Within the Lines

Refried Beans

During my "Jonah" years, I was married to a Mexican man -- the real thing, not Mexican-American; he came illegally from Ciudad Juarez across the border from El Paso.  This entry, tho, isn't about him, but about food.  Ex's brother had a girlfriend who was from Michoacan.  Watching her, I learned the authentic way to make refried beans.  (Actually, virtually every woman in Mexico has her own way of doing them, but hers seemed more authentic because they were really re-fried.)  She started with soaking the beans.  When they were good and swollen, she drained off the water, added new and some flavorings (salt, onion & garlic cloves, if I remember right), and cooked the beans until done.  She would then fry them the first time; dumping them into a sizzling skillet (part at a time 'cuz there was a huge quantity), bringing to a boil for a bit, then mashing them with a potato masher.  As each batch was mashed smooth, she dumped them into a bowl.  Pretty soon she had a whole bowlful of mashed, "fried" beans.  This was refrigerated until needed.  Then she'd take a scoop or two, dump in a sizzling skillet, fry this second time till bubbling, maybe add more seasonings (according to the meal), and serve.

However, that's just bonus information for you.   I certainly don't go to all that trouble when I'm the only one in my house who will willingly eat them.  I get a skillet sizzling a bit of oil, open a can of Flavorite chili beans (pinto beans in chili sauce), and dump in the pan.  Put a bit (1/3 cup?) of water in the can, swish around and dump in with the beans.  Add some seasonings, such as a sprinkle of garlic (they never have enough garlic -- refrieds are best with plenty) and cumin, and cook till boiling.  I boil off part of the liquid -- not too much! you don't want dry beans -- and mash till smooth.  If they're still too runny, I may boil a bit after mashing.  (Too dry?  add a bit of water, mash in and boil till just right.)  Add a sprinkle of cheese, turn off heat and put a lid on till ready to serve.  MMM!  good flavor and a snap to make!

Tomato Sauce Questions

I am so sorry, morningsunshine, to have taken so long to respond to your questions about the tomato sauce. 

Paste?  Actually, it isn't nearly as thick as the "paste" in the store is.  I don't know how long I'd have to boil it to get it that thick, but it's more time than I have!   No, it's just a sauce; probably looks just like tomato sauce from the store with no seasonings or anything added.  

Seeds?  In order to have no seeds, I use the greatest boon to food preserving: a Victorio strainer.  Halve or quarter tomatoes, heat till soft, dump in the strainer, and out comes beautiful sauce (from one end--the other gets rid of the peels and seeds)!  This, then, is the sauce I simmer the water off till of the thickness I desire.

How long?  I can't remember for sure.  I do know it varied according to the batch--how watery it was.  Often I'd start one afternoon, pause overnight, and then finish the next day.  I tried using the crockpot after hearing that idea somewhere (which would be nice if you wanted to leave it going overnight), but found it too slow and too small -- I was using my great big pots -- plus mine bubbles around the lid and I didn't like the sauce running across the counter.

Quarts/pints?  I bottled in pints because that's what I use for my pizza sauce recipe.  I'd just grab 2-3 of them if I was doing spaghetti or something that called for more.  I haven't decided if I will stick with pints or go to quarts this year; probably, some of both.

Hope this helps!!

Italian Sauce Recipe

Thanks, Melissa, at Mulberry Lane, for the comment and request for the tomato sauce recipe.  I always appreciate hearing that someone is enjoying my postings! 

I can my tomato sauce plain for exactly the reason you mentioned; I want to be able to use it any number of ways later.  So I basically just run the cooked tomatoes thru the strainer and then I like to simmer it for ...hmmm, well, for a l-o-n-g time till it's a nice thick sauce (don't want to can a bunch of water).  I can't remember now if I added any salt of lemon juice.  I think my mom prefers to just slip the skins and can or freeze whole tomatoes so she can either blender them for sauce or chunk them for salsa.  My husband's diet needs wouldn't allow the seeds or salsa, and too I hate to have to blender and simmer them later so I prefer the puree.  If I really wanted a chunky sauce, or say, chunks of tomato in a chilli or soup, I'd probably use the dried (and frozen) cherry tomatoes I made last fall.

I used to just wing it on spaghetti sauce seasoning until my husband mentioned that his favorite (and least likely to bother him) pizza sauce was Papa John's.  I went online and found the recipe for Papa John's pizza sauce (I think it was at the Top Secret Restaurant Recipes website, but I'm not absolutely positive), and that is what I now use for basically anything Italian.  I'll bold the original recipe ingredients and then note my adjustments.

Papa John's Pizza Sauce (Copycat)

1 10-3/4 oz. can tomato puree (1 pint homemade tomato sauce/puree)

1/4 c. water (splash of water--just enough to swish/rinse the jar of residual sauce)

1 Tbsp. sugar (1 1/2 Tbsp. sugar)

1 Tbsp. olive oil (I limit to little or none--I find it unnecessary)

1/4 tsp. lemon juice (no lemon juice--husband needs low acidic)

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. oregano (1/2 tsp. oregano)

1/8 tsp. thyme

1/8 tsp. basil (1/4 tsp. basil)

1/8 tsp. garlic powder (1/4 tsp. granulated garlic was my original change, but I've been having to leave the garlic out altogether as husband can no longer tolerate it; we've noticed no lacking in the flavor of the sauce, tho.)

Combine all ingredients in small saucepan.  Bring to boil; then lower heat to simmer for 15-20 min.         

Sorry if it's confusing with all my changes; I rarely follow a recipe exactly.  This is one of the few I thought I actually followed completely -- didn't know till I started copying it for you that I'd changed it so much!    I do get lots of compliments on it, tho, so hope you enjoy it as well.

Raviolis

3 hours of stirring, rolling, seasoning & mess...

                      = delicious homemade raviolis

(yes, I do mean homemade -- homemade sauce from home-grown-and-canned tomatoes, homemade pasta using homegrown eggs...  hmmm... I didn't butcher and grind the turkey, tho, and I didn't make my own cream cheese.  I'm just a failure!!  LOL)

Was it worth it?  the meal?  no -- it was good, but 3 hours for 15 minutes of eating?!  No way!   -- but he is! 

(my beloved husband)

Deep-Flavored BBQ Chicken

'Tis the season... for a diet, that is.  I've gradually regained the 20-30 lbs I lost a couple of years ago, and the tired, unhealthy body & mood that come with it.  So I'm back to calorie-counting (the method I prefer) and regular exercise.  To help me out, I checked out a great weight watchers cookbook from the library; so great, in fact, that I purchased my own copy at half.com.   There was a wonderful (and wonderfully simple) recipe in there that we enjoyed this past week, so had to pass along.  It's called:

Cheater's Deep-Flavored Barbecued Chicken

3/4 cup barbecue sauce

1/2 cup grape jelly

1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

5 chicken drumsticks, skinned

5 chicken thighs, skinned

(I only put in a splash of vinegar and substituted a splash or two of Worcestershire sauce for the soy sauce -- because my husband handles it better.)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine first 4 ingredients in a medium saucepan.  Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, 40 minutes or until sauce measures 1 cup, stirring often.

Place chicken on rack of a broiler pan coated with cooking spray.  (If you cover your broiler pan with foil make sure to poke a few holes so the juices don't run off and burn in your oven, which sets off the smoke alarm, which scares your children!)  Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.  Remove from oven.

Preheat broiler.

Turn chicken; brush with 1/3 of sauce.  Broil 3 minutes.  Repeat procedure 2 times or until glazed.

Yield: 5 servings - serving 1 thigh and 1 drumstick.  Cal: 341

Bread Wreaths

I'm enjoying making bread wreaths for friends this Christmas.  Thought I'd share the fun...

First, I make a batch of bread dough in my bread maker.  (I always make my bread this way -- using the machine to make the dough, then shaping it by hand and cooking in the oven.  I don't like how it bakes in the machine.)  Anyway, when the dough cycle is finished, I take it out and divide in half.  Each half is treated as follows:

Roll out dough to roughly 24" by 12".

Cut lengthwise into 3 sections.  Drizzle melted butter down the middle of each.  (I melted approx. 2 Tbsp per wreath.)

In a small bowl, mix together sugar, cinnamon and brown sugar.  I have no idea the quantities.  Hmmm -- maybe 1/2 cup of each sugar and 1/2-1 tsp cinnamon ???  May also add dried fruit -- raisins, chopped apricot -- if desired.  Anyway, sprinkle this mixture on top of butter.  Won't necessarily use all you made; just use what's needed to cover fairly evenly.

Here I show the 3 stages of the wrapping process.  Fold the lower edge over the filling.  Moisten lightly with water where top will overlap; then lay top over bottom, pressing lightly to seal.  Seal ends with more dabs of water.  Flip over and you should have a nice sort of tube.

Nudge ends together and begin braiding.  I'm not good enough at description to put this process in words, so hopefully you know how to braid.

Braid to end.

Shape into circle, and carefully press ends together, matching middle to middle, right to right, left to left.  Won't necessarily be perfect but the dough is forgiving (and the glaze covers everything).

May be baked on a cookie sheet or baking stone, but I like to bake in my 9" pie plate to keep a nice circle (and to keep contained any leaking juices when baking).  Allow to raise to double.  Brush with a egg water (egg beaten w/tsp water), if desired, to add some shine.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or till golden brown.

(sorry, this picture was taken in the evening so different lighting made a different sort of reflection.)  Make a rather thin glaze of powdered sugar, a little milk, tbsp melted butter, and splash of vanilla, and drizzle over top following lines of braid.  Oh-- I forgot.  Because I wanted to keep my pie plates, I cut circles out of cardboard, covered them with tin foil and then had to go thru the process of inverting onto a plate, then onto the foil platter.  If you do this, make sure to do it while they're warm because cooled filling adheres the braid to the pan, and do it quickly so that loose filling doesn't run all over you, the counter, the floor, etc, etc.  (yes, this is personal experience)

Finally...

a scant few minutes to do a bit of update.  I wanted to post a pic of what has kept me so out of touch for the last month or better.

As you can tell, the bean crop was not great this year.  But I'm learning all the time, and hopefully next year will be quite a bit better.

Also wanted to post this neat way to store cherry tomatoes.  Slice in half and scoop out insides (quick swipe does it).

Sprinkle with salt, pepper and desired seasoning.  (I can't remember if I used italian seasoning or just basil.)

Then dry till firm like raisins.  (oops -- I can't remember just now the drying temp.  If someone is interested, let me know and I'll look it up.)  Delicious as a snack or added to soups/sauces!

Hope to be able to post more regularly now.  We'll see...