Weekend in the Kitchen

We were lucky to have an open weekend which allowed us to get caught up on a lot of household stuff, including cooking. Saturday was the main cooking day.

Ryan and I made pizza for brunch (we both slept in) with the Trader Joe's crust and marinated mozzarella topped with fresh basil and Roma tomatoes. Yum! The crust was awesome - so soft and doughy. I think I'll be stopping at Trader Joe's more often just for the pizza dough.

Then I wanted to try making my own pasta sauce, so I cooked up some red and green peppers, garlic and onion in a bit of olive oil. Next I added tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, fresh basil (again!) and red wine. I let that cook down for about 3 hours before adding some more crushed tomatoes and cooked another hour. To drop the acid level, I added some sugar and then jarred it up. Tasted pretty dang good off of a spoon. I'm making lasagna this week, so we'll use that as the sauce and that will be the true test of its worth.






-Here's a pic of the beginning stages







Since I had to be near the pasta sauce for 4 hours, I just stayed in the kitchen. I whipped up some granola which we love to put over ice cream, mix with yogurt, or served plain as a snack.

Here's what was in it:
*rolled oats
*slivered and sliced almonds
*sunflower seeds
*sesame seeds
*hemp seeds
*wheat germ
*flax seeds
*dried currants
*syrup mixture of maple syrup, oil, almond extract and water





I also made Ryan's mom's Chex Mix and substituted Annie's Cheddar Bunnies and Newman's Own Spelt Pretzels, which turned out to be a good change.







.
After munching on a bunch of snack stuff all day, we were kinda stuffed for dinner, so Ryan made some Leek Rings (can you tell we were just watching Alton Brown?) Leek Rings are made just like onion rings. They taste quite similar, but the leeks have more of a garlic flavor. They were really neat to try.


On Sunday, we biked 16 miles on the Cannon Valley Trail, saw The DaVinci Code (which rocked!), and made Fish Tacos for dinner. Walleye was on sale at the grocery store and we are suckers for homemade fish tacos so we couldn't resist. I know some Minnesotans are silently cursing us for making walleye in any fashion besides the standard breading and frying, but oh well, walleye is the best for fish tacos! We've tried tilipia, grouper, and orange roughy, but walleye has a light flavor that works really well. As with all taco dishes, I had to make my awesome guacamole to load on top. That stuff is addicting.

I cut up a bunch of rhubarb and hope to make a Rhubarb Crisp this evening. Not sure what's for dinner since Ryan's going out with a friend.