Spaghetti sauce is the boss

I'm not a great cook. I'm a slightly decent cook, though I'd say my forte is baking. But, I have a few foolproof dinner recipes up my sleeve, thanks to my momma. My mom is the guru when it comes to yummy meals, and thankfully she has shared some of her secrets with me. When I first moved away from home my mom emailed me a few of her signature recipes, one of them being her spaghetti sauce. I made it a couple times, then lost the recipe and email, so I just started making my own via what I could remember. I did that for a few years and then this Christmas my mom gave my sister and I the secrets to life, aka a cook book of her recipes she makes, including her almighty spaghetti sauce. Turns out I was pretty close! I still make my version of her spaghetti, although Brendon (by himself!) made her recipe a few weeks ago and they taste almost identical. Like mother, like daughter.

So here is my version of my momma's spaghetti sauce recipe. You need:

- Tablespoon of butter
- 1lb of ground beef
- About half a cup of wine or beer
- Salt and pepper
- Garlic powder
- Onion powder
- 16oz can of tomato sauce
- 16oz can of Italian seasoned diced tomatoes
- 6oz can of tomato paste
- Few cloves of garlic
- A tablespoon or so of sugar
- About a tablespoon or so of various Italian seasonings dried or fresh (I use whatever I have on hand, this last time was dried thyme, oregano, fresh basil, and a couple of bay leaves) - really you can use whatever you like!

First I melt the butter in a big ol' pot over medium heat, then add the ground beef. I break it up so it's into the smallest pieces possible, as this is meat sauce, not meatballs (although you can totally do this whole thing with meatballs, I've tried and it's delicious, just a little more work). Then I season the ground beef with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. I pour about half a cup of beer or wine in too. Then I cook the beef until it's browned.

Next I throw in the canned tomato goodies and season up my sauce with all the other ingredients (including another round of garlic and onion powder, salt, and pepper, about a tablespoon of each). I just kind of wing it and season it to taste, I never use measurements, which is why I'm saying "about" a lot. 

Once everything is mixed in I bring it to a boil then turn it down to super low, so it's just barely simmering. Then I let that nonsense cook for a couple hours. The longer the better. I check on it every now and then to make sure it isn't getting too hot. It will go from looking like this:

To this swampy deliciousness:

And you've got some boss sauce!

This stuff is unbeatable in my book. Throw it on some noodles and enjoy. Or do whatever you want with it! We made my moms lasagna recipe this past week with a batch and it was pretty phenomenal. I've been loving the leftovers. You can also totally freeze half for later. It's amazing stuff. Mad kudos to my momma for teaching me well.

Tomato Pie

It's been a long while since I've posted any food up on this blog. I blame it on my zero time/energy to cook. And laziness. And Home Slice pizza.

A couple weeks or so ago, before my life got extra cray, we made tomato pie! I'd heard rumors of it on the internet and then my step mom made one not too long ago and it looked amazing. So we made it happen. It's super easy.

I used this recipe, but altered a bit. Yes, that is half a cup of mayonnaise on the ingredients list, I don't play around. And anything with fresh basil is usually a winner. That basil plant on our window sill was the best investment ever. I left out the onion (because I'm not a fan) and added squash, zucchini, and mushrooms. So I guess it was less of a tomato pie than a veggie pie. Variety is the spice of life. I ended up cutting up WAY too many veggies, I probably could have made two pies. But it was okay, we threw them in a ziploc baggie and had them a couple nights later with cheese sauce, bonus! Cooking/smothering the healthiness out of vegetables is my specialty.

Anyway, this pie nonsense was good. It was hella rich, but yummy. It would be perfect for winter time, which is a bummer since tomatoes are summer veggies. But it was good and if you aren't scared off by the mayo, I suggest you try it. And you could totally leave out the mayo anyway. It's a great one dish meal that you can throw in the oven, forget about, remember, and then eat.

Go buy some fresh 'maters and try it y'all!

Thanksgiving!

Happy belated Thanksgiving to you all! I hope you had a fantastic day filled with family, thankfulness, and yummy food. We sure did! We got to eat Thanksgiving dinner, twice! First with my momma and Brendon's family, then at my daddio's. It was a pretty wonderful day. And of course we are verrrry thankful for all the greatness we have in our lives! But we are thankful for that everyday!

 My momma was the head chef! Seriously y'all, she's the bomb at cooking and this feast was no exception. Everything I know about cooking, I learned it from her. And google.

Scary much? That electric carving knife means business. Of course, this was posed, there's no way I'd ever use that thing. Someone (me) would lose a finger at least.

 The business. SO LEGIT. I wait all year for this feast. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, rolls with honey butter (that I made! I'll have to share the recipe sometime), tamales, and of course, everything was smothered in gravy.

Brendon and his little brother made cute little post-it note place cards for everyone. Mine said "Best Sweater" and "Santa's Little Helper", I think Brendon's said, "Most Muscles" and "The Cleverest of them All". Might have been a little biased.

Post feast, we had a little mini family photo shoot! Everyone was trying out the "hooters" pose. I'm telling you people, it works. Get those hands on your hips.

Brendon and AJ goofin' around. I think Brendon was trying to live up to his "Most Muscles" place card.

The group shot! This was a feat, no joke, the camera was on a 10 second self timer while sitting on top of the tv. We had to get creative. One day we'll invest in a tripod.

Next up was Thanksgiving numbero dos at my dad's house! Although we were pretty much ready to pop, we ate and ate some more! And then had dessert!

The spread! Everything was delish, my step mom did a fantastic job, the mashed sweet potatoes were my favorite. I think my step brother and I were twiddling our thumbs for some reason. My dad obviously had some boogies.

And not only was it Thanksgiving, but it was my step brother Jason's 22nd birthday! Check out that cake, doesn't it look super perfect? My step mom has wicked icing skills.

Jason and his birthday loot. Look at that cat card! Pretty much my favorite card I've made so far. Classy gentleman cat for life.

Basically I think Thanksgiving might become my favorite holiday. It might be tied with Christmas. It's a tough call. It was so good to see family, eat great food, and just soak in the goodness. I was a happy camper for sure! And that evening, we went and saw Breaking Dawn. All I am going to say is I enjoyed it and can't wait for part 2. And I feel better about being so pale, I'll just pretend I'm a Cullen.

Coming up soon, Christmas arrives at the Hogan residence. PREPARE YOURSELVES. The most magical time of the year is upon us!

Little tarragon burgers

Last night Brendon and I made some yummy mini-burgs with an aaaaamazing sauce. Brendon picked out the recipe and he picked well. The burgers were more like meat balls; they had an egg, bread crumbs, onions, garlic, and of course tarragon in them. The recipe said to serve them on english muffins and at first I was like whaaa? but it was awesome. And that sauce was the bomb. It had TWO sticks of butter in it, so obviously it was destined to be delish. I poured it all over my spinach as well. This was my first time cooking with tarragon and I have to say I'm a fan. Yay for herbs!

Brendon is a burger connoisseur. To say that he likes them would be a grotesque understatement. Burgers are hands down his favorite food and probably one of his favorite things in general, ever. He could eat burgers every day. Probably for every meal. His groom's cake was a burger. It's a lifestyle. For a long time (years y'all) I wouldn't eat them, or ground beef in general. Can you imagine Brendon's disappointment? How did he even consider me as dating material? But, to his relief, a year or so ago my taste buds changed their minds about burgers and I've been a fan ever since. The first time I said to Brendon, "I think I want a burger", he very seriously told me that he loved me more than moment than ever and then proposed marriage. I kid, I kid. But really, it was something along those lines. He takes burgers seriously.

This is a photo of me eating my first burger in like 5 years at the Whataburger in Denton on Fort Worth Dr. Early spring 2010. You know we keep it classy and of course we had to document this momentous occasion. Memories y'all.

Egg-cellent (yes, I went there with that pun)

I'm not normally a fan of eggs, but every now and then I crave them. Today, it was in egg sandwich form. My mom got me hooked on egg sandwiches when I was a wee lass. I can't make them as good as she does (it's that mom magic), but when I'm in the mood they're a quick, easy, and yummy meal!

 

Just melt some butter in a skillet and throw in a couple of eggs. You can use however many you'd like on your sandwich, I usually roll with two. Season them with some salt and pepper and fry 'em up to your desired degree of cooked...ness. I like mine with the yolks just a tiny bit runny so the sandwich isn't too dry.

Toast some bread, spread on some mayo (86 the mayo if you're not a fan), and add your fried eggs! It's also good with a slice of American (or whatever kind you have around) cheese.

Eat up! Obviously I'm enjoying a lazy day on the couch (I worked this morning I swear). It is relatively chilly outside (80 degrees feels cold these days haha) so the apartment is cool enough for me to lounge around in sweatpants. Hurray for sweatpants being back in my life! Sorry Brendon.

Banana Bread

It's that time of the year again. Banana bread time! Yet another wonderful part of this upcoming season is the yummy food items that come with it. It's doesn't feel like it, it's still incredibly hot outside, but tomorrow is officially the first day of fall. Brendon needed something for a pharmacy group bake sale so I decided to make my banana bread. And thus was born another food blog post! I'm going to share this super easy but crazy yummy recipe with you guys. I've been using it for a few years now and I swear by it. Not sure where I found it, probably a blog or website somewhere, so if you recognize it let me know and I'll give the creator credit, because it is genius!

Here's whatcha need:

 (not pictured baking soda, and a greased and floured bread pan)

3 whole ripe bananas (and seriously RIPE, they need to be soft. I've made it with bananas that were a tad green and it's not nearly as good.)
1 stick of butter - softened
1 cup of granulated sugar (already got a stick of butter and a cup of sugar, you know it's going to be good.)
1 cup of flour
1 egg
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Greased and floured bread pan

You could totally add some nuts if you'd like. I like my banana bread pretty simple and not crunchy so I leave them out.

Now here's what you do:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour your pan. Then mash up the bananas.

Now add all the other ingredients and mix together.

Pour it into the pan and bake for 1 hour. And let me tell you, this is going to make your kitchen and surrounding rooms smell amazing. It made our whole apartment smell divine. Your mouth is going to water. 

Once you're hour's up, take your bread out, let it cool for a bit, and enjoy!

Try not to eat it all at once. It was rough having to give all this away. I foresee another batch being baked in the near future.

Flour tortillas

Yesterday was my big cooking day. For some reason I got into into my head that I wanted to make tortillas. I remember making them in elementary school so it couldn't be too hard right? Correct! I used this super helpful recipe, and they came out great. They take a little time but they are easy peasy and really fun to make. Plus they're delicious and way better than anything that comes in a plastic bag. They're thicker than average tortillas, which I like, something like a tortilla/pita hybrid.

All you need is:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
3/4 cup lukewarm milk (2% is fine)

These are things that we always have so I can just throw them together whenever. Love that because I am the queen of not having all my ingredients. Mix the dry and wet ingredients separately first and then mix them together.

After you've got some dough, knead it for a couple minutes. My dough was super sticky so I had to add quite a bit of flour to my board to make it managable. Then you cover it with a damp towel and let it sit for 15 minutes.

Then separate them into 8 balls of future tortilla-ness and let them hang out under the towel for another 20 minutes.

Then comes the fun! Roll those babies out, one at a time. It helps if you flour your rolling pin and board after each tortilla, the dough is still pretty sticky. I made mine as thin as I could, they kinda reached a certain point where they wouldn't stretch anymore. Don't worry they're magical and thicken up like crazy when you cook them. And perfect circles are for squares (you like that shape pun?). Wonky is the way to go.

Then throw that baby on a dry griddle or whatever flat heating device you have. I had mine on medium high. And they cook fast! The recipe says to cook it for 30 seconds on each side but I just eyeballed it. When they reached the above pictured point of bubbliness, I flipped them. The bubbly part is the coolest, it looks like a swamp.

 

The other side cooks super fast so watch it closely. Because those raised bubbles are touching the pan first they'll get burned if you don't watch them. Maybe 20 seconds or so, you kinda get a feel for it as you go. I'm sure this all also depends on what you're cooking them on and how hot.

And viola! You've got some fantastic tortillas. We had ours last night with chicken fajitas and it was aaaaamazing. Favorite meal in a long time and I don't even like chicken. I made them ahead of time and reheated them in the oven like the recipe suggests. I don't think we'll ever buy tortillas again, these are far too yummy. Now I just need to learn how to make regular bread and we'll be in business.

And thus completes what I think is my first official food blog post! Many more to come I'm sure, as cooking is slowly taking over my life. I even have battle scars, I burned my arm yesterday and am now sporting a super cute red thumbprint sized mark on my forearm.