Food, food, glorious food!

[cinderella]

Hey, aishah & Claybaby - thanks for participating and sharing your comments & recipes. Keep 'em coming...

Yesterday, I made my own home-made pasta sauce - it cooked for about 5 hours. Tedious, I know, but I'm retired and have the time. Now I have plenty of sauce to freeze and use later on. I also made a lasagna - it came out yummy despite the fact that I had no ricotta cheese. I substituted with sour cream - who knew?? I'd never done that before, but as they say, necessity is the mother of invention, so I used what I had in hand - came out pretty nice, altho it didn't have the texture of the ricotta.

Today I'm making pork chops & maybe some white rice and black beans a la Cuban style. I admit I do use canned beans (in salted water which I rinse off). I add my own natural herbs & condiments, tomato paste, a small peeled potato for the starch to help thicken the sauce for the beans, cilantro, chopped onion & garlic, 1 T of olive oil, bring to a brief boil, then simmer on low to med heat until the sauce thickens to the consistency I want. Comes out yummy and tastes like home-made every time. Same procedure for red kidney, or any other type of bean - so yummy!

Ok, come share some more of your recipes, stories, tips/advise, questions, etc. Also, what are your fav kitchen gadgets that you have, or on your wish list. Crockpots, pressure cookers, cast-iron dutch ovens? This curious kitty wants to know!