Homemade Honey BBQ Sauce

I'm trying to stop purchasing convenience-type items that really can be quite easily made at home and have a lot less "junk" added to them.  I have been on the hunt for a really good homemade BBQ sauce. This one still needs some tweaking for my tastes, but overall it's not bad!  I also love that it's not a ketchup-based recipe (i.e. yet another processed, sugar-filled product), and that it's a recipe where I have all the ingredients on hand in my cupboard, so there's no excuse not to make it.  (Not to mention, I can pronounce all the ingredients! ;))

Ingredients:

1 can tomato paste
2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. honey
1 Tbsp. molasses
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. dry mustard
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. all spice
1/4 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. chili powder
black pepper (to taste)
1/3 c. water

(**If you prefer a spicier and/or smokier sauce, go ahead and add in those ingredients with the first 11 listed above)

In a small saucepan, combine all the ingredients *except for* the black pepper and the water, stirring well.

Place saucepan over medium heat, stirring the sauce until it's completely mixed together, which takes all of a few seconds.  Next, pour in the water.  Whisk it in until it's combined.  Continue to stir the mixture over medium heat until it starts to thicken up a little and become bubbly.  When it starts to bubble, add the black pepper to taste.

Remove from heat and continue to stir the ingredients for another minute or so.  Allow the sauce to cool, then place in an airtight container.  It can be stored in the refrigerator for about a month.

Three-Ingredient Steak Rub

Every year we purchase a side of beef, so steaks are plentiful in our house.  The best way to cook them up is on the grill, and we never tire of my easy 3-ingredient steak rub.

Ingredients:

Garlic powder
Seasoning salt
Black pepper

I don't measure the ingredients, nor do I combine them before putting them on the steaks.  I simply sprinkle them to our family's tastes.  I tend to go heavy on the black pepper as we love that, as well as the garlic powder.  I use a little less seasoning salt.  Once your meat has been sprinkled, go ahead an gently rub the seasonings in (both sides), and toss them on the grill!

Before:

After:

Veggie Pizza

This is one of my family's favorite meals!  It works well on any pizza crust (see the recipe for a basic dough recipe here) and you can tailor the pizza to fit your family's tastes as well as take advantage of whatever veggies you have hanging out in your refrigerator.

This is another one of those "no measurement" recipes; you can pretty much eyeball everything and it'll end up tasting great!

Ingredients:

Cream Cheese, softened (you may use a low-fat version if you prefer)
Ranch salad dressing (again, low-fat may be used, or try with your favorite salad dressing)
A variety of fresh, raw vegetables
Cheese (I use shredded cheddar most of the time)

You'll want to have your pizza crust made up and baked in advance.  If you're going for a thin crust experience, make sure to poke plenty of holes in your pizza dough prior to baking it so that it doesn't get too bubbly.  I prefer this pizza on a cracker-thin crust, but it tastes good no matter what the crust thickness is.

In a small bowl, combine cream cheese and Ranch dressing until you have a creamy, smooth texture.  Spoon the mixture onto your pizza crust(s) and spread evenly so that there is a thin layer across most of the surface.  Make the mixture thick enough so that your veggies can be pressed in a bit and will "stick" to it.  I used fresh broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, orange bell peppers, and red onion.  Go ahead and sprinkle the vegetables onto the cream cheese/ranch layer, pressing them in a bit, if necessary.  Finally, sprinkle a little bit of shredded cheese on top of the veggies.  Slice like you would a regular pizza and serve immediately, or chill in the fridge for a short while.

That's all there is to it!

Puffed Pancake

Most of us love this easy breakfast.  It's flavorful and can be paired with your favorite fruit.  Normally I serve it up with green apples, cooked in a cinnamon/nutmeg syrup, but today I wanted to make use of some in-season strawberries.  One word: fantastic!  I like that it's easy to make--all the ingredients go into the blender--and it only takes 20 minutes to bake.  While it's baking, you can prepare your fruit and have that ready to go once the pancake comes out of the oven.  This pancake can and will bake up in a crazy way...but in a matter of seconds after being removed from the oven, it completely deflates.  So get the kids in the kitchen--they'll enjoy seeing the pancake change in size and shape in such a short time!

Ingredients:

6 eggs
1 c. milk
1 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp butter, melted

Toppings:

fresh fruit
powdered sugar
whipped cream

Oven Temperature: 400 degrees
Baking Time: 20 minutes

**Note that I doubled this recipe**

Start out by placing the eggs, milk, flour, and salt in your blender.

Mix the ingredients for a few minutes so they are well combined and smooth.

Take your melted butter and pour it into the 9x13" baking pan.  Another option is to place the butter into the pan, allow it to melt in the preheating oven and remove it when it has melted.  Your choice.

You don't have to tilt the pan to spread the butter as long as you pour the batter directly over the main portion of butter.  It will cause the butter to spread out across the pan on its own.

At this point, pop the pan into the preheated oven and allow it to bake for 20 minutes.  In the meantime, prepare whatever fruit you want to use.  Today, this was my choice:

After 20 minutes, remove the pancake from the oven.  As you can see, mine baked up in a rather crazy way!

You'll notice how far the pancake deflates in this next picture.

Using a metal spatula, remove a slice from the pan and garnish with your favorite toppings.  I simply used strawberries, powdered sugar, and a little whipped cream.  Delicious!

American Lasagna

I'm calling this "American Lasagna" because it's a pretty Americanized version.  Eventually I will be posting a recipe for Roman Lasagna, which is an authentic Italian recipe.  But for now, I'm sharing my easy American version.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 jar red pasta sauce (your favorite)
1 box of lasagna noodles (or homemade)
12 oz. cottage cheese
12 oz. sour cream
2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
spinach, chopped (optional)

Baking Temperature: 350 degrees
Baking Time: 90 minutes for dry noodles, 50 minutes for fresh pasta

Start out by browning the ground beef.  Drain any excess grease/fat, then stir in the pasta sauce.  Place a little of the meat/sauce in the bottom of a 9x13" pan, then top with the first layer of noodles.  (There is no need to cook the noodles, either fresh or store-bought, in advance.  If you are using fresh noodles, make sure that you have plenty of sauce.)

Next, place a layer of meat/sauce, followed by a layer of the cheese mixture.  You'll basically dollop blobs of the cheese mixture across the face of the lasagna; it won't cover the entire surface.

Repeat the layers of noodles, meat, cheese 2 more times.

Cover the lasagna with tin foil and place in preheated oven.  Bake for 60 minutes covered, 30 minutes uncovered (if using fresh pasta, bake for 30 minutes covered, and 20 minutes uncovered), or until the cheese has melted and is slightly golden.

Allow the lasagna to sit for about 5 minutes before cutting into it and serving it up.

Cheese Ravioli

The other week my husband and I found a fun little ravioli cutter and we were inspired to try making our own ravioli.  It was a hit!  For the pasta recipe I use, click here.  There are actual ravioli trays that you can use, so if you have that, go ahead and use the instructions that come along with your tray.  Otherwise, I'll take you step-by-step on how to make your own ravioli!

Ingredients:

8 oz. ricotta cheese
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 c. mozzarella
1/2 c. Parmesan cheese
1 egg
spinach, chopped (optional)
garlic powder (to taste)

Combine all of the above ingredients in a bowl, mixing well.  Set out a sheet of pasta on a lightly floured surface, then use a small spoon to scoop balls of the cheese mixture on top, leaving space between each portion.

Next, lay a second pasta sheet on top of the cheese balls.  It looks a little strange here, but it works out, I promise!

Gently press down around the sides of the filling.

Now is when you can use a ravioli cutter.  Or some other kind of cutter--perhaps a cookie cutter, or simply run a pizza cutter around your ravioli and have a straight edge.  It doesn't matter; it all tastes good!

If you have a bench scraper, I would recommend using that to carefully lift the raviolis off the counter so that they don't stretch or stick.  A thin spatula would also work well.  I placed the ravioli on a plate that had a light coating of flour on it as well.

Boil water in a large saucepan.  Once the water has come to a boil, carefully drop the ravioli pieces into the water.  Allow them to cook for 3-5 minutes.  Drain, return to the pot, add your favorite pasta sauce, and serve!

Homemade Pasta

We really enjoy the flavor of homemade pasta.  Yes, it's easier to just buy boxes or bags of pasta from the grocery store...and sometimes we do that, too.  But as with most things, you can't beat the taste of homemade!  I will admit that prior to having our pasta attachments for our stand mixer, we didn't make pasta nearly as often.  Having the right equipment to make the job go faster and easier makes all the difference in the world.  I managed to snag this set for 70% off the retail price thanks to some savvy planning and shopping, and we have definitely gotten our money's worth out of it.  There are manual rollers/presses that are just as effective as these attachments and that's a great option for those who need to stick to a budget.  (Don't we all!)

I'm going to share our basic pasta dough recipe and then show you a variety of ways in which to prepare the pasta.

Ingredients:

2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 beaten eggs
1/3 c. water
1 tsp. olive oil

As usual, place the dry ingredients in your mixing bowl and give them a quick whirl to combine.

In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the wet ingredients.  (Note that the photos for this recipe show a doubled amount.)

Go ahead and mix these ingredients for about 8-10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic.  (It won't be as stretchy as bread dough.)

Cover and allow the dough to rest on a lightly floured surface for 10 minutes or so.

Divide the dough into quarters. (Or eighths if you are doubling! ;))

Take one piece of the dough (covering the rest so they don't dry out) and gently press down and lightly coat each side with flour.

At this point, make sure your dough press is set up and ready to go.

Using the attachment on the stand mixer is a cinch.  The knob on the right has numbers on it.  When you start out with your slightly flattened (by hand) lump of dough, you want the knob to be set at the number 1.  You'll run the dough through the press 2 or 3 times until it's smooth and elastic.

Once your dough is smooth and running through the number 1 setting well, change the knob to the number 2 and run the dough through again.  Next, switch it to 3 and then to 4.  I don't typically make my pasta any thinner than this--it's thinner than you can roll it by hand, and that's good enough for me!  Here is a comparison picture so you can see how far one ball of dough can stretch when it's placed through the number 4 setting.

At this point, you decide what kind of pasta you are going to make.  For instance, do you want to make lasagna?  Then keep the sheets of pasta as they are and cut them in half to fit into a 9x13" pan.  (It's not necessary to cut them into standard lasagna size pieces that you get in a box, unless you really want to spend the time to do that!)

Perhaps you want to make spaghetti or fettuccine.  I made some fettuccine using the attachment again, but it's easy enough to take a pizza cutter or a knife and cut strips through the pasta sheet.  Don't limit yourself to using these for a typical Italian meal.  While this tastes great with red sauce or white sauce, it also tastes great in chicken soup!

Maybe a filled pasta, such as ravioli, is what sounds good.  It's very easy to fill pasta by layering one sheet of pasta over the top of a second sheet with the filling in between.

Definitely give homemade pasta a try.  You won't be disappointed!  As an added bonus, fresh pasta cooks up much faster than the dry kind from the store, usually in 3-5 minutes!