Easy Pizza Sauce

Before I went gluten free, we used to have homemade pizza a couple times a month.  To help us eat as healthy as we can and to save money, I decided I should start making my own pizza sauce.  After all, I'm making my own marinara, pizza sauce couldn't be difficult either.  And it isn't.

I found a good sauce we liked from Kitchen Treaty.  This recipe had everything we wanted in a pizza sauce.  Full of tomato flavor? Check. Just a hint of heat? Check.  Super simple? Check.  Easy to adapt? Check.  Freezes well? Check.  I adapted this sauce slightly to accommodate our tastes and my cooking style.

Gluten Free Flour Blend and Book Review

I was not compensated for this post other than given permission to share America's Test Kitchen's copyrighted recipe.  All opinions are my own.

Several weeks ago a package showed up on my doorstep unannounced.  My dad saw a cookbook online he thought I'd like and had it sent to me.  My dad is cool like that.

The book is America's Test Kitchen's latest The How Can it Be Gluten Free Cookbook.  Let me tell you, I wish this book had come out a year ago.  The first chapter in the book is all about the chemistry of gluten and baking.  America's Test Kitchen talks about what needs to be replaced in a recipe if wheat gluten is removed - elasticity, fat, starch.  Another thing they talked about was weighing flour and other dry ingredients instead of measuring them by the cup.  That technique has made a great difference in my baking.

Birthday Sleep-over Snack Food

On Saturday the 8 year old will be having his 9th birthday party at the local skating rink and afterward his 3 closest friends will spend the night with us for an "after party."  The party package includes pizza and sodas, but we'll be eating around 4:30.  So I thought our overnight guests will probably want more to eat later in the evening.  I can't see corralling them to sit down for a meal, though.  That's where heavy "finger food" snacks come in.  I'll be setting things out buffet style and letting the boys eat what and when they want.

Keep Cold Foods Cold While Camping

This week is camping week at Now Things Are Cookin'.  Monday I shared meal ideas to help you move beyond hotdogs and hamburgers on your camping trip.

Meal Plan Camping Style

Things have been a little stressful in good ways and in not so good ways around the Now Things Are Cookin' household the last few weeks, which is why the blog has been quiet lately.  My husband and his best friend have known each other literally all their lives.  They lived across the street from each other from the time they were babies until they graduated from high school and even roomed together in college.  Two weeks ago my husband's best friend's father passed away.  Both the family and my husband have been taking it hard.

Two days after the funeral, we took our annual  four day/three night (car) camping trip with three other families. We've taken this trip ever since the 8 year old was the 3 year old,  It's always a trip we look forward to every year, even after the disaster of a trip four years ago when it was 100 degrees every day and none of our campsites had any shade!

Vacation Meal Ideas

Later this summer when our family goes on vacation to Virginia Beach, we're planning on eating most of our meals in the hotel room to save money.  We did this last year on our vacation too, but I wasn't quite as prepared.  This year I'm already making food to freeze and take with us on our trip.  My husband and I are already talking about eating out at the two restaurants we tried last year, but for the most part, we'll make all our meals in our room or pack picnic lunches to be enjoyed on the beach.

How to Read a Recipe

Reading a recipe might seem like a no brainer to even novice cooks, but as I was researching how to write a recipe, I actually learned a few things.  It's not easy to write a recipe and sometimes, I will admit, us food bloggers get it wrong.  However, there are some things you should expect from a well written recipe and some things you should do.

Saving Chipotle Chilies in Adobo Sauce

We like a lot of Tex-Mex/Mexican food around here.  In fact I'd say we probably have at least one thing a week that would be considered Tex-Mex, whether it's tacos, Southwest Pasta Skillet, Spicy Bean Burritos, taquitos, or Roasted Tomatillo Salsa with Avocado.  Sometimes I come across a recipe that calls for chipotle chilies in adobo sauce.

Cream of... Soup Mix

I admit, there are some things that are just not the same without a can of cream of "something" soup.  My momma's meatloaf calls for a can of cream of celery soup for the gravy, and I'm just not sure it would be her meatloaf without it.

The Importance of Salt

My mother's recipe for stuffed peppers is adapted from a very old Betty Crocker recipe for "porcupine" meatballs.  Supposedly, if you add uncooked rice to the meatballs mixture, as it cooks in a slow cooker, the rice will work to the surface and poke out resembling quills on a porcupine.

Fine Mesh Sieve Substitute

I've mentioned before that I am a home cook who doesn't have a lot of the fancy gadgets and toys that a lot of home cooks these days have.  I'm generally okay with making do with what I have.  However occasionally not having a particular tool is frustrating.

Working Ahead - Marinara Sauce

More often than not, I use jarred marinara sauce.  It's a lot easier to open a jar than to cook it myself, right?  But then I ran across a recipe for marinara sauce by The Naptime Chef and featured by Recipe Girl.  It's oh so good and simple enough that it can be "doctored" to your own tastes.  I generally just follow the recipe on Recipe Girl's site.  

Working Ahead - Shredded Chicken

I make a lot of casseroles, soups and other dishes that call for cooked shredded chicken.  Normally I poach boneless, skinless chicken breasts to achieve this, which doesn't necessarily take that much time.

Working Ahead - Vegetable Prep

One of the things I always think will just take a moment or two but ends up taking longer is all the vegetable prep for my salads or dicing onions for casseroles.  So when I bring out my cutting board for one job, I look at the meal plan for the remainder of the week to see what else I can prep at the same time.

Working Ahead - Hamburger Patties

Welcome to a new five week series entitled Working Ahead.  Each week I'll focus on one area where I do prep for a meal or meals in advance.  Most of what I prepare ahead of time goes into my tiny freezer, but some things are short term and go to the fridge for the next day.

How to Improve Your Knife Skills

One of the things that made me a lazy cook is that my knife skills were pathetic. I still don't have the knife skills of a Top Chef, but I can dice an onion now.  Three years ago, I'd read a recipe and immediately gloss over ingredients like "1 small onion, diced" or "1 green pepper, chopped."  I figured I could make the recipe without those things and did.  And most of the time, they were edible, but did not have the depth of flavors that they could have had it I had included the vegetable items that needed chopped, diced, or otherwise cut.  It's not that I was afraid to use a knife.  I just didn't enjoy it.  It was too much work.