Marinara Sauce

Marinara is so easy to make.  I truly don't have a recipe to copy here because it changes every time I make it.  The basis is the same, and here's how I do it:

I don't love every vegetable in the grocery store, namely the squash family.  But marinara is a great way to add vegetables to your kids' diets and THEY'LL NEVER KNOW!  Plus, it usually makes a lot and these are cheap ingredients.

I usually add 2 zucchini, a bunch of tomatoes, carrots and celery, onions, bell peppers (roast them and skin them).
You could add a little fennel, spinach, broccoli, etc.  As long as the tomato is the star, it will be indistinguishable which other veggies are included.

I add a variety of spices including salt, black pepper, oregano, basil, marjoram, fennel seed, thyme, parsely, and garlic.

I also add canned tomatoes and tomato paste, plus water, and sometimes a bullion cube.

Cook it all down, toss it in a blender and blend until very smooth.  *a side note: if it is not fully smooth, the texture of the vegetables is too easy to distinguish and it's somewhat gritty and unpleasant. So blend well.
I usually put it back on the stove to cook further, adjusting some spices and adding fresh herbs and sometimes a few chunks of canned tomato reserved from the can.  Sometimes I add greek yogurt or neufchatel to make it slightly creamy.

Use this as a base for soup, jar it, or freeze for future uses.  Turn it into a vodka cream sauce and serve with penne for dinner one night.  Add into chili-seasoned beans and beef and serve as chili.  Use as base for tortilla soup, adding cilantro, jalapenos, and cumin.  Make meatballs and use their cooking juices to flavor the marinara.  Marinara is so versatile!  Have fun with it.

Tortilla Soup

One winter day in Boston I felt like cooking.  I looked in my pantry and tossed everything into a pot.  What came out was a tortilla soup.. kind of.  And it was fabulous (though the ugly photo makes me cringe).

1 large can diced tomatoes
1 large garlic clove, minced
1/4 onion, diced
1/4 c. beer
1/2 tsp marjoram
1/2 tsp oregano
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1.5 jarred jalapeños, crushed
dash red pepper flakes
3 tbsp cilantro, chopped
1/3 can water
1 tsp salt
pepper to taste
1 tbsp sugar

It could be as simple as throwing all these ingredients into a pan, bringing it up to a boil, and simmering for 45 minutes.
Or, it could be more complicated: blooming the garlic, spices, and onion in 1 tbsp oil, adding tomatoes, deglaze with beer, add remaining ingredients except for cilantro.  Cook for 40 minutes and add cilantro in final minutes of cooking.  Garnish with dollop of sour cream, cilantro, and fried tortilla strips.

Authentic Tandoori Chicken

Joe's birthday dinner turned out great!  The recipe I used was from Aarti Sequeira and the recipe is located here, but if you don't want to click over, I will copy it below with a couple added points.

Note: it is beyond difficult to find all the Eastern spices in stores, but it's well worth not leaving out anything.  I used one website to find all the spices I did not have in my pantry.  It only set me back $20, and I didn't realize I ordered a spice I already had, so that's $2.75 more than I needed. Whoops.  I purchased 1 oz bags of the spices and 5 chiles.  The spices will last me a long time, and I have 1.5 more recipes worth of chiles, so it's a great investment.  I like this site because it allows you to choose the weight of your spices, and because they sent me free vanilla beans and 1 oz of a free sample of my choice. I was smart and chose something I needed for the recipe. The website is My Spice Sage. It did take nearly 2 weeks for me to receive the spices from New York, but hey, I do not live in the most convenient area anymore.

Ingredients

• To Grind:
• 5 cloves
• 2 dried guajillo chiles (if you can't find these, then use 2 chiles de arbol, and more paprika for color)
• 2 green cardamom, husks discarded, seeds retained
• 1 black cardamom, husk discarded, seeds retained
• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
• For Marinade:
• 1 cup whole fat plain yogurt
• 1/4 cup peanut or canola oil
• 2 tablespoons malt vinegar or lime juice
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
• Pinch cayenne pepper
• 8 cloves garlic, minced
• 2-inch thumb ginger, peeled and minced
• The Rest:
• 1 packet boneless skinless chicken thighs (1 1/2 pounds usually) 
•     *I used skinless breasts and tenders, around 2 lbs
• 1 teaspoon honey
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Couple of extra limes, for garnish

Directions

To make the marinade, toast the cloves, whole chiles, both types of cardamom seeds, coriander seeds, fennel seeds and fenugreek seeds in a cast-iron skillet until fragrant, 3 minutes or so, shaking the pan. Then, pour the spices into a spice grinder and grind them until you get a fine powder.

In large bowl, whisk together the spice mixture you just made with the yogurt, oil, malt vinegar, salt, ground cinnamon, paprika, turmeric, cayenne pepper, garlic and ginger until well combined. It should smell amazing! Taste and adjust with more salt if it needs it.

Reserve 1/3 cup of the marinade and set aside; you're going to make a sauce out of this reserved marinade.

Prick the chicken with a fork. *I pounded the chicken slightly, to about 1/2 inch thick.  Add the chicken to the rest of the marinade, and toss to coat. Marinate at least 1 hour in the fridge, and at most overnight.

When you're ready to cook, line a baking sheet with foil, and turn your broiler on. Place chicken on the baking sheet, making sure each one is coated with the marinade, but isn't swimming in it. Cook the chicken under the broiler until starting to blacken, about 5 minutes. Then turn the oven to 350, and cook until a meat thermometer inserted in the meatiest part of the thigh registers 160 degrees F, another 10 minutes. Remove from the oven.

While the chicken is cooking, pour the reserved marinade into a small saucepan, along with 1/2 cup water and the honey. Bring to a gentle boil over medium-low heat, whisking all the time. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Remove from the heat and pour into a small bowl or gravy boat for serving.

Serve the chicken on a platter with a fresh squeeze of lime and a drizzle of the sauce.

My Notes:

I had to use more salt than the recipe called for.

I used more chicken than the recipe called for. I found that after making the yogurt sauce, there was a lot of it, and because I didn't want to waste it, I just threw in more chicken.

I served the chicken on top of parmesan couscous with green beans sauteed in garlic oil. I was considering parsley and butter rice or coconut rice, but I decided on couscous and the texture was really nice with the chicken. Next time I will go a little crazier with the couscous, adding mint, toasted slivered almonds, and raisins or currants or dried cranberries. YUM!

I did not get limes, but I definitely would have loved a squeeze of lime over the chicken.

Next time I make this, we plan to make garlic naan to eat it with.

I found that my electric oven does not get as hot under the broiler as my old gas stove, so I had to broil it for 10 minutes. Next time, I may actually grill it over charcoal. I think that would be closest to the tandoor flavor and texture- crispier on the outside. 

I hope you try this recipe. It was delicious! It was so much fun to make and is authentic. The prep takes 20 minutes but once it's in the fridge overnight, the next day is a breeze. Let me know how it turns out!

Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese

We ended up having a last-minute dinner guest and because I haven't been cooking large meals with my better eating habits, he is a meat and potatoes sort of fellow, so I looked through my pantry to see what I had on hand and headed to the market for a couple more ingredients.  What I came up with was Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese, from scratch!  I did not have a moment to take a photo, but it was a looker!

Here's what you'll need:

1 lb pasta (I had macaroni)
4 oz grated cheddar cheese (I used sharp, reduced fat)
4 oz grated Gruyere cheese
1 stick butter
milk (I used skim)
heavy cream (or just use more milk!)
salt and pepper
1.5 lbs boneless skinless chicken of your choice (I used tenders)
flour
hot sauce
brown sugar
honey
1 scallion
breadcrumbs (I used half seasoned and half panko)
1 large broccoli head

Season chicken with salt and pepper and grill it.  While it's grilling, make your buffalo sauce:
1/4 cup hot sauce, 1 tbs melted butter, 1 tbs brown sugar, 1 tbs honey.  Once chicken is cooked, dice or shred and toss in buffalo sauce.  Set aside.

Cook pasta to box directions for al dente. (You will be baking it later, so al dente is perfect). Chop broccoli to small florets and add to cooking pasta 1 minute before pasta is done.  Once pasta is finished, drain and put back in cooking pot.

For the sauce, here's what you'll need.  Grate your cheeses ahead of time and have them set aside.  In a medium saucepan, melt the remaining 7 tbs of butter.  Sprinkle in flour, enough to soak up all the butter (1/4 cup is my guess, but it may have been more), and whisk.  You're making a bechemel sauce.  Cook out the flour and add milk, a half cup at first, whisking to work out any lumps.  Continue to add milk (I had heavy cream so I used it as well) in increments until the flour seems to not seize everything up again. Add 1 tsp salt and 3/4 tsp pepper, and your cheeses.  Whisk until cheese melts into the sauce (this should be over low heat), and add milk if you need to thin out the mixture.  It should be fairly thick.  Pour over macaroni and broccoli and fold in chicken with all the remaining sauce and chopped scallions.

Load macaroni into a baking dish, top with breadcrumbs (I sprayed my breadcrumbs with butter spray), and set into a preheated 375 degree oven for 20-30 minutes, uncovered, until the breadcrumbs are browned and sauce is bubbly. Serve with hot sauce bottle on hand for those who need a little extra punch!

*Alterations.  I planned to use cream cheese in here as well, but I grated too much hard cheeses and omitted it. Feel free to use whatever nice melting cheese you like.  Gruyere is expensive but I only used about $4 worth for this recipe.  Crumbles of your favorite bleu cheese would be great in this too.
If your family prefers another veggie instead of broccoli, change it up!  Broccolini would be nice here, asparagus, spinach, bitter greens... go nuts!
I did not have nutmeg, but if you do, grate a bit into the bechemel!

Activities

Well, today I finished my Couch to 5K program and I feel great!  Last year around this time I was almost finished with it.  It's a 9-week program and last year I was on week 8 when I got sick.  Theeeeeen I feel out of it and did not get back on track until I came to Florida.  When it's nice out all the time, it's hard to not to feel good about yourself and the way you look.  So, I started with week 2 and stuck with it.  Woohoo!

That said, I am not a runner.  I never have been, so this was a great program for me. Now that I have stamina, I will start working on time.  I am not going to stop running just because the program is over.

Each year there is a super marathon... 100 miles from Key Largo to Key West.  Some people do it as teams, some do it alone.  Can you believe that?! No breaks... running all night.  Joe and I saw people running it in May when I came to visit and do some apartment hunting. They're incredible.  I don't even like DRIVING the length of the Keys, I can't imagine running it.

I have not been on my bike since I took a hard crash a month ago.  Truth is, I need to fix the brake that I crashed out of alignment. I also need to convince myself I won't be an idiot like last time.  See, I had just gotten in clip-in shoes and I was using them for the first time.  I decided I wanted to stop at the end of my street to tweak it a bit but when I came to a complete stop, I forgot to unclip BEFORE braking.  So here I was at a dead stop, realizing I was strapped to my bike.  I was falling over to my left, the handlebar hit the ground perpendicular and my chest went right into the end of the right handlebar.  I was essentially stabbed in the chest with my own bike and it knocked the wind out of me for a second.  I cannot tell you how much a sternum contusion hurts.  Sleeping hurt, breathing hurt, and don't even get me started on sneezing.  It took me a month to heal.

It's tough to find fun exercise classes like Zumba down here.  There's one a half hour's drive away, and there's another a 10-minute drive away, but they're in the $15 range and I just can't make that commitment weekly.

Our neighbors are super sweet and they took us out on the boat for a Full Moon Party in August.  They let us borrow everything we want and we are grateful for their kindness.  We've borrowed their snorkels and fins, and we went kayaking one afternoon.  We are very lucky!

Changes!

Holy cow! A LOT has happened in the past year.  We moved to Florida!

Joe got a great job and it meant moving to the Florida Keys.  Wow.  Never did we think that we'd end up here but it's beautiful.  Far away, sure.  The family hates the distance, and I get pangs of homesickness but it's what we had to do.  I have no job yet and it's difficult because "the season" here is January through April, and they start hiring in November I hear.  Oh, and I also don't have a car. hahaha it's not fun being cooped up while Joe's at work.  But there are plusses: Joe travels for work, and when he does I get his car.  Also, it's so hot all the time and there's very little to do, so it's not like I'm missing much by not having a vehicle.  And current gas prices are $4.15 last I checked.

Joe drove our stuff down in a rented truck, but I had to fly down with Sienna.  Have I mentioned she is an awful traveler?  She did not vomit, but on the flight from Hyannis to Boston she pooped in her carrier, but I was prepared with two sets of puppy pads on the bottom of her carrier.  Boston to Miami was the long ride and she cried every twenty minutes or so, but I couldn't move her carrier from under the seat so I just spoke to her and stuck a hand in every so often to pet her.  My rowmates were two teenage Argentinian girls who thought she was the cutest.  I let them pet her when the flight was over.

The layover in Miami was great for her.  She was mentally exhausted I could tell - she hadn't slept at all, and when I opened the cage to give her some air she stayed huddled in there.  Speaking of that, I was so anxious about having to take her out of the cage every time we went through security, but she did well.  I had her harness on and a leash, and she clung to me when we went through the beeper, and couldn't wait to get back into the safety of the cage.  Funny though, I had to shake her out, upending the whole carrier to get her out in the first place! I thought she was going to run away but she was perfect!

Miami to Key West was a very small plane, like the Cape plane, but this time it was HOT and HUMID and she was not a happy camper.  She was constantly smooshing her face against the mesh, trying to get out.  I couldn't help but put the carrier onto my lap to try to soothe her as best as I could.  The passengers in front of me weren't cat lovers apparently.  They had no sympathy for her constant cries and writhing...instead, they downloaded iPhone cat noises and played them, laughing.

*deep breath.  But we made it.  She is feeling very "at home" here and loves the house but is struggling with her potty training. #1 is always perfect, #2 has been on the floor lately...