Roasted Red Bell Pepper Vinaigrette

You ask my daughter what is her mom very good at. She will say without even blinking her eyes "Cooking and Baking". I actually don't like it when she says that or anyone introduces me with a tagline of good cook and baker. These two attributes are just part of me and not my personality. Anyways, from my kids' school, they ask for donation of desserts and other stuff for Teacher appreciation dinner every fall. I have made few things in the past years but didn't want to volunteer this time. But, my kid came with the request form and asked me to make something this time too and I couldn't disappoint her. After back and forth emails with the organizer, I was asked to make a salad of my choice.  Dressing was also my choice and I went with this roasted red bell pepper vinaigrette which became a big hit at home.

One Year Back - Homemade Cake Mix
Two Years Back - Eggplant Curry in spicy coriander sauce
Ingredients: 
Roasted Red Bell Pepper - 2 drained (Or use fresh red bell pepper and roast them)
Garlic - 4 pods
Red Wine Vinegar - 1/2 cup
Black Pepper powder - 2 tsp or to taste
Salt - 1 tsp or to taste
Sugar - 1 - 2 TBSP
Hot Sauce - 1/2 tsp (optional)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 3/4 cup (You can use 1 cup, but I reduced it a bit)
Italian seasonings - 2 tsp crushed

Method:
Take all the ingredients in a food processor or blender jar except olive oil and vinegar. Make a puree by adding vinegar slowly. At the end, slowly stream in extra virgin olive oil. Adjust the salt if required. Serve with your favorite salad.

Notes:
This stays fine in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Oil settles at the bottom and needs stirring before serving.

Enjoy.

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Pasta with Sun dried tomato and almond pesto

I have been fortunate to have good neighbors. Those who aren't intruding but are there if you need and ask for help.  Yesterday, I started digging out the stump of a dead tree that I had cut last year. My plan was to dig enough to go underneath and slice off the chunk so that I can fill the hole with dirt and plant a flower plant. I was ambitious to make the hole as big as needed to plant a rose bush. After making enough room to get what I needed, I decided to borrow the power saw from my neighbor. But his tool was not for what I was looking to do and he wanted to come and see the stump to see if something else works. He helped me pull out the stump by cutting few side roots and it was very helpful. As a thank you gesture, I offered to make them pasta for lunch which I am sharing the recipe with you all.

One Year Back - 5 Minute pizza/pasta sauce
Two Years Back - Eggless Mulberry Cupcakes
Ingredients: 
Rotini or penne - 1 box of 13 Oz ( I used the whole grain rotini)
Olive oil - 3 TBSP
Sliced almonds - 3 TBSP
Red pepper flakes - 1 TBSP or to taste
Salt - to taste
Italian seasoning - 1 TBSP
Onion - 3 medium chopped

For the pesto:
Sun dried tomatoes undrained - 12 - 15
Black pepper - 1 TBSP crushed (or to taste)
Garlic - 4 - 5 cloves
Almond butter - 1/3 cup (Or dry roast 1/2 cup of whole almonds and use it with other ingredients)

Method:
Make the Pesto:
Pour 1 1/2 cups of boiling water on the sun dried tomatoes in a bowl. Let it stand for 20 minutes or so. Drain reserving all the water (it has herbs and olive oil). Take the softened sun dried tomatoes in a blender jar or food processor jar. Add either roasted almonds or the almond butter, crushed black pepper, garlic to it. Grind into a smooth paste adding the reserved water from soaking sun dried tomatoes as needed. Set aside.

Prepare for cooking the pasta by boiling a big pot of water which is salted generously. At the same time, heat olive oil in a pan. Add sliced almonds and when they are toasted, add chopped onions. Sprinkle a little bit of salt (go easy on salt here since pasta water has salt and so does the reserved liquid from soaking sun dried tomatoes). Add red chilli flakes, italian seasoning (rub them on your palm before adding) and mix well. When the onion has wilted, add the pesto and remaining reserved water to make the sauce.

Cook pasta as per the box instructions - about 9 - 10 minutes. Drain and add it to the simmering sauce reserving about a cup of pasta water. Add enough pasta water to loosen the whole mixture. Check for the seasonings and add if needed. Serve immediately. If serving later, save some pasta water and adjust the consistency just before serving.

Enjoy.

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Vegan Puttanesca Sauce

There are many varieties of pasta sauces that are not vegetarian. One such example is Puttanesca Sauce. Almost all the brands have anchovies in it. I love Olives in anything and if there is a sauce that is full of olives and capers, I surely am going to enjoy that one. This version of the sauce is not only vegan but can be made in less than 10 minutes if you have a food processor to chop onions, olives. Even without them, it is one fast and easy sauce and I cannot leave out the fact that it is very economical too.

For those of you who are regular visitors, I know you are wondering what happened to me. I am still here. Been so busy that I could not do what I did just for myself - that is blogging. It is something I do for myself, not for kids, not for the house, not for the husband or to make a living. You might not see me blogging as much as before, but I am here. Thanks to those who show concern when I go missing through emails. I really appreciate it.

One year back - Applesauce Breakfast Bread, Penne with Spicy Coriander Pesto
Two years back - Ricotta Cheese Doodh Peda
Ingredients:
28 Oz can crushed tomatoes - 1 can (I used the one with basil if using regular, add about 1/4 cup of fresh basil or 2 TBSP dried basil)
14.5 Oz can diced tomatoes - 1 can
6 Oz Whole Olives - 1 can or a generous 1 cup chopped olives (Kalamata is preferred but black olives will do just fine)
Capers - 3 TBSP crushed lightly
Chopped Red onion - 1/2 cup
Garlic - 6 pods chopped fine
Olive oil - 4 TBSP
Salt - to taste
Black pepper - crushed to taste

Method:
Heat olive oil in the pan. When it is warm, add garlic followed by onions. Mix and sprinkle a little salt. Let it wilt. When it is cooked, add diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes. Mix well. If you are using plain crushed tomatoes, chop basil to get about 4 TBSP and add it to the pot. Coarsely chop the olives and add them to the pot along with capers. Adjust the salt and add crushed black pepper. Bring it to a rolling boil and turn off the heat. This sauce is good enough for one pound of any pasta.

Enjoy.

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Caponata

Caponata is nothing but an italian side dish or cooked salad made with eggplants and capers. If you search for the recipe, you will get a lot of them with different variations. I looked up on foodnetwork website for this since I wanted to make it as a topper for the crostini. I did not use one recipe, but combined couple of them based on our taste preferences. We don't like celery and I omitted it. Among my visitors, there was someone who doesn't eat nuts, so omitted pine nuts. I however, increased the squash to compensate for not using celery. Overall, this recipe is based on Anne Burrel's Caponata recipe.

One year back - Coconut Chocolate Rolls/Buns
Two years back - Cake Decorating Basics - 1, Blondies from a Cake mix
Ingredients:
Eggplant - 1 large chopped into 1" cubes
Yellow squash or zucchini - 2 medium chopped into cubes (Or use part celery and just one squash)
Olive oil - 3 TBSP divided use
Salt - to taste
Red Onion - 2 medium chopped or sliced
Diced tomatoes - 1 15 Oz can with juice (Or use about 4 plum tomatoes)
Red chilli flakes - to taste (I used 1 TBSP and it was spicy and perfect for us)
Sugar - 2 tsp
Red wine vinegar - 3 TBSP
Capers - 1/3 cup
Green Pitted olives - 1/3 - 1/2 cup sliced
Golden raisins - 1/4 cups
Mint - chopped about 3 TBSP (Or use parsley)
Toasted pine nuts - 1/4 cup (I omitted since I wanted to keep it nut free)

Method:
In a skillet, heat 1 TBSP olive oil. Add eggplant chunks and stir. Sprinkle some salt and cover and let it cook stirring occasionally to make sure they don't burn. Set aside. In the same skillet or another one, heat the remaining two TBSP of olive oil. When hot, add chopped onions to the pan. Sprinkle some salt, add the squash pieces and celery if using and mix. Let it all cook. When the onions are cooked and squash is soft, add the eggplants, tomatoes, sugar, red wine vinegar, and chilli flakes. Let them simmer till almost all the water has evaporated. Add golden raisins, capers, olives. Mix well and adjust the salt if necessary. Add mint and mix well. Close the lid and turn off the heat after 2 minutes. When it cools to room temperature, store in the refrigerator. This actually tastes better after sitting in the refrigerator for a day. Heat lightly before serving. I served it on crostini as an appetizer.

Wondering what bread it is? it is an italian bread for which, I will post the recipe soon. And if someone wants to drool over this, here is another picture for you.

Enjoy.

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Easy Marinara Sauce

I had family visiting for Labor day weekend. Most of the kids in the family have a list of 'to eat' when they come to my place. I don't make everything that is on the list, but try to make some to make them happy. And there is one thing that my husband likes to do for them - take them out to eat. And they usually like to go to a 'pizza place' and the topic of going out to eat came this time too. My mother-in-law doesn't eat in places where they serve meat, so the choice was brought down to me making pizza.

We had pizza one night and my father-in-law goes "Didn't you make breadsticks? They are so good." (he has eaten the breadsticks that I make before and loves them). I had to tell him that I would make it the next day and I made this sauce to go with it. It has been pouring here and I couldn't take pictures of it. Here it is with pasta that my kid is eating as I type here.

One year back - Blonde Brownies, Kidney Beans Curry
Adapted from - Allrecipes.
Ingredients:
Peeled whole tomatoes canned - One 28 Oz can  - (Roma tomatoes 9 - 10 blanched) - See Notes
Tomato Paste - One 6 Oz can
Basil - 2 TBSP fresh or 1 TBSP dried (I used fresh purple leaf basil)
Garlic - 1 clove minced
Dried oregano - 1 tsp
Salt - 1 tsp
Black pepper powder - 1 tsp or to taste
Olive oil - 1/4 cup
Onion - 1/2 cup diced fine (I used a bit more than this - 3/4 cup)

Method:
Heat oil in a sauce pan. When hot, add onion, garlic and stir. Sprinkle some salt and let it wilt. In the meantime, take the remaining ingredients in a food processor and churn them to get a puree. It need not be very smooth, but as long as it is well blended, it is fine. When the onions are done, Add the tomato mixture to it and bring it to a boil. Check for salt and adjust if needed. Use as a dip for bread sticks or on pasta or on pizza.

Notes:
If you are using fresh tomatoes that are blanched, you will need some liquid. About 1/2 cup or so. Use tomato juice or even water. Since I was using the canned whole tomatoes in juice, I used that for the liquid part.

Enjoy.

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Salsa Vinaigrette

My favorite city in this country is Houston. I lived there for 4 years and I have very fond memories of that city. But now that I am in north east, don't understand how I could like that city as much as I did. I am miserable because of the heat. I am more miserable because I cannot turn the oven on unless I bake very early in the morning or late in the night. Every summer I think about buying a small over the counter toaster oven, but then decide not to buy it due to counter space issues. This time though, I am seriously considering it. Again..

Coming to the point of this post, I have a bad habit. Or rather a good one. I read the label for ingredients on everything I buy. Sometimes I decide not to buy since it is so simple to make it at home. I saw a bottle of 'Salsa Vinaigrette' in BJs. I read the label and came up with this. I have to tell you, this is an awesome vinaigrette. It was great since I didn't have to turn the stove or oven on. Perfect for summer.

One year back -  Creamy Spinach Corn Curry, Zucchini Chutney
Ingredients:
Red Onion - 1/2 of a small
Tomato Paste - 1 TBSP
Jalapeno - 1 whole or as per taste (seed if you cannot take the heat)
Garlic - 1 pod
Cilantro - 1/4 cup
Salt - to taste
Lime juice - from one medium lime
Olive oil - 5 - 6 TBSP

Method:
Take all the ingredients except olive oil in a blender. Puree the mixture. Start drizzling olive oil and run the blender till everything is creamy. Use in the salad of your choice. If you do not like the raw taste of onion and garlic, you can saute it in a bit of oil and use in this recipe.

Salad you see in the picture had romaine lettuce, cucumbers, red radish, some red onions. You can choose to finely chop the ingredients instead of pureeing it. Just whisk everything together and slowly incorporate olive oil.

Enjoy. Pin It

5 minute pizza/pasta sauce

After about 6 months of letting you all know about this awesome and quick recipe, here are some pictures with details of the recipe. I have been making this pasta/pizza sauce for 6 months now. There are some changes I have made to suit our taste buds. This recipe is not only quick but cheap too. You can make this sauce for half the price of the pizza sauce you get in the stores.

Adapted from Heidi's (Author of 101 cookbooks) recipe.
Ingredients:
Crushed tomatoes - one 28 Oz can
Olive oil - 1/4 cup (Extra virgin preferred)
Garlic - 4 cloves chopped fine
Dried oregano - 1 tsp
Dried Basil - 1 tsp (use fresh about 1 TBSP if available)
Salt - to taste
Black Pepper - crushed to taste
Lemon juice - about 3 TBSP from half of a big lemon
Cayanne - 1 tsp (You can use red chilli flakes too and I have used that many times)

Method:
In a sauce pan, heat olive oil. It need not get too hot. Add the chopped garlic. Don't let it toast and get brown. Add the crushed tomatoes. Stir. Add salt, crushed pepper, cayanne if using, lemon juice and the dried herbs. Rub the herbs on your palm and then add it to the pot. Stir occasionally and bring it to a simmer. Adjust the seasonings and switch off the heat. I have stored this in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. You could use vinegar instead of lemon juice too.

Happy Friday and have a great weekend. Pin It

Buttermilk Salad Dressing

Do you like to work out?  I can't say I do.
But since I am a foodie and I am not one of those who have a great metabolism, I have to work out.

I see all sizes in the gym. Chunky, masculine, skinny, hour glass figured ladies, obese, over weight and what not.

When I see obese, over weight, chunky people I feel good about myself.

When I see hour glass figures, I get depressed.

When I see skinny ladies, I decide to eat salad for two meals that day.
But if I have to eat salad all by myself, I get sad.

To avoid that, I should make my husband eat it with me.
To do that, I made this dressing because he loves ranch dressing.  Since I had to eat it too, I made my version without using eggs.

Do you feel 'J' when you look at those skinny ladies? Go ahead make this salad and replace one meal with it. No? Then check out cakes and cookies on this blog and indulge yourself.

One Year Back - Nutty Okra Masala
Ingredients:
Cream Cheese - 4 TBSP softened (I used fat free)
Buttermilk - 1/2 - 3/4 cup (Depending on how thin you want the dressing to be)
Scallions - Chopped very fine about 2 TBSP  (use only green part)
Salt - to taste
Black Pepper powder - to taste
Hot sauce - 2 tsp (optional. Use only if you are used to spicy food)
Garlic - 2 cloves grated
Parsley - 1 1/2 tsp if dried and 1 TBSP if fresh

Method:
Beat the cream cheese till smooth and no lumps are there. Add buttermilk and continue to mix till everything comes together. Use 1/2 cup in the beginning and add the remaining 1/4 cup if required. Add salt, black pepper, hot sauce if using and mix. Finally add scallions, parsley (rub on your palm if using dried herb) and garlic. Mix it for the final time and use in salads.

The salad I made had Red radish, cucumber, tomatoes, green olives, avocado, arugula, baby spinach. You can use any veggie of your choice.

Enjoy. Pin It

Spicy Peanut Spread and a game day appetizer

"Hobbies of any kind are boring except to people who have the same hobby. " - Dave Barry.
When I moved to this country after my marriage, I had no clue about how addicted my husband was and is about foot ball. To be honest, it was very difficult for me to understand how a person can spend more than 12 hours straight watching a game. We couldn't go out on Sundays when there was a game. He was not a fan of one team. That would be far too easy. He watched and watches every game played by every team. In the beginning, without having anything else to do (I didn't have kids then), I started watching it too. At one point, I knew the names of every quarter back and running back, coach names, souper bowl winners' history and all kinds of related stuff. I still know the rules of it but don't watch it anymore. But eventually, I stopped watching and found things to do by myself. If I were into watching foot ball like my better half does, there wouldn't be this blog for sure.

We had couple of friends over for dinner on Super Bowl day.  It was  a small crowd and I kept the food very simple. I made this spread and made an appetizer out of it.

One Year Back - 
Ingredients:
Adapted from Peanut Sauce recipe.

Coconut - 1/4 cup (fresh or frozen not dried)
Green Chillies - 5
Garlic - 4 pods
Ginger - 1/2" piece peeled and chopped
Soy Sauce - 3 TBSP
Salt - to taste
Hot chilli sauce/ Hot sauce - 4 TBSP (or to taste)
Lime - 3 limes juiced
Peanut butter - 1 1/2 cups (I used regular. If you use natural, read Notes)
Cilantro - 1/4 cups packed

To Assemble:
Sesame Bagels halved and toasted in a toaster (See Notes)
Above spread
Salt and pepper to taste
Green onions sliced or any other crunchy veggies (optional)

Method:
Take green chillies, coconut, garlic, ginger in the blender and turn it on. It will be coarse paste. Add cilantro, lime juice, soy sauce, hot sauce and run it to make a smooth paste. You could add peanut butter to the blender itself, but I took the contents from the blender and added peanut butter into the bowl and mixed with a fork. Adjust the salt if needed. If you want to use this as a sauce over noodles or rice, thin it down by adding some hot water or warm coconut milk.

Take the toasted bagels, spread with peanut butter spread. Sprinkle with chopped scallions, a bit of salt and pepper and close it with the other half. Cut into 4 or 6 pieces and serve.

Notes:
If you are using natural peanut butter, go easy on hot sauce and green chillies. Also, add about 2 TBSP of brown sugar or regular sugar while pureeing the ingredients. Since the regular peanut butter has so much of sugar, I had to keep adding to get it spicy. Even then many folks didn't feel it spicy at all. If you are not using sesame bagels, mix about 1 TBSP of tahini to the puree and peanut butter mixture.

Enjoy. Pin It

Apples to Applesauce to Applebutter

Remember my recent post named 'Not all homemade stuff is cheaper' in which, I had written that making applesauce at home is not worth it. Well, I knew the process of making applesauce since I had made it when my kids were babies. You have to simmer the apples on stove top for almost an hour or till they are very very tender. The cost of gas itself was not a motivation to make it at home when I wrote the post.

I did an experiment. I took 2 pounds of apples (I had bought them for 59 cents per pound). Assuming not too much of weight loss happens when you cook them (since you are adding some liquid to it, it almost remains the same with a negligible weight loss. But you do have to calculate the core and peel weight though), I figured out that if I can reduce the cooking time to 10 - 15 minutes, then it will be cheaper to make it at home if I bought apples at a very good price.
I peeled and cored the apples, cooked them in pressure cooker. It was done in 12 minutes or so. Mashed them up to make applesauce.

This experiment continued... to make apple butter. I know not all the countries' grocery stores have apple butter on the shelves. Process of making apple butter is not complex at all. But, cooking time is about 8 hours. I figured out a way to reduce it so that everyone can make apple butter at home easily. Interested? Read on...

Ingredients:
To make applesauce:
Apples - 2 pounds ( about 6 medium sized apples. I had a mixture of macintosh, ginger gold)
Apple Juice - 1/4 - 1/2 cup (If you have apple cider, use that)
Lemon juice - 2 TBSP

To make applebutter:
Resulting applesauce from above
Brown sugar - 1/3 cup or to taste
Clove powder - 1/2 tsp (you could reduce it to 1/4 tsp to have milder spice taste)
Cinnamon powder - 1/2 tsp (you could reduce it to 1/4 tsp to have milder spice taste)

Method:
Take enough water in a bowl that fits in your pressure cooker. Those who do not have pressure cooker will have to do the hard way in a stock pot. Add lemon juice. Peel and core the apples and cut them into big chunks. Add these apple chunks to the bowl with water. When you are done cutting all the apples, drain the water leaving some in the bowl. Add apple juice to just barely cover the apple pieces. You can just discard a little water and cook it in water itself. Cook the apples in pressure cooker for 1 whistle. When cool, mash with a potato masher. If you are looking for applesauce, you can stop at this point. You will have to freeze the applesauce or refrigerate and use up within a week. Another alternative is to can the applesauce which, I have no knowledge about.

Now comes the fun part of making apple butter. If you keep cooking the apple sauce for about 8 hours on slow fire and add sugar and spices, you get apple butter. But, as I said, I was not about to spend 8 hours of time cooking the applesauce to make apple butter. If you owned a crock pot, you can leave it in that and set the timer for 8 hours. Since I do not own a crock pot, (May be I should get one. Mmmmmmmm??) I speed-ed up this process and made it in the microwave. Place the applesauce in a deep and wide dish and microwave at intervals of 3 minutes. Stirring after every interval. When half of the water content has evaporated (it took about 3 - 4 intervals in my not so powerful microwave), add brown sugar, spices and stir. Keep microwaving till all the water has evaporated. Keep stirring in between. It took a total of about 25 - 30 minutes in my microwave. To test for the doneness, when you put a spoon of apple butter on a plate, you should not see any water separating around it.

Yield of my experiment with 2 pounds of apples was almost 4 cups of apple sauce which when turned into apple butter measured to 1 1/2 cups of apple butter.

Cost comparison:
A bottle of apple sauce which has 5 cups of applesauce is about 2 dollars. So, I wouldn't say it is very economical to make it at home unless you get apples for a very good price.

A bottle of apple butter which has 3 cups of apple butter is about 2.87 (depends on the brand). I got 1 1/2 cups of apple butter for probably 2 dollars if I consider the cost of brown sugar, electricity and gas expenses. (May be not since I don't know how much electricity is used for microwaving for 30 minutes) But one thing is for sure, I probably am not going to buy apple butter any more.

Since I have not used any preservatives or too much of sugar, I do not know how long the apple butter will keep in the refrigerator. I am planning to use it up within about 10 days unless I decide to freeze it.

When you have made apple butter, you can either use it as jam and spread on toast or go crazy like me and bake all the following goodies and come up with your own recipes.

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Rolls with apple butter
Apple Butter Spice Bread (Egg less)
Sourdough Vegan apple butter cake

Enjoy!!

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Pita chips with Green Peas and Ricotta Dip

I don't watch a lot of TV, but when I do, 50 % of it is food network. My typical bed time routine is to turn on the food network and write the posts for the blog. I don't even watch TV constantly but I just like the sound of it. One such night, I was watching 'Unique eats' on Cooking Channel. They were talking about a place in NY which sell crostini with different toppings. One vegetarian topping that they were praising was with green peas and ricotta. For some reason, that stayed in my mind and when we were invited for dinner this weekend, I made this to take it. (Lucky me the host asked me to get an appetizer) I did use green chillies to spice it up a bit since we like food with heat. You can definitely omit it if you don't want the heat.

One Year back - Methi Subzi with split green peas
Ingredients:
Frozen peas - 3 1/2 cups
Ricotta cheese - 1 - 1 1/4 cups (I used part skim but fat free would work too)
Sour cream - 1/4 cup (I used low fat but fat free would work too)
Olive Oil - 3 TBSP
Salt - to taste
Pepper - to taste
Green Chillies - 10
Cilantro - 1/2 cup chopped
Lime juice - from one lime

Method:
Nuke the frozen green peas in the microwave for about 3 - 5 minutes. You are not cooking it, just warming it up. Place the green peas, olive oil, green chillies, cilantro, lime juice, salt, pepper in a food processor and process till coarse paste. Add ricotta cheese and sour cream and pulse couple more minutes till everything is incorporated. Adjust the seasonings if required and serve with pita chips or plain corn chips. I kind of made it into a smooth paste since my intention was to serve with chips. If you want to use it as a topping for bruschetta or crostini, make a coarse paste. Measurements in this is just to give an idea. You could increase or decrease the ricotta and sour cream depending on your taste.


To make pita chips:
Ingredients:
Pocket less pita bread - I used whole wheat pita bread (1 pita would serve 2 people)
Olive oil - for brushing
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Take two cookie sheets. Place pita one at a time on the cutting board. Brush the pita with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. (Try to hold the grinder at a good height so that the salt and pepper sprinkles evenly) Using a pizza slicer or a very sharp knife, cut into 8 wedges. Place them on the baking sheet and bake for 12 - 14 minutes rotating mid way. Cool on the wire rack. Keep in an airtight container if using later. It stays crisp if stored properly for at least 4 days. Serve with the above mentioned dip or Guacamole or Hummus. This is one of those appetizers which can be made in advance and is pretty healthy too.

Enjoy!! Pin It

Arrabbiata Sauce

I am weird different. If everyone looks for an easy way to do something, I try to do everything by myself. That definitely keeps me busy. Take yesterday for example: I went to the dollar store near my work place during lunch time to get Halloween loot bags. They were out of them and I needed to send the bags this friday. I could've driven another 20 - 30 minutes to go to another store to check out if they had them. Did I do that? No. I decided to give my brain and my hands some work. I printed a ghost on the plain paper and made envelopes myself.

In fancy words, this is being 'creative'. In plain words, it is being 'crazy' I know. I made totally 40 envelopes. I did make my kids hand me over the stuff and this kept them busy. But, a normal person would've spent that time driving and getting the pre made stuff instead of spending 1 hour (almost) doing this by hand.

Same thing comes to buying pasta sauce. I do not like to buy them. I make them. Are they cost effective when you make them? I don't think so. I jar of organic Arrabbiata suace costs about 2.97 in Trader Joe's. I probably spent more than that for just tomatoes. But the taste - is awesome.

For those who do not know about this sauce, it is one of the spicy pasta sauces that are available. Because they have heat, they are very much liked by Asian Indians. Recipe is adapted from here.

Ingredients:
Tomatoes - 9 medium skin peeled off and chopped fine (about scant 2 pounds) Blanch them to remove the skin
Olive Oil - 1 tsp
Garlic - 4 pods minced or very finely chopped
Red Onions - 1 large chopped fine (You could use yellow onion)
Basil leaves - about 10 chopped fine
Red Chilli flakes - 1 TBSP (or to taste)
Black Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
Red wine or cooking wine - 1/4 cup
Salt - to taste
Cayanne pepper - 1 tsp
Sugar - 1 TBSP
Italian Seasonings - 1 tsp

Method:
In a sauce pan, heat olive oil. When hot, add garlic, onion. Sprinkle some salt and let them wilt for about 5 minutes. When they are cooked, add the chopped tomatoes. You could use 2 cans of diced tomatoes (14.5 Oz each). Add wine, sugar and let it simmer. Add chopped basil leaves and continue to cook till most of the water has evaporated. Add red chilli flakes, cayanne pepper, black pepper powder. Take italian seasoning in your hand and rub them and add to the pot. Mix all well and simmer for few minutes. Adjust the seasonings if required and turn off the heat. Use it in your favorite pasta recipe.

Notes:
If you eat cheese, you could add grated parmesan to the sauce or when you make the pasta. This tastes great as a bruschetta topping too.

Thanks to all readers who read what I write. It definitely means a lot to me. And a special thanks to those who send me emails about the content or leave a comment on my posts. Even though I do not post a reply to every comment unless there is a question, please be assured that I appreciate and admire the time taken.

Enjoy!! Pin It

Guacamole - My way

If you are looking for an authentic 'Guacamole', don't read further. I am a person who believes in modifying a recipe to suit my taste. Many Indian friends/relatives who have eaten my version have liked it a lot. This is my way of making it and I usually serve it with Pita toast - Oven toasted Pita bread.

Tomorrow is my younger one's birthday party and we are having about 30 people for dinner. You'll bee seeing lot of party recipes next week provided I take pictures. I am making a mermaid cake (that's what my 3 year old is asking for) and I don't have someone who will take pictures when I stack the cake. But, I might right something up about it in a post for those who might be interested.

Long time back, I had put a poll on this blog asking if people are interested in me writing about 'cooking for parties'. It was open for more than a month and I got only 6 votes out of which 4 said 'Yes' and 2 said 'No'. I gave up the idea of writing a series about 'Cooking for Crowd'.  Following recipe is for serving 20 + people along with another dip. I am planning to make 'Hummus' tomorrow and I'll be serving Pita toast with these two dips.

Ingredients:

• Ripe Avocados - 6
• Key Limes - 3 or use 2 limes if regular size
• Salt - to taste
• Sour Cream - 1 - 11/2 cups (You can use low fat and vary the quantity as per your taste)
• Scallion - 6 both green and white parts chopped finely
• Garlic - 5 pods crushed
• Pepper - 1 TBSP or more powdered (Suit to your taste)
• Cayanne - 1 TBSP (You can omit it or increase it to your taste)
• Cilantro - 1/4 cup chopped

Method:
Cut the avocado and scoop the pulp into a bowl. Add the juice of lime (try not to use the bottled one). Mash them. Add Sour cream, salt, pepper powder, cayanne, crushed garlic and mix well. Add chopped scallion, cilantro and mix. Check for the seasonings and add more of what ever is required. Refrigerate till serving. Serve with tortilla chips or pita toast.

A close up..

And the final product..

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Pear Sweet and Sour Sauce

What will you do when you have nice pears on the counter that nobody wants to touch because they are not pretty? I had to do something about them because I was the one who bought them. They were firm, nice and sweet just with some dots on the skin and my kids wouldn't touch them. They refused to believe that they are pears. If you have kids, you know better than to argue with them.

I suddenly remembered a spicy apple chutney one of my friends had made one day. She was calling it 'Spicy Applesauce' and to be honest, I do not remember how she made it. I came up with my own and made a 'Sweet and Sour Sauce with Pear' or 'Pear Sweet and Sour Sauce'. This can be easily converted into chutney by adding less water.

Here goes my recipe..

Ingredients:

• Pears - 3 ripe but not over ripe. Cored with skin on
• Tamarind - A big marble size
• Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp or to taste (I used extra hot chilli powder)
• Dhania Jeera powder / Cumin Coriander powder - 1 tsp
• Salt - to taste
• Jaggery - a lemon size
• Oil - 1 TBSP
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

Method:
Chop all the pears. Place in a sauce pan. Soak tamarind in about 1/2 cup of water for 10 minutes. Extract juice from the tamarind and pour it on the pears. Add more water if needed to just cover the pears. Start heating. When they start simmering, add salt, chilli powder, dhania jeera powder, jaggery and let it boil for 3 - 4 minutes until the raw smell of jaggery disappears. Switch off the stove and let it cool for about 5 minutes. Transfer it to blender / mixie jar and grind into paste. I left out some chunks so that it doesn't feel like we are eating applesauce. Heat oil in a pan and when hot, add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add the oil to the sauce you made. You can skip this if you want to keep it fat free.  It was so yummy that I was licking the spoon. You can serve this with anything that you will serve with sweet tamarind chutney like samosa, bonda, bhajis or even idli.

Variations: 
You can add some cumin seeds to the tadka / tempering. You can add onions and garlic too. You'll have to saute them in oil and then add to cooked pears.

You could add some cumin seeds for the tadka.

I am sending this to 'Think Beyond the Usual - Soup, Curry and Chutney with Fruits' hosted at Nithu's Kitchen.

I am sending her some more entries from the archive.

Cranberry Pineapple Chutney/Gojju
Yam and Apple Kofta and Curry
Green Mango Apple Gojju
Green Mango Onion Subzi 
Apple Dhideer Uppinakayi / Instant Apple Pickle

Happy Cooking!! Pin It