Half-Day Chili Sauce

One of the best things about my neighborhood is that us moms stick together. And when school lets out early for the monthly "half-day" teacher inservice trainings, it's good to have a plan for how to fill those hours when the kids are usually in class.

Molly supplied the idea and the recipe for our most recent free afternoon. Luckily, Jeannie has a garden that won't stop producing tomatoes, I had a bunch of poblanos and onions and we were all ready and able to get chopping — and talking.

Our kiddos were just happy to be running around outside together all day.

Molly's recipe is from David Letterman's mom, Dorothy. (I never knew she wrote a cookbook!)

But with all the tomatoes and extra peppers we had, our version got tweaked a bit, and we nearly doubled the recipe. We divided everything among three pots for the final cooking process so that each of us had one to take home.

The instructions for this chili sauce are pretty simple and you can easily make adjustments according to what and how much you have on hand.

The best part? Getting some time with friends to chat and catch up while chopping and deseeding the peppers and tomatoes.

This sauce tastes so good on its own. You can use it to top all kinds of grilled meats or burgers. Molly uses the chili sauce as a braising liquid for a roast. I added some to a meatloaf. Let us know how you put this yummy sauce to work in your kitchen!

Mangia! Mangia!
Andrea

Half-Day Chili Sauce
20 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped
6 to 8 large onions, chopped
10 medium green bell peppers, chopped
2 to 4 hot peppers (use your favorite, such as jalapeño or poblano)
3 tablespoons salt
2 cups granulated white sugar
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 teaspoon ground pepper
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup cider vinegar

If you're not sure how to peel a tomato, follow these steps: Bring a pot of water to a boil. Score the bottom of each tomato with an X. Fill a large bowl with ice and cover with water. Once water boils, put a few tomatoes into the boiling water at a time. Let sit for just a minute, then transfer to ice water.

Remove tomatoes from ice bath after a minute or so. Starting at the X, peel skins off the tomatoes. They should slide off fairly easily.

Peel your onions and cut them in chunks. Cut up the peppers, too.

Working in batches, pulse the tomatoes in a food processor or blender until well chopped but not mushy. Transfer tomatoes to a pot. Then chop onions and peppers in the food processor and add to the pot with the tomatoes.

Add the spices, sugar and vinegar to the pot. All the laughter in the room from the fun conversations you'll have while making this chili sauce with friends is sure to add some sweetness, too.

Bring to a boil, then simmer for an hour or more until desired consistency.

Let cool completely, then transfer any sauce you won't use right away to ziplock, quart size freezer bags. You can freeze the sauce until you are ready to use it.

Cranberry Pot Roast

Happy autumn, guys! It's always a bummer when summer comes to a close, but the cozy days of fall are some of my favorites. Sweater weather, apple picking, and comfort food? Yes, please!

Growing up, one of my favorite fall meals was Cranberry Pot Roast. My mom used cranberry juice in place of chicken broth. (Knowing my mom, she was out of broth one day and made an on-the-fly substitution. Way to get dinner on the table, Mom!) It's been years since I've had Cranberry Pot Roast, and when the crisp weather rolled in, I decided it was time to give it a whirl. Instead of cranberry juice, I used cranberry sauce. Just the canned stuff because...life, people. But if you have leftover homemade cranberry sauce, by all means, use that.

In addition to being delicious and make-ahead friendly, I love Cranberry Pot Roast because it's forgiving. After adding the veggies and popping the roast back in the oven for the final 45 minutes of cooking time, I decided to take the kids to the park. "Oh, we'll be back in time to turn off the oven. No prob!" So an hour later when we were flying down the slide, and I finally looked at my watch...whoops! We hustled back to rescue the roast, and this baby was no worse for wear. It was perfectly tender. Now this is the kind of meal that fits with my lifestyle.

Let's get cooking!
Erin

Cranberry Pot Roast
Adapted from Pot Roast with Bacon and inspired by my mom

2 tablespoons olive oil
3-4 pound beef bottom round roast
Salt and pepper
1 rib of celery, diced
1 onion, peeled and diced
1 1/2 pounds carrots, divided - dice 2 carrots, and cut the rest into 1" chunks
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1 (14 ounce) can whole cranberry sauce (or use homemade)
1-2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 bay leaf
3 parsnips, peeled and cut into 1" chunks
8 ounces whole cremini mushrooms
Cooked egg noodles or mashed potatoes for serving
Chopped fresh parsley for garnish, optional

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

In a large Dutch oven, heat oil over medium-high. Season beef generously with salt and pepper. Add beef to pan and cook, turning as needed, until all sides are browned, about 8-10 minutes total. (You'll know it's time to turn the beef when it's easy to flip. If it's sticking to the pot, it's not ready. Give it another minute to cook then try again.) If the browned bits on the bottom of the pan start to burn, turn the heat down to medium. When the roast is browned, remove to a plate and set aside.

Add diced carrot (set aside the carrots cut into 1" chunks until later), celery, and onion to the pot. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are soft, about 8 minutes. Stir in garlic, sugar, and thyme until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Stir in cranberry sauce, scraping up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Return meat to pan. Pour in enough chicken broth so the liquid reaches about halfway up the side of the roast. (For me, this was about 1.5 cups of broth.) Add bay leaf to the pan. Bring liquid to a boil. Cover, turn off the stove, and put the covered pot in the oven.

Allow the beef to cook for 3 hours, turning the meat over a few times while it cooks. Add the remaining carrots and parsnips to the pot, making sure they're submerged in liquid. Re-cover the pot, and cook for an additional 45 minutes to 1.25 hours (if you're at the park), until meat and vegetables are tender.

Remove meat and vegetables to the serving dish and cover with foil to keep warm. Skim any fat from the liquid remaining in the pot. (If you have one, you can use a fat separator to remove the fat and then return the liquid to the pot.) Bring the cooking liquid to a boil over medium-high heat and allow to simmer for 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Pour cooking liquid over meat and veggies and serve over buttered egg noodles. Garnish with parsley if you're feeling fancy.

Balsamic Roasted Parsnips and Carrots

When I was at the grocery store, they had gigantic, and I mean gigantic, parsnips and carrots on sale. Could I pass that up? Absolutely not. Just look at those suckers:

Since these veggies were so stinkin' big, I figured they might be tough and fibrous. A little nibble while I cut them up confirmed this was the case. In order to soften and sweeten my veggies, I decided to roast them.

A quick trip to my backyard for some rosemary, and I was ready for action. By the way, did you know that rosemary survives in the snow?! Crazy!

Next time parsnips and carrots (gigantic or otherwise) are on sale in your neck of the woods, give this one a try. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Balsamic Roasted Parsnips and Carrots
Serves: 4-6
Adapted from Bon Appetit (via epicurious.com)

1 gigantic carrot, peeled and sliced into 1/8" thick coins
2 gigantic parsnips, peeled and sliced into 1/8" thick coins
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. You should have about 4 cups total of sliced carrots and parsnips. Place vegetables onto a very large baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and vinegar. Sprinkle rosemary, salt, and pepper on top. Toss everything together so the carrots and parsnips are evenly coated.

Roast for 20-25 minutes until vegetables are crisp-tender.

Pot Roast with Mushroom Gravy

Last year around this time I described an illness that had settled over my house: Christmas Disease. Recently, I started noticing the onset of the 2011 strain of Christmas Disease. It began when I was trying to sleep. Instead of counting sheep, I counted the shopping days left in December. I get nostalgic and misty-eyed when I see houses glowing with icicle lights and trees trimmed with tinsel. The butterflies in my belly can be attributed only to holiday excitement...or one too many Christmas cookies. 

Since I'm practicallly bed-laden with my illness, tethered to the couch with re-runs of "A Christmas Story" on TBS, I can't be expected for much in the kitchen. So today I offer up another fabulously easy crockpot meal. This will bubble away on your counter while you deck the halls, croon carols, and cut-out cookies. And when you're ready for a piping hot dinner, it will nurish your soul as much as your body.

Enjoy...and happy holidays!

Pot Roast with Mushroom Gravy

Serves: 6-8

1 onion, peeled and cut into large wedges

3.5 pounds of your favorite "roast" cut of beef (May I suggest top loin roast or bottom round roast?)

8 ounces white mushrooms, halved

2 sprigs of rosemary

1 bay leaf

1 can cream of mushroom soup

Water

Salt and pepper to taste

In your crock pot, layer onions, roast, mushrooms, rosemary, and bay leaf. Pour cream of mushroom soup over everything. Fill the empty soup can with water and pour that over the top. Cook on low heat for 10-12 hours. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Helpful tip: I place everything except the liquid ingredients in my crock pot before bed and store it in the fridge over night. Before work the next morning, all I had to do was dump the liquid ingredients in and turn on my slowcooker! That made it slightly less likely that I was late for work.

Side Dish Idea: Pot Roast with Mushroom Gravy pairs well with Thanksgiving Mashed Potatoes, another make-ahead wonder.

Simply Roasted Carrots

I think I've made it chrystal clear how I feel about roasting: I feel happy about it. Tickled. Perfectly thrilled, in fact.

Roasting is so easy and so good. Am I preachin' to the choir out there or am I the only one singing the praises of a scorchin' hot oven putting crispy, caramelized edges on my veggies and tubers? Anyone? Bueller? 

Well, I digress. Moving on to carrots. Far too often these crunchy, vibrant fall beauties get relegated to the humble lunch sack. Heaven forbid Junior heaves them into the trash bin in favor of a Fruit Roll-up or Ding-Dong. I wanted my carrots to take center stage.

First I took my lunch-sack-ready baby carrots and hacked them into coins.  There were two reasons for this extra step: 1.) they look purrrty, and 2.) they cook more quickly when they're sliced up. Reason number two was obviously far more important to me. Then I tossed them on a baking tray (lined with parchment for easy-peasy clean-up) and glugged on some olive oil. (I think "glug" is an official culinary term.) A hearty sprinkling of salt and pepper, and into the oven they went.  After a few minutes the heat of the oven brought out the natural sugar and deepened the blaze-orange color of my simple carrots. They were indeed the star of the dinner table.

Simply Roasted Carrots

Carrots* (big or baby carrots), sliced into 1/4" coins
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Choose a baking sheet large enough for all of your carrots to fit in a single layer and line it with parchment paper for easy clean-up. Place carrots on the baking sheet and drizzle with oil.  (If you have a lot of carrots, use about 3 tablespoons oil. If you only have a few carrots, use about two tablespoons.)

Sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss everything together with your hands. You want your carrots to glisten with oil and be evenly coated with spices. Distribute the carrots so they're in a single layer. Cook for 17-20 minutes, stirring halfway through, until the carrots are tender and caramelized around the edges.

*Use as many carrots as you need to feed your family. The husband and I enjoy our vegetables, and three big handfuls of baby carrots feeds the two of us.

P.S. Interested in the fish pictured with these Simply Roasted Carrots? Check out my recipe for Pan-Seared Tilapia.