How to make a Sauce

When I walk through the grocery store and take a look at the pasta aisle, it never ceases to amaze me the variety of sauces on display. I can't imagine spending $3 on jarred sauce when it is SO easy to make. I think if people realized just how simple it is, they would be making their own and saving more money.

To make any sauce there are basically four components that you can mix and match:

Oil Base-butter, oil or drippings from meat

Thickening Agent- flour if making a roux or cornstarch if you are thickening from a broth

• When making a roux, heat your oil base and then add a bit of flour to thicken, you will want to cook the flour a little bit to get rid of the "doughy" taste. Depending on the depth of the sauce you are making you may or may not want to brown the roux. Always stir constantly when making a roux, burned roux will need to be thrown out.
• When using cornstarch the rules change. While you add flour to hot oil, cornstarch ALWAYS needs to be added to cool or cold liquid. Never add to warm/hot liquid or it will not dissolve (it's backwards, I know) and you will get lumps in your sauce. I like to use a little pint jar, put a little bit of cold broth or water and add your cornstarch and shake it. You can add a bit at a time until you get the correct thickness for your sauce.
  

Liquid-there are a variety to be used here, broths, bouillon broth, milk or cream, tomato sauce or juice, even water.

Seasoning Elements-This of course is defined by the type of sauce you are making and is only limited by your imagination. Some suggestions are Meat, Cheeses, Vegetables, and spices of all types. Even sweet flavors like cocoa and coconut can be found in sauces. Flavors like onion, garlic, salt and pepper can be found in almost all sauces and if you don't want chunks of certain flavors in your sauce but want the aroma and taste, you can infuse the essence by boiling the liquid you are using with the ingredients of the flavor that you like before you begin. Just discard the ingredient after the flavor has been infused into the liquid.


Here is an example of how these steps come together. This is how I make Alfredo Sauce:

1. Melt half a stick of butter in large skillet
   
2. Throw in diced onions.
3. When onions are translucent and aromatic, throw in some flour to make roux. (hint: if you add too much flour and find your roux is a thick paste instead of a roux, just add a touch of oil. This is so simple, you can add more oil or more flour until you get the roux consistency just right)
4. Add chicken broth, then season with salt, garlic powder and pepper. Taste with small spoon to see if flavors are right.
5. Add cream or milk a bit at a time, to get the perfect consistency...the sauce will thicken as it cooks until it reaches a certain point. I just add a bit at a time until I get there.
6. Last step, add a half cup or so of Parmesan Cheese.

See how easy that is? No special ingredients, no special equipment, and no reason to ever use sauce in a jar again. It sure works for me!

To see what's working for others, please go visit Rocks In My Dryer

Hash Brown Casserole

I'm planning on making a hash brown casserole this week, so I thought I would include the recipe. It's a great way to use up potatoes if you hit a sale (just shred them in food processor and be sure you squeeze out all the excess water). In this case I am using actual frozen hash browns. I bought them for a ridiculously low price a few weeks back and I have yet to use them. So when I was looking through my freezers to make my menu this week, I decided to make the hashbrown casserole.

That's another thing. I don't really buy the prepackaged convenience food. It's not as good for you and it's extremely overpriced. HOWEVER, always look at the sales. If you can buy two pounds of potatoes, PREPARED, for $.50 at a time when 5lbs of potatoes is costing $3 or more...then YES it is a good deal..grab it!

Hash Brown Casserole

2 lb Hash Browns
1/2 stick of margarine
1 can cream soup
1/2 stick of cream cheese is nice if you have any
1/2 onion chopped
salt and pepper to taste
2 c cheddar (reserve about half for topping)

Turn your oven to 350. Saute your onion in the butter. Remove from heat and add all the rest of the ingredients. Add the cheese for the topping and cover with foil. Cook in oven about 1/2 hr and then remove foil to brown the top. It should cook about 45 minutes in all. Easy recipe!

Homeade Shake & Bake Mix

Shake and Bake is really convenient for busy nights and it's a real crowd pleaser too. But there is NO WAY I'm spending what they want for a box of Shake and Bake when we're trying to get the most for our money. Here is my Shake & Bake recipe that I use. I mix it all up in a big bowl and then store it to use as needed.

4 c flour
4 c bread crumbs, cracker crumbs, or I buy panko bread crumbs when I see a sale (this recipe stretches them)
1/4 c salt
2 T sugar
2 t garlic powder
2 t onion powder
3 T paprika
1 T poultry seasoning
1 t (or a bit more) pepper

Mix all those up...then

Add 1/4 c oil

Cut oil into dry ingredients until it's dispersed throughout the mixture.

Store in tight container and use as needed. For added savings, use a bread bag instead of a ziploc to coat your chicken. Bread and bun bags are free and are the perfect size for shake and bake!

Note: Do not use mixture if it has touched raw chicken. Only use what you think you will need each time, you can always add more, but after it's touched the chicken you must throw it away.

Baked Potato Soup

I usually at LEAST double this recipe!


1/2 c butter/margarine
1/2 c chopped onion and garlic
1/2 c flour
Chicken broth (30 oz or so)
2 cans evaporated milk (or you can use regular or reconstituted milk instead...whatever's on-hand)
4-6 baked potatoes
cooked and crumbled bacon
shredded cheddar cheese
Chives

I bake potatoes in my crock pot all day so that this is put together really fast when I start dinner in the evening. To bake potatoes in a crock pot, wash and put potatoes in foil (and actually only the potatoes that will touch the crockery need the foil), then cook on low all day or high for about 4 hrs. They take on a nice roasty taste...very yummy and convenient.

Saute onion and garlic in butter. Stir in flour. Make into sauce by adding broth and milk.
Scoop the pulp from about two of your potatoes and add to the sauce. Bring to a boil gradually. Add remaining potatoes (diced so the soup has texture), add bacon, chives and cheese. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Put sour cream on the table or use as garnish. Excellent if served with a crusty bread and salad.

Enjoy!

Scalloped Potatoes

Here is my recipe for Scalloped Potatoes. Very yummy and not too expensive to make.

4 c sliced potatoes (as thin as you can...but keep them uniform)
3 T butter/margarine
3 T flour
1 1/2 c milk
1 t salt
bit of pepper
dash of cayenne
1 c grated chedder to put in sauce (can also use velveeta)
1/2 c additional cheese for topping
(you can also add bread crumbs under the cheese if you need to use some up)
paprika for color

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a saucepan melt your butter. Add the flour to make rouxe when the butter is melted. Add milk all at once and stir constantly. Add seasonings to sauce and let it thicken. After sauce is thickened, remove from heat and add the cup of cheddar.

In Qt baking dish (or larger) put down a layer of potatoes (about half), then cover with half the sauce. If you are using bread crumbs, you can put some of them here in between layers. Now repeat, potatoes, sauce...then put the toppings on. Breadcrumbs, if using, and then 1/2 c cheese.

Bake for about an hour. I have also used leftover baked potatoes for this. (Reduce liquid if using baked and time is just until heated through and bubbly)

Enjoy!

Make a Pizza with your kids

Fishmama over at Life As Mom is sponsoring Recipe Swap Thursday. So here is my submission for the recipe swap this week "In the Kitchen With Kids"

My kids LOVE pizza. They could eat pizza every day if I let them, but I limit it to just once a week on Fridays. Homeade pizza is so easy and quick (around 30 minutes at home too!!) that there is just no reason to go to the expense of buying Pizza Hut or even Dominoes. You can make a pizza for less than $2 or you can spend a little more on toppings and still come out ahead of buying from a pizza parlor!

For EACH pizza dough:

Dissolve
1 T yeast
in 1 c warm water

In a bowl add together:

1 t salt
1 t sugar
2 T oil
2 1/2 c flour

Add your yeast mixture (when it's sat a few minutes and is nice and foamy) to your dry ingredients. Then take your hands and mix it all up together. Knead the dough for five or ten minutes until it is nice and smooth.

Then I let the dough rest while I mix up a batch of pizza sauce.

One note on the crust. This does freeze well so if you think you might need your pizzas in LESS than 30 minutes, you can make this recipe ahead and freeze the dough. Set the dough out in your refrigerator the morning you plan on serving it and when you get home in the evening, you're ready to go!

For the pizza sauce:

1 8oz can tomato sauce
(I actually don't measure these spices...I just eyeball the amounts to about the following)
pinch of italian seasoning
t garlic powder
3/4 t onion powder
1/4 t black pepper
2t sugar

Taste the sauce and add a little bit more seasoning if you think you need to. Abby loves this part "gimme taste" she will say.
And then after tasting she'll say "it's juuuuuuuuust right!" (even if it needs more of something!)

At this point you can press your dough into a pizza pan dusted liberally with cornmeal.
I have found that you can pick up the dough and stretch it (1/4 turns at a time) to fit the pan (or just a bit larger) before you put it on the pan. Then you can take the edges and pretty them up...or just pile them into a ridge if you like.

Take the sauce and put a spoonful at 12, 3, 6 and 9'oclock and then a spoonful in the middle. Take the back of your spoon and spread the sauce in each area until you have a thin layer of sauce over your entire pizza crust.

Now you can take a bag of mozzerella cheese and sprinkle all over the pizza. It helps to tell your children to use the 12, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock areas in their mind to be sure they have equal sprinkling in all areas.

Now it's time for toppings. I have used almost every kind of topping you can think of. Kids usually like pepperoni though and it's a very inexpensive ingredient to use and easy to apply as a topping.

Now put your pizza in the oven at 450 degrees and bake for about 12-15 minutes.

Cornbread Recipe

Nothing goes quite so well with a big pot of beans as cornbread.

I know alot of people make their cornbread from a mix, but there's really no reason to with a recipe as easy as this. Just in case you think you need a mix, though, I'm also adding my version of this recipe as a mix...all you do is add oil and water.

Cornbread
1/2 c oil
2 medium eggs
1 c milk (or buttermilk)
1 t salt
2 T sugar (a little more if you like a sweeter cornbread)
1 t soda
3/4 c cornmeal
1 c flour

Add all ingredients in a bowl and stir. Pour into a cast iron pan (if you have one) sprayed with non-stick cooking spray or into a square casserole dish. Bake at 375-400 (med-hot oven) for about 20 minutes. The cornbread will be perfectly browned and if you insert a knife or toothpick into the center it will come out clean. You can also use this recipe for muffins. They will bake at the same temperature but will not take as long to bake.




Cornbread Mix for busy days

Soy flour is the substitution for the eggs in this recipe. You can make this substitution in any baking recipe that calls for eggs by using 1 T soy flour + 1T water=1 egg.

2 T soy flour
1/3 c powdered milk or powdered buttermilk
1 t salt
2 T sugar
1 t soda
3/4 cornmeal
1 c flour

Just add 1/2 c oil and 1 c + 2T water to mix and bake 400 degrees for 20 minutes!
A frugal, tasty cornbread in minutes!

Red Beans and Rice

When you're on a budget like we are and you're trying to make your grocery money stretch as far as possible, the easiest place to cut the budget is GROCERIES! That means "rice and beans, beans and rice" to quote Dave Ramsey.

Here's one of the favorite bean recipes at our house:

1lb red beans
8oz ham hock/bacon/seasoning
2qt water
1T salt
3c chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 c chopped green pepper
(I also throw in some celery if I have any)
1 t cayenne (or more to taste)
1 t black pepper
dash tobasco
1T worcestershire
8oz tomato sauce
pinch each of oregano and thyme

Soak your beans overnight and do crockpot next day...or soak all day and cook in afternoon as follows:

Slow cook 45 mins and then add all other ingredients except salt.

[Chemistry sidenote: Never add salt to beans until they are totally soft. Have you ever had beans with that little film on the outside? There is a chemical reaction to the beans when you add the salt and that outside layer will never soften if the salt is added too early. Adding this info for anyone who didn't know. We're all eating beans, so figured it never hurts to remind about that!]

Cook another 2 hours and check last 15-20 minutes for taste. Add salt and more cayenne if you wish. Sometimes I will also add a pinch of my cajun seasoning as well if it needs a little more kick. Serve over a big pile of steamed rice. Yummo!

Recipe for Cajun Seasoning

Here is a basic cajun seasoning with NO SALT. It's great to add to beans or any casserole that needs a little more "kick" but not more salt.

This makes a big batch. What I usually do is make it in my pyrex bowl (makes it easy to pour) and then fill up my pint jar that I keep of the stuff and then give the remaining mix to a friend. It's good stuff and cheap to make!

2T onion powder
2T garlic powder
2T oregano
2T basil
1T thyme
1T black pepper
1T white pepper
1T cayenne pepper
1 T celery seed
5T paprika