Homemade "End of the Season" Ketchup #sundaysupper

Need to "catch up" to your tomatoes? Make a kid-friendly, totally dunkable ketchup! 

Are you part of a "ketchup" family? 

At any given time, we have at least three bottles of the stuff on the go in our fridge: my sister's "normal" ketchup which is replaced at least twice a month (it also has to be the store brand, not brand name, at all costs), my stepdad's sugar free variety which isn't used much, but is there "just in case", and whatever my latest homemade rendition of the condiment is. I'm not a huge fan of the red stuff myself (mustard is more my thing), but working at a school has given me a huge respect for it's ability to override any culinary grievances the under-12 set might have at the table. 

At the end of last year's growing season, I kept the ketchup game fairly simple. After a relatively horrible growing season (marred by both poor weather and voles), I took advantage of the fruit left on the vines that remained along with a few key spices to make a spoonable, drizzle-able, dunkable sauce. Aside from the tomatoes, I brought a new favourite to the party: monkeyface peppers.

Looking as weird as their name, monkeyface peppers have a fruity zing to them, like a mango kissed by a jalapeno. I don't find them spicy, although they're labeled as such, and when cooked into a sauce, stew or chutney their unique flavour lifts up the overall dish, which could otherwise be heavy on the stomach, too spicy or too sweet. As a bonus, these peppers make glorious pickled cucumber ingredients, and while I didn't dry any, I would definitely try that out too. Of course, since monkeyface peppers are kind of a specialty item, they can be hard to find (although I strongly suggest growing them yourself!). In that case, I would substitute Hungarian wax peppers (1 hot, 1 sweet) or cubanelles.

Ketchup isn't the only grilling staple out there, obviously! While it will remain a constant here, a Summer cookout for me is not complete without some Spicy Garlic Dill pickles, Sweet Relish and  Dijon Mustard. Other places have BBQ sauce as their butter-to-their-bread, and there are a lot of them to choose from! Here's this list from Sunday Supper, along with a host of other great BBQ recipes from this week's gang:

• Texas Style – Often thought of as the quintessential BBQ sauce, this ketchup-based sauce has all the classic barbecue flavors. With lots of brown sugar, this sauce usually satisfies even the pickiest of eaters.
• Carolina – This vinegar-based sauce really gives your pork and chicken recipes a kick of flavor! Also made in a mustard variety, the Carolina BBQ sauces cater to the more sophisticated palate that love that punch of acid!
• Kansas City – Thick and tangy Kansas City BBQ sauce is known for a touch of molasses. The key to a true Kansas City barbecue is the low and slow cooking that makes their meats irresistible!
• Alabama White Sauce – This mayo based BBQ sauce has a touch of chili and lots of vinegar tang. Not only is it great for pork and chicken, it can be used to add flavor to your barbecue salad!
• Korean BBQ – With an Asian flavor, Korean Style BBQ is becoming all the rage. Adding sesame, soy sauce, and ginger to your traditional BBQ sauce transforms it into a totally different dish. If you like Korean BBQ, you’ll love #SundaySupper's Barbecue Pork Noodles! 

 

Best Burgers and Sandwiches

• Barbecue Rib Burgers with Low Carb Sauce by My Life Cookbook
• Caribbean Jerk Chicken Burgers by Simple and Savory
• Guava-Ale BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwich by Gourmet Everyday
• Turkapple Burgers with Yumback Sauce by A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures

 

Grill Master Mains

• Grilled Red Snapper with Cilantro and Onion Stuffing by Food Lust People Love
• Honey Glazed Chicken Kabobs by That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Slow Cooker Pulled Pork with Homemade Coleslaw by A Mind Full Mom
• Spicy Grilled Leg of Lamb by Sunday Supper Movement

 

Mop Worthy Sauces

• Blueberry Sriracha Barbecue Sauce by Cosmopolitan Cornbread
• Homemade “End of Season” Ketchup by What Smells So Good?

 

Searing Starters and Sides

• Campfire Corn and Tomatoes by Cricket’s Confections
• Grilled Lime Beer Ritas with Smoky Lime Salt by Our Good Life
• Honey Chipotle BBQ Wings by Soulfully Made
• Pork Satay with Peanut Sauce by Asian In America

 

Sizzling Sweets

• All-American Pie Shooter Trio by The Crumby Cupcake
• Flourless Fudge Brownies by Pies and Plots
• Grilled Peaches with Mascarpone by Caroline’s Cooking
• Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes by Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
• Mini No Bake Coconut Cheescakes by Jonesin’ For Taste

Join the #SundaySupper conversation on twitter on Sunday! We tweet throughout the day and share recipes from all over the world. Our weekly chat starts at 7:00 pm ET. Follow the #SundaySupper hashtag and remember to include it in your tweets to join in the chat. To get more great Sunday Supper Recipes, visit our website or check out our Pinterest board. Would you like to join the Sunday Supper Movement? It’s easy. You can sign up by clicking here: Sunday Supper Movement.

Gluten Free Chewy Chocolate Chippers #creativecookieexchange

These gluten free Chewy Chocolate Chippers get an extra pop of texture from coarse sugar and kosher salt.

"If you are anything like us, your freezer will always be stocked with logs of frozen cookie dough."

When I read that line in Aran's post "When muscovado sugar and fleur de sel make the best chocolate chip cookies" on Cannelle et Vanille, I was hooked. While I don't exactly go out of my way to do it, it's hard to go into any of our 3(!) freezers or a fridge without stumbling onto some sort of homemade treat, fully cooked or in dough form. For example, this moment I have peanut butter and chocolate eggs in the fridge, along with chocolate chip cookie dough, orange-chocolate ganache, ice cream, a peach pie, two fruitcakes, 24 bran muffin batter pucks and a dozen apple cinnamon muffins hanging out in the freezer. This afternoon, I baked off a batch of cookie batter that had been chilling in the fridge for 5 days, just to avoid putting that in the freezer. It's madness, I know!

However, around the holidays, batches and batches of cookie dough living in the freezer routinely save my butt. After all, I give out gift baskets of homemade goodies each year as my gifts, and with only one mixer (two if you count our antique hand beater), one oven and limited bowls it's not practical to be making everything from Step 1 the day before. Freezing dough - especially cookie dough - is also beneficial when working with whole grain or gluten free recipes that benefit greatly from an extended rest period. During the time it takes to freeze, then thaw during baking, the proteins relax significantly and the grains hydrate, allowing for soft, never-gritty, perfectly spreading cookies on bake day.

Frozen dough also transports better - especially plastic-wrapped logs that are stored in paper tubes (I put "big" cookies in bottle shipping tubes that I got when I ordered coffee syrup, and "small" two biters in paper towel rolls). Stacked in a cooler with a few ice packs, they will stay more or less frozen on short car rides, and the tube keeps any thawed dough in the proper shape. The rolls also allow you to just push out the amount of dough you need to slice off per cookie, keeping the round shape of the remaining dough intact. Perfect for toting to the trailer, the cottage, or even (if you're lucky enough to have one) the beach house!

So slice off a cookie or two, pack a sandwich and a refreshing drink while they bake and grab your picnic gear. Summer is almost here!

Summer means long lazy days, vacations, and if you are lucky, somewhere relaxing where you can put your feet up and and tune out for a while. Cookies can be the perfect snack any time of the day - yes, cookies for breakfast are a thing. Whether you bake up a quick batch whilst on vacation or decide to bring the dough with you ready-made, we’ve got a great list for you to choose from!

You can also use us as a great resource for cookie recipes. Be sure to check out our Pinterest Board and our monthly posts (you can find all of them here at The Spiced Life). You will be able to find them the first Tuesday after the 15th of each month! If you are a blogger and want to join in the fun, contact Laura at thespicedlife AT gmail DOT com and she will get you added to our Facebook group, where we discuss our cookies and share links.

Also, if you are looking for inspiration to get in the kitchen and start baking, check out what all of the hosting bloggers have made:

• Chocolate Coconut Oysters with Pineapple Buttercream by Cream and Butter Blog 
• Dulce de Leche Blondies by The Spiced Life
• Gluten Free Chewy Chocolate Chippers by What Smells So Good?
• Sand Dollar Snickerdoodles by All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Seagull Cookies by A Baker's House
• Slice & Bake Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Cookies 2 Cookin Mamas
• Starfish Cookies by Karen's Kitchen Stories

Sweet Thai Chili Sauce

Fiery Thai chilies are buffered with sugar and concentrated apple cider and set with Clear Jel for a perfect dipping sauce anytime!

As a kid, I went  through a major "plum sauce and chili flake" phase. No dinner plate was sacred - burgers, rice, veggies and proteins all got a dose of the sweet-spicy combination. It wasn't until I got older that I discovered that the combination had basically already been created for me - in a perfect melange known as Sweet Thai Chili Sauce.

While it is almost universally available in the grocery stores, Sweet Thai Chili Sauce is also ridiculously easy to make. Since I grew (and dried) Thai birds-eye peppers last year, I was thrilled to find a recipe for my favourite sauce on Canning Homemade, which I proceeded to modify until I was satisfied - namely adding some boiled apple cider syrup I had on hand. As soon as the mixture hit the heat, you could definitely tell there was spice going on - keep the windows open and turn on the fan! The mixture was perfectly thickened to a "dippable" consistency with ClearJel, which I used because I was canning the sauce and it's a safe thickener to use. If I was making the sauce and using it within a few weeks, though, I'd stick to tapioca starch or, in a pinch, regular cornstarch.

After cooking and cooling, this sauce is ready for anything - my personal favourite is on steamed broccoli, asparagus or fiddleheads, but it's also killer on sauteed cabbage, grilled fish, shrimp or tofu and stirred into plain rice.

Nocciolata e Fiordifrutta Bread Pudding @RigoniAsiagoUSA & @NocciolataUSA

No bread should go wasted - this bread pudding is filled with the rich flavours of chocolate hazelnut spread and orange marmalade, heightened with the use of a blended-nut mylk and a sprinkle of chocolate chips! 

As much as we love our bread here, there are occasions when simply no more of it will fit our freezers, fridges and bread bins. During the Winter, we really only have this issue around Thanksgiving and Christmas, when dinner rolls, stale half-loaves from stuffing, Challah and brioche abound. However, once the weather warms up and the BBQ emerges from it's cover our house is filled with hamburger and sausage buns, stale slices drying out for breadcrumbs, and soft slabs waiting for al fresco sandwich lunches.

Whenever we host a BBQ - which seems to be at least three times a month - Mom goes and buys one of the biggest bags of Kaisers and panini buns I've seen. Of course, we only tend to have three or so guests at a time, which means we then need to find places to stash the 5 or 6 mini-loaf sized buns. Sometimes we can make them fit in our (poorly designed, IMHO) upright freezer, but when we can't, they sit neglected on the counter, slowly curing into rock hard "torpedoes". Since I can't stand to waste food when it can be avoided, I grate a lot of the hard bread into breadcrumbs or toast up croutons. Occasionally though, I need to make something sweet and comforting - and bread pudding fits the bill.

Now I have to admit I was definitely selfish in making this bread pudding recipe - a while back the kind folks at Rigoni di Asiago sent me a few jars of their spreads to try out, and since bread is a perfectly neutral base I figured it would be a perfect foil to allow the flavours to shine. The first jar I cracked was a lovely Seville orange marmalade - I'm not an orange "stuff" lover in general (I prefer the fruit au natural) but this was very fresh tasting and not "gummy" like some marmalades can be. The sub-label for Rigoni di Asiago's fruit spreads, called Fiordifrutta, is sweetened only with apple juice (no white sugar) and set with natural fruit pectin. With no added flavours, aromas or colours, the company processes the spreads at room temperature to preserve the naturally occurring tastes and fragrances of the freshly-picked fruit.

The other jar I knew would be a family favourite. Nocciolata is a chocolate hazelnut spread just like the ubiquitous Nutella, but with no chemicals, no artificial flavors, no GMOs and absolutely zero palm oil. Instead, it contains

cane sugar*, hazelnut paste*, sunflower oil*, skim milk powder*, cocoa powder*, cocoa butter*, sunflower lecithin, vanilla extract* (* = organically farmed)

The flavour, according to the Nutella aficionado in the house, is slightly less sweet and nuttier than the "other" guys, and the chocolate is an accenting flavour rather than the dominant one. In other words, this is a HAZELNUT spread with chocolate, not the other way around. This will likely appeal more to the adults in the room, especially if the children have sweet teeth, but it is still delicious in its own right.

Together, the two spreads along with eggs, a multi-nut "mylk" and flaxseed made a perfectly silky custard that soaked into the stale buns and infused each bite with flavour. A sprinkle of chocolate chips on top crowned the achievement and begged to be cut into. By the end of the day not a speck was left, and even the "dessert phobes" at work were sold.

Chicken and Avocado Pasta Salad with @litehousefoods & @barillaus

A flavour packed (and one pot!) chicken pasta salad made with Litehouse Avocado Dip and Barilla Gluten Free elbow pasta. Amazingly delicious - you'd never know it was gluten free!  

With the Summer coming around - finally - we're slowly starting to transition away from the heavier, heartier mid-day meals and into lighter fare. While we are nowhere near harvesting our own tomatoes, peppers and zucchini from the backyard plots yet (my plants are still inside, albeit very happy), we're clamoring for the fresh flavours after a long winter and cold, rainy spring.

Victoria Day is coming up this weekend, and many of us are going to various BBQs, patio parties or simple al fresco meals where a "potluck" is taking place. Speaking from experience, potlucks are great in theory, and in practice if you have no food restrictions, but for those with allergies or celiac the buffet table can prove problematic. When Barilla sent me a few boxes of their Gluten Free Pasta
at the same time as a shipment of delicious dips from Litehouse Foods (which are almost exclusively gluten free as well) came to my door, I immediately wondered how I could combine the two into one spectacular take-along dish. I had a wealth of choices for both pasta and dips - all the basic noodle shapes (spaghetti, elbows, rotini, penne and fettuccine) are part of the Barilla line, and are free of not only gluten, but animal products, nuts, peanuts, soy and GMOs. The dips were a mixture of classics (like Caesar and Ranch) and unique (dill and avocado). All of them (and their descriptions) are below:

This thick and creamy dip is the perfect blend of real avocado, sour cream, lime juice, spices and a little kick from chopped jalapenos. It is a great dip for chips, and a natural complement for Mexican food, or to spread on a BLT instead of mayonnaise.

One of our most popular flavors, this creamy dip is a blend of sour cream, real dill and spices. Excellent as a veggie or chip dip, it is also a great addition to grilled salmon!

Just the right mix of sour cream, buttermilk, garlic and onion.  Add a savory kick to your chips and veggies!

Our famous Homestyle Ranch is a delicious combination of fresh herb and vegetable flavors.  This traditional favorite is sure to please your family!  Treat your family by serving Litehouse Homestyle Ranch with dinner tonight!

A robust Caesar with lots of garlic, Parmesan and just the right touch of anchovy. Our quality ingredients and taste make this dressing the perfect complement to your Caesar salad. 

Since Mom loves all things avocado, and those fruits are getting mighty pricey at the supermarket, I decided to make a somewhat Tex-Mex take on a classic pasta salad. The avocado dip contains egg yolks, just like traditional mayonnaise, but also sour cream which lightens up the flavour considerably and definitely classifies it as a "Summer" treat - I can see it paired with black beans and cheese in tacos or drizzled over grilled fish too.

In the interest of quick cooking and minimal clean up, I decided to give this pasta salad a "one pot" approach. Everything from cooking the chicken to cooking the pasta was done in a large pot and added successively to a mixing bowl before being topped with the dip and tossed. This also ensured that dressing met ingredients while they were still warm and receptive to flavours - a key to any good pasta salad! Being fairly experienced with gluten free pasta, I made sure to taste the pasta as it cooked, ready to pull it before the 7 minutes the macaroni box stated it took to become al dente - and to my taste, 6 minutes was perfect (my sister likes softer pasta and preferred 7). Either way, heavily salting the water like you would "normal" pasta truly elevates the flavours, adding an almost "buttery" note hinted at by the corn in the noodle dough.

The real punch of flavour and colour in this salad comes from the medley of vegetables, which are infinitely variable as you have available. I chose a fairly standard "Tex-Mex" mix of tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, green onions and olives, which brought sweet, salty, tangy and spicy elements and even brighter colours. These vegetables also keep relatively well in the fridge as a salad, which allows you to make a big batch in advance and go at it over the week.

A plethora of veggies for a chicken pasta salad - made with @litehousefoods avocado dip and @barillaus gluten free elbow pasta

Japanese Chicken Curry #SundaySupper

Homemade Japanese Curry Chicken WIN! The perfect balance of savoury, sweet, tangy and bitter, packed with umami and 100% from scratch. No roux, no prefab curry powder, and even gluten free to boot!

I know I've gone on and on and on about it time and again, but if there's one type of dish my mom can't get enough of, it's curry. I don't just mean your turmeric-stained yellow stuff either - although that is certainly on the "yes" list. Pick any curry-making region you can think of, and you can bet Mom will want a taste.

Our first experience with Japanese curry was actually about a year ago, when we went to a sushi and Japanese cuisine restaurant for my birthday. After ordering what was simply labeled "chicken curry" on the menu, Mom was surprised to receive a huge, steaming bowl of thick, dark and intensely aromatic stew with chunks of carrot, potato and chicken alongside a bowl of rice. A few spoonfuls later and she was sold - but we had no idea how to go about making it at home. After all, curry powder is British-Indian, not even vaguely Japanese in style, right?

Well, it turns out that Japanese curry is actually more or less based in a cube mix rather than an ornate blend of spices. Unfortunately, finding that pre-made roux is all but impossible around me, and I had no idea how to recreate the bouillon-like medley. However, I couldn't leave my dream of recreating one of my mom's favourte meals go cold, so I began Googling right after that fateful dinner, finally landing on No Recipes. There, I found a completely from-scratch formula for what I was looking for, along with a handy hint - the key to a really great Japanese curry is in the caramelized onions. Well, those I can do, and I do a lot.

Of course, I did modify a few things along the way - I didn't have apples at home, so an Asian pear stood in admirably. I made my own Chunou sauce too, because there was no way my "white bread" superstore would have heard of it if I haven't. I also left out the peas (forgot about them on grocery day) and decided to thicken the works with Veloutine instead of a roux (yeah, sacrilege, I know) because I'm lazy and didn't want to babysit and watch another pot. I've provided both methods, so go with your preference.

More #MothersDay treats for #SundaySupper are below. Our host this week is Amy from My Wolrd Simplified

Chocolate Treats

• Hot Fudge Ice Cream Cake by Pies and Plots
• Toasted Almond Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies by Helpful Homemade
• Triple Chocolate Strawberry Cake Truffles by The Freshman Cook
• White Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes by That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• White Chocolate-Filled Snickerdoodles by Fantastical Sharing of Recipes

Entrees

• Double Pork Stuffed Pork Roast by Food Lust People Love
• Italian Stuffed Caprese Chicken by My World Simplified
• Japanese Chicken Curry by What Smells So Good?
• Lightened-Up Shrimp Scampi by My Savory Spoon

Sides and Salads

• Mom’s Easy Clam Dip by Cricket’s Confections
• Salmon and Capers Panzanella Salad by And She Cooks
• Swedish Creamy Potato Casserole (Jansson’s Frestelse) by Sunday Supper Movement

Sweets

• Berry Chantilly Trifle by The Crumby Cupcake
• Blackberry Cobbler with Brown Sugar Pecan Biscuits by Soulfully Made
• Lemon Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries by Our Good Life
• Lemon Cooler by Cosmopolitan Cornbread
• Mom’s Southwest Georgia Pound Cake by Family Around The Table
• Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp by Caroline’s Cooking
• Strawberry-Rhubarb Compote by Wholistic Woman

Join the #SundaySupper conversation on twitter on Sunday! We tweet throughout the day and share recipes from all over the world. Our weekly chat starts at 7:00 pm ET. Follow the #SundaySupper hashtag and remember to include it in your tweets to join in the chat. To get more great Sunday Supper Recipes, visit our website or check out our Pinterest board. Would you like to join the Sunday Supper Movement? It’s easy. You can sign up by clicking here: Sunday Supper Movement.

Rooibos-Infused Cornbread with @adagiotea

The Splendid Table's Cornbread, made with buttermilk infused with @adagioteas Vanilla Rooibos tea. Not super sweet but a great all purpose snack or side!

As much as I adore coffee (and truly, I don't know many teachers who don't have it running through their veins), I also have a deeply entrenched love for tea. But not just any tea - I have never really liked any form of "black" leaves, except in sweetened, lemon iced tea, and I am excessively picky about white, rooibos and mate styles. No, I'm definitely one who gravitates to herbal tisanes and green teas, and if my pantry is any evidence I like variety! My mom and sister are also bona fide tea grannies, T preferring the various blacks while Mom is pretty much "go with the flow" in her selection. When the kind folks at Adagio Teas asked if I would be interested in trying out some of their line and giving them my thoughts, I jumped at the chance!

I dove into their massive selection (they also offer users to make their own custom tea blends - amazing!) and selected a bunch that sounded too good to be true. Over a few weeks, I broke into most of the samples. Note: I "oversteep" all my tea - usually about 10 mins or more for herbals and green tea.

Mango Melange

I love mangoes and this is a great balance of tart and sweet. The mango flavour is more on the aftertaste of a sip, lemon being more forthright, but it's a wonderful herbal tisane regardless. 

Genmaicha Teabags

Genmaicha has always been my favourite green tea, and I love how finely porous the bags from Adagio were. The bags made a cup of tea so convenient to make, and they are perfectly filled for optimal filtering. 

Dewy Cherry Teabags

Bad photo but delicious tea! Dewy Cherry is like drinking a warm, liquid snowcone, but not sticky sweet. Again this I ordered in their teabags, which are super convenient and steep the tea leaves perfectly.

Sour Apple

Not nearly as flavourful as it smells, but a good mixer for other teas (I'm blending it with a sencha-matcha tea). Can't wait to try it iced!

Then there was the Rooibos Vanilla. Not being a fan of rooibos in general, I avoided tasting this "neat". However, I was pleasantly surprised with how well this tea accented other flavours - namely a ginger-spice blend I had previously, and an orange herbal tea my mom had. The latter combination is fabulous - think creamsicle!

What I really liked about this rooibos was that it made for a spectacular cooking ingredient. I don't often do tea-infused things, but after the Chai - Scotti was such a success I figured I would give it a whirl. We love our cornbread, and usually ours is on the sweet side. Knowing the tea has a penchant for being somewhat saccharine, and the vanilla flavour would only enhance that nuance, I looked for a recipe without a ton of sugar. I stumbled on the Splendid Table's recipe and figured I would give it a go, steeping the tea in buttermilk and using maple sugar instead of plain white.

Right out of the oven, the smell is divine - and deceptive! The aromas of the tea and the hint of maple really give the impression that this is a dessert-style quickbread, but once it cools down enough to taste, the flavours are delightfully subtle. It served as a mid-day snack for Mom with some cheese, and amply accompanied a bowl of chili the next night.

Tortilla Pie

Veggies, beans, ground chicken and whole grain tortillas stack up for a "burrito-cake" kids and adults love! 

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

I realize it's late in the day to be sharing a recipe for the holiday, but in my books there is never a bad time for Mexican (or in this case, Tex-Mex) food. With few exceptions, this cuisine seems to be passable, if not delicious, warm or cold - I can fondly remember piling cold fajita-marinated tofu and veggies into a pita one night for dinner in university, and more than once eating chicken mole and cold rice out of the fridge during a late night study session. Most of these meals, being sauce based, also take kindly to reheating, which make them OAMC cooks' dreams!

One of the easiest to make and (generally) all-pleasing Tex-Mex meals I've made in a long time is this Tortilla Pie. Essentially all the fixings of a burrito (except rice, which IMHO doesn't belong there anyway) are layered into a springform pan, topped with cheese and baked into a cohesive, "tortillasagna". Served hot or room temperature, wedges are packed with the rich flavours of meat, beans and spices, the sharpness of the cheese and the toasty, wheaty tortillas. My grade 7's and 8's were able to prepare this almost 100% on their own (I did about half the skillet work while they were chopping) and demolished the pans within 30 minutes of coming out of the oven. Not bad for a meal filled with veggies, lean meat, and beans! The old Cheddar really makes the dish sing, since it brightens up the heaviness of the meat and bean mixture, but if you truly hate aged cheese, a pepper-Jack would be good, or something like Oaxaca.