cooking

Homemade Ketchup

Posted by Wendy on June 3, 2013 2 Comments

We ran out of ketchup last week, and as I was writing the word on my grocery list, I thought, “I bet I could make that.” So I looked online and found a recipe that took two hours instead of two days and bought the ingredients instead of a bottle of premade. It was a bit more expensive this time because I only had about half the necessary spices, but next time it will be super cheap :).

So here we go. Recipe courtesy of JS Online.

Ingredients:
2 cans (28 oz each) whole tomatoes OR 3 pounds roma tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1/2 yellow onion, cut into chunks
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup sugar (more or less to taste)
1 stick cinnamon
2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp whole cloves
1/2 tsp celery seeds
6 black peppercorns
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp cayenne (more or less to taste)
1/2 tsp salt

Blend the tomatoes, with their juices, along with the onion and garlic (half at a time so as not to overload your blender) until smooth. Pass the liquid through a mesh strainer, pressing with the back of a spoon as necessary. Discard solids.

*I don’t have a mesh strainer, so I skipped this step, and my ketchup is still delicious. It’s just not as smooth as factory ketchup. So know that if you opt out of this step, your ketchup won’t be ruined.

Pour tomato mixture into a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat.

Continue simmering until it’s reduced by half. This will take 1-2 hours.

Meanwhile, combine all other ingredients in a second saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve the sugar and turn off the heat. Let it sit while the tomatoes continue to reduce.

When the tomatoes have reduced by half, strain the spices out of the the vinegar; discard the whole spices. Stir the vinegar into the tomatoes.

See that black line in the middle? That’s my vinegar mixture :).

Continue to simmer the ketchup, stirring occasionally (but be careful not to let it burn!), until it is thick. This will take about 20-40 more minutes.

Taste for salt and spice, adjusting to your liking.

Let cool, then transfer to jars. The ketchup will keep in the fridge for 2-3 months.

I got 2-16 oz jars (a repurposed Alfredo sauce jar and a new jar). And let me tell you, this stuff is delicious! And the best part is that you can adjust it to your family’s liking. For example, I left the cayenne out altogether, but if you like spice, you can totally use more. It’s a wonderful recipe. It does take some time, but it’s not all hands-on time. Pay enough attention to keep it from burning, but other than that, it practically cooks itself.

I hope you “take the plunge” and try your hand at homemade ketchup once you run out of the commercial stuff :).

–Wendy

Strawberry-Orange Sauce

Posted by Wendy on May 6, 2013 2 Comments

I made waffles for lunch the other day (yes, lunch), and I wanted some sort of sauce for them – we didn’t have any syrup. So I scavenged around the fridge to see what we had. Turned out to be strawberries and orange juice. So I figured “what the heck” and cooked them together to see what I came up with.

Here it is:

Trust me, it tastes better than it looks! I was skeptical even as I cooked it until I tasted it. Oh my goodness, it was amazing! I think it would be good for any of your topping needs: ice cream, waffles, pancakes… anything you can imagine, really.

Strawberry-Orange Sauce

Strawberries
Sugar
Orange juice
Corn starch

(I don’t have amounts because I was working on the fly lol)

Slice strawberries and place them in a saucepan with sugar. Cook over medium heat until the strawberries are soft enough to mash. Meanwhile, combine orange juice and corn starch. When the strawberries are soft, add the juice. Cook and stir until thickened.

I hope you enjoy this as much as we did 🙂

–Wendy

Fresh Rosemary

Posted by Wendy on April 17, 2013 6 Comments

One of my very favorite things about our new house is the rosemary bush in the front yard. My sister-in-law planted it when she and my brother lived here (her father is our landlord), and I can’t thank her enough! Not only is it pretty, but it’s very practical. Whenever I’m making an Italian sauce, I just send the kids out to clip a sprig. It’s fabulous. And fresh rosemary doesn’t take nearly as long to cook in a sauce as dried rosemary does, so that’s another big benefit. I hate hard rosemary in my spaghetti sauce.

What’s your favorite herb? To be perfectly honest, rosemary isn’t mine; thyme is. But I don’t have a thyme plant in my yard ;).

Homemade Baby Food

Posted by Wendy on April 13, 2013 2 Comments

Hello everyone! Today I have something that may or may not apply to you, but it’s what I’ve got :).

About five months ago, when we moved out of the apartment and into the house, I started reading more blogs, and with the information I’ve gleaned from sites like this, this, and this, I decided to really embrace my housewife/stay-at-home-mom status. Seahawk is 9 now, and I’ve spent most of his life as a non-working mom. The difference between that and a stay at home mom is the amount of time spent on the house and kids. I’m sorry to say that I was quite selfish for a while, especially during my 2-year writing stint. It doesn’t do any good to dwell on the past, so I’m not going to. Instead, I’m going to look to the future and continue to be the wife and mom God intends me to be.

What does that mean for today’s post? I’m glad you asked :). Part of being a better mom (to me) means providing a healthier existence for my family, from homemade laundry soap (to avoid chemicals) and cloth diapers (to save the family money, as well as being environmentally friendly), to homemade baby food for Small Fry. The latter is what I’m going to talk about today (duh).

It’s really easy to make baby food, and less expensive than the jars or plastic tubs. Not to mention, there’s virtually no garbage associated with it. That last item alone is worth it to me. Well, that and the fact that I can use organic fruits and vegetables and control the ingredients used.

So, here’s what you do. First, peel (if necessary) your fruit or vegetable:

I made this on Monday and was using organic sweet potatoes (or yams, I’m not sure; I don’t like either, so I don’t usually buy them). After peeling them, I was left with a nice pile for our compost :).

Next, cut it into smallish chunks and place in your steamer basket. Add enough water that it won’t all boil off and burn during the cooking process – I speak from experience on this!

Steam the food until it’s fork-tender. These sweet potatoes took about 15 minutes. You can kind of tell from the picture that they changed color from a dull orange to a nice bright one:

In stages, so as not to overwhelm your blender (unless yours is better than mine and can handle it), puree the chunks until they’re the consistency you want. If you need to add liquid, use what’s left from your steamer; that way, you’re adding any nutrients that were lost in the cooking process back in. One word of advice, though: make the baby food thicker than you think you’ll need. You can always thin it out by adding breast milk, formula, or water when you feed it to your baby. By leaving it thicker, you’re prepared in case your baby advances to ‘heavier’ foods while this is frozen.

When it’s all pureed, put it into ice cube trays and freeze.

My three potatoes made more than enough to fill the two trays I have designated for baby food, so I just put the leftovers into Small Fry’s normal feeding jar and didn’t have to worry about thawing food for two days.

That’s it! Well, actually, there is one more step, but I forgot to take a picture, and that is to move the cubes to a ziploc freezer bag once they’re frozen. Thaw the food as needed for feeding your baby. A really young baby will probably only need one cube per feeding; Small Fry will be 9 months tomorrow and he’s up to 2, sometimes 3.

Homemade Corn Tortillas

Posted by Wendy on March 27, 2013 5 Comments

I know I’m not the first, and I probably won’t be the last, to blog about the joys of making your own corn tortillas, but I gotta tell you, if you’ve never tried it, you MUST!

Tortillas are one of those things that I always thought just kind of “existed.” I never even considered the idea that I could make my own. I started with flour tortillas a few weeks ago, and while they’re better than store-bought, they’re not “I’ll never buy them again” good. The corn tortillas, though, are to die for! It takes about an hour start to finish (plus the time to make your filling), but it’s completely worth it! Here’s how you do it:

First, buy some Maseca from the Hispanic foods aisle of your grocery store. It’s priced comparably to flour, so not too much :). In case you don’t know, Maseca is corn flour – NOT to be confused with corn starch. Maseca won’t thicken your gravy, and corn starch won’t make good tortillas.

Here’s what it looks like out of the bag:

Now, I forgot to take a picture of the next step, but it’s just adding water according to the specifications on the bag to make a dough.

Then you form your dough into balls. I actually made 12, not 5, but again, forgot to take a picture in the beginning.

The next several pictures are essentially one step: flatten the balls into tortillas. If you have a tortilla press, I’ve heard (read) that this is a lot easier. If you, like me, don’t, it’s still not worth not trying over. The most important thing to remember is that you have to use plastic wrap on either side of your tortilla. Using additional Maseca, like flour on a pie dough, doesn’t work. Trust me on that! I tried it that way the first time I made these and almost gave up. Plastic wrap, or a cut open plastic bag, is the way to go.

First, place your tortilla ball between two pieces of plastic:

Then flatten it with a cast iron skillet (I found that it’s best to squish it down, then turn the whole thing, plastic wrap and all, over and do it again before moving on):

Finally, without removing the plastic wrap, roll it out with a rolling pin (again, flipping it over inside the wrap a time or two):

Carefully peel the plastic wrap away and place your tortillas on a baking sheet (with layers separated by plastic – are you sensing a theme here?) to await their turn on the griddle:

I then put my plastic wrap into my jar of Maseca so I can use it next time. I hate throwing away plastic, so I’m going to use that baby as many times as I can!

Now you’re ready to cook them! They take 45-60 seconds per side.

You’ll more than likely end up with small pieces that break off; cook them anyway and enjoy them as a cooking snack!

That’s it! Once they’re all done, use them the same way you would their store-bought counterparts.

Have you ever made your own tortillas? How did it go? If you haven’t, are you interested in trying? Let me know in the comments!

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