Sketti from Betty

Ok, ok, ok.

So my name isn't really Betty (except to my grandfather when I was itty bitty) but this is my own recipe for a basic marinara for spaghetti. I've tried a handful of spaghetti sauce recipes, and while each one has it's own merits, I've never hit upon the perfect taste that made me think, Mmm. That's the stuff. When in doubt, test it out-- that's what I always say. (Ok, ok-- I never say that. But you get my drift.)

Having combed the internet and various cookbooks for suitable recipes, I felt the subject was well-traversed and I was ready to make my own variation. It seemed that the sauces I loved (like Genova's marinara, which you can find at places like Farmer Joe's and Encinal Market and the occasional Nob Hill or Pak-n-Save) all have the same base: Onion, garlic, celery, carrot, white wine and butter or oil. Many of the recipes I've tried have ended up being too tart, to acidic, or too sweet. I think the acidity came from the tomato paste that most recipes called for, and the sweetness came from the sugar they added to counteract the acidity. I knew that that I'd have to do something about the acid (see: aging esophagus) and I also knew that I wanted a richer flavor than plain old sugar could provide. One of my favorite previous attempts utilized brown sugar, and so I went with that in my base as well. A co-worker suggested molasses, but as there wasn't a jar of it in my pantry (for shame!) I stuck to my inital plan and stayed with the dark brown sugar.

Of course, every good tomato sauce needs a lot of tomato. I went with canned, crushed tomatoes and one small can of diced.

In the end, I was pretty stoked about this latest round of sauce and I think I'm going to try and improve on it next time. I prefer something a with a little chunkiness, but my tomato-phobic boyfriend disagrees. Since I make him cook with the leftovers, I puree the sauce, but you could certainly leave it chunky if you like. This made enough sauce for two rounds of spaghetti with turkey, and two rounds of raviolis. I always like to add some crusty bread or toast and a salad to round things out, but sometimes a little parmesan is all you need.

Without further adieu: Sketti from Betty.

Tools

Cutting board, chef’s knife, shredder, large heavy pot, measuring utensils & cups, immersion blender or regular blender (optional)

Ingredients:

1 finely diced large sweet onion; olive oil-- just keep the bottle handy; 2 stalks celery with leaf, diced; 7-10 garlic cloves, sliced; 8-10 shredded baby carrots, about ½ cup; ½ bunch of parsley, finely diced; 1 ½ tsp dry thyme, 3 bay leaves, 2tbsp fresh chopped basil, 2 tbsp fresh chopped basil;, ¼ tsp each of thyme, marjoram, savory, sage and rosemary (all dry); 1 tsp butter; 1 ½ cups chardonnay; 2 tbsp brown susgar; 2 28 oz cans crushed tomatoes; 1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes; 1-3 tbsp red wine vinegar; kosher salt

What You Do

Dice your veggies and your herbs. Slice the garlic and shred the carrots. Measure your stuff out and get it prepped, if that’s your bag. Otherwise, make sure you have it at the ready.

Heat about two tablespoons of olive oil on medium high in your large, heavy pot. When it starts to shimmer, add the garlic and sautee until fragrant—about two minutes. Stir frequently.

When you smell the garlic strongly and it starts to get brown on the edges, it's time to add something so it doesn't burn. Nothing worse than burned garlic-- BLEH!

Stir in the butter and the onion. Once the butter is melted, sweat ‘em out until they become a little translucent.

Add the carrots and the celery, stir and sprinkle with kosher salt. Sautee for about 5 minutes, or until the celery begins to soften.

Add the brown sugar and stir until it dissipates and melds all yummy style with the veggies. Sprinkle with kosher salt.

Add the wine and cook down until it reduces by half at least.

Add a turn of olive oil to the pan and stir.

Add the tomatoes, the bay leaf, 2/3 of the fresh herbs, and all of dried herbs.

Add the chicken stock and stir.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for three hours.

Add ½ cup chardonnay, stir, and sprinkle salt. Let simmer for another ½ hour.

As I mentioned, I’ve got a pretty picky anti-tomato eater in my house, but if you’re into chunky spaghetti sauce, you can skip ahead to the red wine vinegar. Otherwise, it’s time to make those tomato chunks disappear, so fish out the bay leaves.

Break out your immersion (stick) blender and puree. If you’re using a regular blender, you’ll probably need to puree in batches. You could probably also use a food processor.

Depending on your taste, add 1 tbsp of red wine vinegar, stirring and letting simmer for 5 minutes between tbsps, until desired acidity is reached. Add remaining fresh herbs and salt to taste.

At this point, it's meat time. I use ground turkey and season it with kosher salt, black pepper, crushed red pepper flakes, dried minced onion, thyme, savory and oregano (all dried). I usually lightly mix the herbs with the meat and let it hang out together for awhile before adding it to a heavy bottomed pan with some nice hot olive oil.

Brown the meat. Yum.

Then I ladle the sauce into the pan, which helps deglaze all the brown bits, until the meat is coated and there's a bit extra.

I take a page from Lidia and add another couple ladles of pasta water and a turn of olive oil before adding the noodles.

Dish it out into a bowl, add some parmesan and sprinkle with fresh herbs if you'd like. Then stuff it in your mouth, talk with your hands, and sip the rest of that chardonnay.

Oatmeal Chocolate Cookies (No Bake)

Oatmeal plus chocolate? Yes, please.

After the oven broke and my father vetoed it's repair, the options for homemade cookies were drastically reduced. Luckily, my mom had a recipe for some no-bake oatmeal cookies that were always a hit and probably got me through high school. Over the years I've looked for the recipe online and found variations, but nothing that really tapped into the nostalgiac memory of these no-bake cookies.

Then it hit me: Well, duh. Just ask Mom for the recipe, right?

So I did and I managed to wrangle her whole recipe box away (I'll be getting into some lemonbars pretty quicklike) and dug out the Oatmeal Chocolate No Bake Cookie recipe. It's quick, simple, and doesn't make a big mess.

Tools: Parchement or waxed paper, large bowl, pot, spoon, whisks, measuring utensils & cups

Ingredients:
2 Cups sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 cup shortening, 2 tbsp butter, 1/2 cup whole milk, 3 tbs baking cocoa, 3 cups oatmeal, 1 cup coconut (optional)

Melt the shortening and the butter together in a heavy-bottomed pot. Whisk in the sugar.

Add the milk and salt and bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, with your extra hands, in a separate bowl, combine the cocoa powder and the oats.

Stir them into your hot wet mess.

Add the coconut and mix again.

Drop cookies by the tablespoon onto a wax sheet or parchment paper. (You can use silicone or something fancy like that, too.)

Wait for 'em to cool and then pop 'em in your mouth.

Apparently, they like potatoes crunchy on the east coast.

Beef stew is one of those things I'm pretty serious about. If it doesn't taste good, and if the vegetables and beef aren't in harmony with each other and just to my liking, I can be pretty critical. You'd think that Cook's Illustrated, those geniuses behind America's Test Kitchen, would have a great beef stew recipe, right? I thought so, too, as I propped the cookbook open and gathered my ingredients.

Ingredients:

3 lbs beef chuck, trimmed & cut 1 1/2 inch pieces, 2 medium coarsely chopped onions, 3 medium garlic cloves, minced, 1 cup of full bodied red wine, 2 cups chicken stock, 4 medium boiling potatoes cut in 1-inch cubes, 4 large carrots cut into 1/4 inch slices, 1 cup frozen peas, thawed, 3 tbsp flour, 2 bay leaves, 1 tsp dried thyme, 1 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp ground black pepper, 1/4 minced fresh parsley, 3 tbsp of vegetable oil

Tools:

Measuring cups & spoons, cutting board, sharp knife, 6-8 qt dutch oven

Heat the oven to 250 and put the beef cubes in a bowl. Sprinkle them with salt and pepper and toss to coat. Heat up 2 tbsp of the oil in the dutch oven, and add half the meat. Brown it on all sides.

This is gonna take about five minutes or so- then remove the meat, set aside and repeat with the remaining oil and beef. Remove the browned meat and set aside.

Toss your onions into the now-empty Dutch oven and saute until they are softened. Again, this will be about five minutes. Add the garlic and stir the hell out of it for 30 seconds. Stir in the flour and cook until lightly colored which will likely take you two or so minutes.

Then add the wine, getting all those good brown bits from the bottom, and add the stock, the bay leaves and the thyme. Bring to a simmer. Add the meat. Bring it back to a simmer.

Cover and put that sucker in your oven for an hour.

After an hour passes (I spent the time making no-bake oatmeal chocolate cookies) take that pot out of your oven and add the potatoes and carrots.

Cover and return to your oven for 2 hours, then pull it out and add the peas. Cover, and let stand for 5 minutes or until the peas are warmed through. Stir in the parsley, discard the bay leaves, adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper and serve that stew in a low bowl with some crusty bread.

Some thoughts on this "Master Recipe for Stew" from The Best Recipe by the editors of Cook's Illustrated magazine...

First, the potatoes? Totally need to go in at the same time and cook the whole way. I don't like my potatoes mushy but I'm really not interested in having a crisp spud in my mouth unless it's been deep fried, thank you very much. Maybe it's an east coast thing, because the editorial about the creation of this recipe does mention a fondness for "firm" vegetables. Me, I like them to have a little bit of give. I want them to have texture but I don't want them to feel like they are barely cooked.

The meat is super important-- I went the lazy way and bought pre-cut stew meat, but quickly found that the pieces are uneven, the fat is poorly distributed and there isn't a lot of consistency. Reading up on pre-cut stewing beef, I realized that I would be much better off getting a large piece of meat and cutting it myself if I want something really tasty.

There wasn't enough tang to this stew for me. Maybe it's all the dinty moore I ate in high school after our oven died, but there's something about a bit of vinegar flavor that really brings out the bay leaf and the beefiness of a hearty beef stew.

Overall, I'd make this again with a few adjustments. Despite putting it back in the oven for another hour to get the potatoes and carrots to a consistency more my liking, the flavor of this recipe was pretty on target and it was fairly simple. I've been relying on my crockpot for stews but I liked this method-- plus, since I was already in the kitchen, I made dessert while the stew did it's thing. Stay tuned for No-bake Chocolate Oatmeal Drops and a Snickerdoodle Redemption (let's not talk about the boozerdoodles, mmmmk?!)

Not-Thanksgiving

The thing about Thanksgiving is that it's long been an in-between holiday for me. After my parents divorced, it was one of the few holidays no one hopped a plane to visit the other house; we rarely saw the other siblings. And once the oven broke at my mom's, it sort of stopped happening... And working retail, Thanksgiving was simply the short breath before going underwater for a month or so. There have been a few gatherings, and some occasions where certain parts of the family were together with cousins and aunts and uncles, but for the most part it's been a pretty solitary affair as far as family was concerned.

This wasn't always the case; before the divorce and even the year after, Thanksgiving seemed extravagant to me: we drove to Phoenix and went to my grandparent's house, or my uncle's, and we dressed up and had namecards and a kiddie table and all kinds of forced bonding that really did go a long way in cementing the relationships you make when you're a kid.

Now, it'd been about twenty years since all four kids were together on Thanksgiving weekend, with my mom. It'd been about six years since all four kids were with my mom and my stepdad, and it'd been three years since the four of us gathered in one place. So my brother David decided it was time-- and he hauled his girlfriend, my younger brother Ben and Ben's daughter, Isabel all the way out from Utah to my mom's house.

Traveling on Thanksgiving kind of sucks, and with a three-almost-four year old, it wasn't exactly an easy drive, I'm sure. But they made it and on Friday morning, we started cooking. David has a great way with food, and since the oven at my mom's house is STILL broken (seriously!) we cooked the majority of stuff at my house and brought it to my mom's. (Dinner couldn't really happen at my place because of my cats, and allergies, and besides-- it doesn't count unless we eat at Mom's!)

Here was the menu:

Roast Turkey & gravy

Mashed Potatoes

Stuffin' Muffins

Bourbon Sweet Potatoes

Green Beans with Bacon, Shallots & Vermouth

Peach & Mango cobbler

My sister Sarah handled the dessert, and my mom took over the mashed potatoes (easy for those who are oven-impaired) and David and I wrangled the rest.

I took the lead on the turkey, and used Alton Brown's Roasted Turkey recipe from the food network. This was my very first turkey ever (I'd helped a few times with a friend-thanksgiving when we lived on Athol, but never on my own) and I was super duper nervous. I defrosted that sucker, brined it, stuffed some aromatics in it's excavated cavity, rubbed it down with canola oil and then stuck it in the oven at 500 for a half hour, then 350 for about two hours (after covering the breast with Alton's famed "Foil Turkey Triangle").

I had to use an ice bath to defrost it.

Turkey is a funny thing-- you really don't have a chance to stop and wash your hands and take pictures and resume... it's really just... get it done.

Anyway, I followed his recipe to a T with no changes.

Not-Thanksgiving Ingredients

Stuffin Muffins

Tools: 12-cup non-stick muffin tin, 12-inch skillet, measuring utensils & cups, cutting board, knives, ice cream scoop

Ingredients: 2 tbsp olive oil (about two turns of the pan), 1/2 cup butter, softened, 1 fresh bay leaf (or dried), 4 ribs celery & chopped greens from the heart, 1 medium chopped yellow or sweet onion, 3 chopped red apples, 2 tbsp poultry seasoning, 1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley, 8 cups unseasoned cubed stuffing mix, 2-3 cups chicken stock

Pre-heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the olive oil and 1/2 the butter. As the butter melts, drop in the bay leaf. As you chop the vegetables, add them: celery, onions, then apple. Sprinkle the vegetables and apples with salt, pepper and poultry seasoning. Cook for about five minutes or until everything begins to soften.

Add the parsley, and slowly add the stuffing mix as you combine. Once everything is combined, moisten the stuffing with the chicken broth, a little at a time, until it's soft but not soggy. Butter the muffin tins, and then use an ice cream scoop to mound the stuffing into muffin shapes in the tin. Remove the bay leaf as you scoop the stuffing. Pop those bad boys in the oven for about 15-20 minutes until the stuffing sets and the tops are nice and crispy brown.

Bourbon Sweet Potatoes

Tools: large pot for boiling, 13 x 9 glass pan, spoons, colander, masher, knives, cutting board, peeler, measuring utensils & spoons

Ingredients: 3 medium peeled sweet potatoes, cut into chunks; 3 tbsp butter, cut into small pieces; 1/2 cup chopped pecans; 3 tbsp brown sugar; 2 oz bourbon; 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup orange juice, 1/2 tsp grnd nutmeg, salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 350.

Bring a pot of water to poiling, add the sweet potatoes and boil until very tender, about 12-15 minutes. Drain those suckers in a colander.

Return the pan to medium heat and add the butter. When it melts, add the nuts and toast for 2 minutes. Add the sugar and let it bubble. Add the bourbon (don't inhale the bourbon fumes!) and cook out the alcohol for about a minute. Add the orange juice (to taste) and the sweet potatoes. Mash 'em and season with nutmeg & salt and pepper.

Transfer the sweet potatoes to the 13 x 9 pan and stick in the oven for about 15-18 minutes or until slightly browned on top.

And in the meantime, I made some gravy.

Tools: whisk, measuring cups & utensils, strainer, medium saucepan, plate for dredging

Ingredients: drippings from turkey; 4 tbsp flour; 14 oz chicken stock; 1/2 cup white wine; bay leaf; 6 tbsp butter; giblets; salt & pepper to taste

I deglazed the bottom of the roasting pan over a high flame with a little bit of the wine. Then I strained all of the drippings into a large measuring cup and let it settle. I skimmed about 3/4 of the fat. I dredged the giblets in flour, tossed 2 tbsp of butter into a hot pan and added the giblets and bay leaf, cooking for about 5 minutes. I removed the giblets. I melted the remaing butter until it was bubbly, then added the flour, whisking and whisking and whisking and whisking.

When the roux was nice and golden I added the drippings, still whisking, and then 1/2 the stock, whisking until smooth. I slowly added the rest of the stock, and when it thickened, I added the wine and let simmer for 2-3 minutes. Then it was taste test time and I added salt and pepper to my liking.

Then we loaded up the food into David's car, packed ourselves into ours, and headed to my mom's house.

At my mom's, I made the green beans.

Green Beans with Bacon, Shallots & Vermouth

I adapted this recipe from The America's Test Kitchen cookbook.

Tools: Cookie sheet, wire rack, measuring cups and spoons, colander, 2 12-inch skillets, bowl of ice water; large boiling pot; knive, cutting board

Ingredients:

1.5 lbs green beans, stem ends snapped, 1 tbsp salt; 2.5 quarts water; 6 thinly sliced shallots; 4 tbsp unsalted butter; 6 strips bacon; 3 tbsp dry vermouth; salt and pepper to taste

I blanched the green beans and cooked the bacon the day before. Bring the water to a boil in a large pot, and then salt, then add the green beans. Return to a boil and cool until they are bright green, about 3 minutes. Drain the beans in a colander, then transfer immediately to an icewater bath. When they aren't warm anymore, drain them again and dry them.

Put the wire-rack in the cookie sheet, then lay the bacon out. Put in the oven and heat to 400 degrees. After the oven comes to temperature, it'll be about 5-8 minutes for the bacon to finish crisping-- this really is dependent on your own personal oven so you'll want to keep an eye out.

Let the bacon fat drain, remove from wire rack and set aside until cool. Slice the bacon and set aside until needed.

Heat two tablespoons of butter in one skillet until foaming. Toss in the shallots and stir frequently, cooking until it smells super good, you start to see some crisping at the edges and the majority of the shallots are turning a nice golden brown. Set aside and warm the green beans in the other skillet with 1/4 cup of water. Once they're warmed through, put the shallots back onto a high heat and stir in the vermouth until it comes to a simmer. Whisk the remaining butter and stir in the bacon. Add the green beans and toss. Season with salt and pepper to taste, put in a serving dish and serve ASAP.

David carved the turkey. It turned out very pretty & juicy!

The turkey was good, and I always love my mom's mashed potatoes, but I have to say-- the green beans and the sweet potatoes stole the show!

We topped it off with a mango-papaya crumble dish my sister made-- it was such a hit I barely was able to snap a picture. I'm definitely getting the recipe for this.

It was really fun to cook with my brother, and I had a great time with my family. Though we didn't recreate the magic of Thanksgivings of yore, I think we made our own new magic and hopefully we'll continue this tradition. Next year I think we all need to head to the place in Arizona for a Mexican-inspired Not-Thanksgiving!