Mom made on Sunday, she used the dried red and green peppers and they worked wonderfully.

Now, if you’re lucky enough to have a Penzeys store in your city, GO THERE and check it out for yourself. Just last year they opened a store here in Austin, and boy can I lose a couple of hours walking around in there deciding what I need (and often I get something I don’t just because). Half of what I bought that first day ended up in a care package for my aunt’s Christmas gift, and the others ended up in my Christmas stocking!

Faced with these new little jars of tasty possibilities, I ended up needing to reorganize my kitchen cabinets because I had run out of room for all the jars and bags of spices I now owned. These goodies, along with that new food processor Santa left under the tree, were just another hint that maybe this year I could do something other than collect Styrofoam drink cups from my favorite burger joint on the corner.

Even now I’m wondering, am I out of something so that I need to stop by one night after work? Probably not, but hey, that’s half the fun!

Oh, before I forget… check out the “Go to Market” links at the bottom of the page; I’ve added one for Penzeys. You know, in case you need it later because you forgot to bookmark it. ;)

This bean dip is one of those staples I love to have in the fridge. It makes a nice quick lunch or a light supper, and you can put it on just about anything ~ crackers, bread, sandwiches, you name it. My favorite kind is black olive hummus, which I can’t seem to find in my local grocery stores anymore. I do have a recipe for it thanks to an internet search, but I really wanted to try out one of Nigella’s recipes first. So I dug out the applicable cookbook, made up a shopping list for the rest of the ingredients I’d need, and went shopping. On Sunday, with Mom on hand for a bit of as-you-go taste testing and photo-snapping, it was time to put it all together.

Red Pepper Hummus: The Recipe

When it came time to whip up a batch of this hummus, I ended up tweaking Nigella’s recipe but only a little. I chose to use reduced sodium chickpeas that my market had available, and I went with the whipped cream cheese from Weight Watchers because I wanted the lower fat option.

Also, I don’t know about you, but I only have the basic kinds of cooking oil in my kitchen. So rather than springing for a whole bottle of garlic-infused oil, or making some of my own (which is trickier than it sounds), I decided to use the same amount of EVOO and microplane a good-sized clove of garlic instead.

That decided, I threw all the ingredients into the processor and pulsed it a few times before I flipped the switch to ON. Soon the colorful concoction was pureeing nicely and sending up wonderful aromas. Following a first taste test, Mom and I agreed we needed to increase the amount of lime juice. Now, I know this will sound completely obvious to most of you, but you definitely need to poke a knife into the flesh of the lime a few times before you squeeze it. It makes it so much easier to juice it, and it will save your manicure. Not to mention that you won’t have to squash the heck out of the poor fruit to get it to give up its juice. Mom’s really do know best. ;)

Another few pulses and another finger swipe on the spatula for a taste test, and the dip still wasn’t quite right. We added a pinch or two of salt as indicated by the recipe, and Mom suggested zesting one half of one of the small limes we’d juiced into the batch as well. Interestingly, this was also my first lesson in zesting, and it was oddly harder than it looks on the Food Network. Eventually I got it worked out, and back on went the cover. A minute or so later, the dip met the criteria of a “hummus-like puree” ~ it was grainier than the kind you find in the stores ~ and it was time for the final test. I dug out the really good, dense wheat bread I had on hand and daubed a decent dollop onto a torn-off section and handed it to Mom. Making another for myself, we took a munch.

Voilá! We had ourselves a winner of a hummus!

I grabbed the nearest pen and adjusted the quantities and ingredients in my cookbook so I’d remember next time what had worked well for our version of the recipe. I also dated the page so I’d remember when I’d first made it, a habit Mom ingrained in me a long time ago when I started making cookies from my favorite cookie cookbook. Now it was time for the final photo of the finished product; fortunately, I have plenty of pretty pottery around my kitchen well suited for the presentation. It took me a second or two to get the hand of holding onto the blade while I poured out the puree, but in the end, I got it all in the bowl and none on the counter.

While I was trying to figure out the best angle to take the final “see I did it” photo, Mom busied herself with cleaning off the spatula and the processor’s blade ~ with her fingers! Fortunately, she was very careful and there was no need for a sudden trip to the emergency room. She’s the one who trimmed the lime to add it as garnish for the final photo, and I admit, I like the color contrasts.

It was only a few moments after snapping the photo you see here that we couldn’t wait any longer to really have a taste. We each grabbed a half-slice of the bread, smeared it with the hummus, and happily snacked. Nigella’s original recipe makes 2 cups of hummus; mine made a bit more, likely because we used all of roasted red peppers from the jar instead of only the amount indicated by the recipe.

Deciding to wait to have more of the peppery dip until I had a bag of my favorite pita chips handy, I transferred the hummus to a plastic container and set it in the fridge. I can tell you the flavors improved overnight, and it’s definitely better than similar store-bought versions. One final note: I might add a little more paprika next time to this very good recipe.

Photos ©2011 ArtALACarte and NixDesk; recipe adapted from Nigella Express by Nigella Lawson, ©2007, page 356.

This Sunday, after Mom and I got back to my house after having a bit of breakfast, she decided we needed to play in my kitchen with my new toy. The idea sounded good to me, since I’d been thinking about it for a while myself and I never turn down a chance to hang out with Mom. Now, since I’d actually read my new appliance’s instructions, I had a couple of things stashed away in the fridge for the test run.

The cucumber I’d gotten at the market looked to be the perfect size, but alas it didn’t quite fit the processor’s smaller feed tube. A few quick chops with my Santuko knife and we were ready to go.

There were a couple of technical issues to conquer, but once those were worked out… boy, did that cucumber slip through the slicer like a hot knife through buttah! It was pretty fun, and I think I even laughed as I watched the veggie get sliced to smithereens. I scooped the slices into a container to save for later, or more accurately for my pescatarian friend Lisa C. who likes to eat green food like veggies. Mom declared they needed “a little something;” even now I have no idea what all Mom had me sprinkle on top of those cucumber slices, aside from the EVOO and a pinch of salt. Regardless, I presented the cucumbers to Lisa C. Monday morning; she snacked on them for breakfast and declared them yummy. Apparently Mom’s mix-and-match perusal of my spice cupboard resulted in a tasty dressing. Hurrah! ;)

With this first successful use of my Cuisinart under my belt, I then looked around for something else to try. Spying the two half loaves of good bread in the fridge that Mom deemed just perfect for making breadcrumbs. Minutes later, I had pulsed the tall stack of slices into 4C of homemade breadcrumbs. Now they’re sitting in the pantry and the freezer just waiting to be mixed with whatever seasoning I needed for whatever recipe would be forthcoming.

You know what? This cooking this is kind of fun!

Photo ©2011 ArtALACarte.