Excellent Easy Pizza Sauce

In the past several months, I've been making a fair amount of pizza, and trying out a lot of recipes in doing so.   The various cooking magazines to which we subscribe have featured some pretty good pizza recipes in the past year.  For example, the March 2012 issue of Bon Appetit featured a pretty good recipe.  The one I've been using the most, though, and the one I consider the best, is the pizza dough recipe from the April/May issue of Fine Cooking.  That recipe, for Make-Ahead Pizza Dough, was featured in the article "Pizza Your Way, Any Day," and is also at this link.  This recipe makes for fool-proof dough that lasts for days in the refrigerator and makes for as many as eight pizzas, depending on how thick a crust you want.  We prefer the cracker-thin crust option, though the photos with this post show one with a slightly thicker crust.

I go pretty simple for toppings, for the most part.  Sliced grape tomatoes, a crimini and shitake mushrooms and a mix of cheeses (mozzarella, gruyere and Parmesan, most of the time), plus some chopped, fresh basil and oregano.  Occasionally we'll toss on some arugula as well.

Good pizza requires good sauce, though, so I've been experimenting with sauce recipes and developed one we really like.


Easy Pizza Sauce

yield = 2 cups pizza sauce

1 can (28 oz) whole, peeled plum tomatoes (I use Hunts)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Pulse the tomatoes in a blender or food processor until smooth.

Add the olive oil to a 3-quart saucepan and heat until shimmering.  Add the garlic and pepper flakes and cook 1 minute. Add the tomato, pepper and salt, stir thoroughly and bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 40 minutes, by which time the sauce should have thickened and reduced to about 2 cups.

This sauce refrigerates in an airtight container for about 5 days.

Jeffrey's Peppery Steak Seasoning

The weather has cooled down here in central Iowa, and that has inspired Jeffrey to get out the grill.  This steak seasoning is savory and peppery.  If you aren't a huge fan of the black peppercorn's bite, just cut it back to your own preference level.  Enjoy!

Jeffrey's Peppery Steak Seasoning
(covers 2 8-ounce steaks)

2 teaspoons coarsely-ground fresh black pepper
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
scant 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Grind the black pepper on a coarse setting.  You can use Tone's Restaurant Black Pepper if you don't have a pepper grinder, but fresh ground really does taste better.  We got our grinder at the local Penzey Spices - they have very durable grinders.  After the pepper is ground, combine all the spices and stir to mix thoroughly. 

Use a paper towel to "dry" the steaks, and then rub an ample amount of the seasoning on both sides.  Let the steaks rest at room temperature while you get the grill going (about 15 minutes).

Grill steaks to preferred level of doneness.

We like to serve the steaks with mushroom and cherry tomato kabobs.

With our steaks, we like to add baked potatoes with sour cream, topped with chives snipped from our herb garden, and buttered fresh green beans.

Lemon Grass Lao and Thai Cuisine

Lemon Grass is my absolute Number 1 favorite restaurant in Des Moines.  We eat there at least once a week!  The entrees feature lots of stir-fried veggies, and sensible portions of lean meat.

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
The dining area is small but very tastefully decorated.  There is also outside seating, which we take advantage of when the weather cooperates.
 
 
 
 
 
 


The appetizers are so good, sometimes that's all we order!  They are always out of the kitchen in a flash.  My favorite is the pork eggrolls.  They're so crunchy-crispy, yet still just about melt in your mouth.
 







Non-soggy potstickers, YAY!

pork eggrolls

Jeffrey and I both like these!
 
 







 

 

 

 

 

Other favorites are pictured here: 

 



panang curry

volcano noodles

 
 
 
 



pad thai

tom ka, a wonderful coconut milk soup
 



Lemon Grass is located at 1221 8th Street, West Des Moines, Iowa.  They are closed on Mondays.  I also should note that portions are very generous, and reasonably priced.




We're back!

After a lengthy absence, here we are back at the blog.  In the interim, my son has graduated from college and moved to New York City, we have reconnected with Jeffrey's son (and his girlfriend!), we managed to sell our Knoxville home, and I had a surgery which included a hysterectomy and breast cancer removal and treatment.  During all this, Jeffrey has  managed to find the energy to boost his career, and is now the assistant director at the clinic where he works.  So many changes!

We have been slow to return to cooking, partly because our life is fuller now with the opportunities that a bigger city holds, and partly because there are so many great restaurants in the greater Des Moines metro!

However, things are starting to feel more settled now, so we have a bit more opportunity to share our cooking and recipes with you.  We won't be posting as frequently, but we hope you enjoy what we'll bring to the table.

Cats have *totally* settled in!

Cheers!

Juli

Spaghetti for Christmas... Sort of

We decided to make up a big batch of our spaghetti sauce on Christmas day.  The idea was to have a nice, filling dinner and plenty of leftovers to eat for lunches. 

I spent the bulk of the afternoon making the sauce, but late in the afternoon, Juli realized we didn't have any spaghetti!  When making the list for the previous day's shopping list, we'd made sure to list all of the sauce ingredients we didn't have on stock, but somehow we forgot to add spaghetti.

Thankfully, we did have some macaroni on hand, so we had our spaghetti sauce with macaroni.   This made for a good meal, though perhaps not quite as nice as if we'd had the spaghetti.  We served it up with garlic bread and a side Caesar salad.

All in all, this made for a good first Xmas dinner in our new home.

Soup for Christmas Eve

Yesterday (Christmas Eve), I was really in the mood for my Mom and Dad's Italian Vegetable Supper Soup.  I thought it would be the perfect light dinner to have after playing for the 6 PM service at church.

I went to our new neighborhood HyVee, and man, were people ever grouchy.  Not the clerks, mind you- just the customers!  And every employee I interacted with commented how grinchy people had been all day long.  So, I went out of my way to be pleasant, even when there wasn't garlic bread or Graziano's sausage left.  I just bought some French bread, and we garlicked it ourselves.  I also bought Hyvee's in-house Italian sausage.  Christmas was not ruined.  Heh.

I left Jeffrey cooking as I went to church, but he unintentionally didn't quite follow the recipe.  And now a new classic is born!  It's kind of like Jonas Salk discovering the cure for penicillen by accident.  But in our case, without the mold.  Serendipity!

Jeffrey's Italian Vegetable and Bean Soup
yield = 6-8 servings 

1                package (1 pound) soup bean mix
1                pound lean ground beef
1                tablespoon olive oil
1                large white onion, finely chopped
1                cup peeled, diced carrots
1                cup diced celery
2                cloves garlic, chopped
1/2             teaspoon dried basil
1/2             teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
1/2             teaspoon dried marjoram
1/2             teaspoon dried oregano
1/2             teaspoon thyme
1/2             teaspoon table salt
1/4             teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes 
8                cups chicken broth or stock
1                medium unpeeled zucchini, chopped
1/2             cup small shell pasta


1.  Bring 6 cups of water to a boil.  Add beans, cook 2 minutes, then cover and remove from heat.  Let the beans sit for 1 hour, then drain.


2.  Brown and drain the ground beef.  Set aside.  Add olive oil to a large skillet over medium heat.  When shimmering, add the onion, carrots and celery and cook until the vegetables have softened and started to lightly brown (about 10 minutes).  Add garlic, spices, and seasonings and cook, stirring, 1 minute.  Remove from heat. 

3.  Add chicken broth or stock to a large pot.  Add drained beans, cooked vegetables, and ground beef.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook 1 hour.  Stir in zucchini and pasta and cook an additional 15 minutes.  Serve with warm, crusty bread and enjoy.

Notes:  This is a great, thick, chunky soup.  If you want to make it brothier, we won't tell.  We like it chunky, but to each his own. :)

Christmas Coffee?

We continue to work on the move from small-town Iowa to the Des Moines metro.  I was so pleased that Jeffrey brought me my coffee maker last night- but then this morning I realized there wasn't any sugar!  Kind of.  I had my choice of decorator's sugar in six different shades, or powdered sugar.  I went with the green sprinkles. Heh.

I'm trying to decide if it's worth putting up a Christmas tree when there are still boxes and their contents everywhere.  It would be my first treeless Christmas ever.  My romantic side says it's worth the time/money investment, my practical side says we've had enough expenses and wouldn't it be better to use that time to just put everything away?  Not sure yet which side will win.  I will put up my nativity set no matter what, and really, that's more important to me.

I hope to have pictures for you soon, we don't have internet set up at the Dollhouse yet.