Homemade Barbecue Sauce

Last week, I made some barbecue chicken breasts in the oven. Grace loves chicken so I like to keep it made and in the fridge for her. It makes it easy for me on nights when she can't eat what we're eating.


We usually use store bought barbecue sauce but we ran out a couple weeks ago. The store was sold out of our favorite brand (Famous Dave's Sweet & Zesty) and I didn't care for the brand that Joe bought instead. It had way too much smoke flavor for my taste. 

I checked out my Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book (it's seen better days) and found a basic recipe. I was happy that I had all of the ingredients needed. As always, I adapted this recipe to suit our tastes and added or switched some of the ingredients.

Easy Barbecue Sauce

Ingredients:

1 C. ketchup
1/4 C. apple cider vinegar
1/2 C. water
1 1/2 T. brown sugar
1 T. Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce
1 T. brown mustard
3 T. finely diced onion
1 T. finely diced celery
1/4 tsp. celery seed
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 oz. liquid smoke
several dashes of Tabasco Chipotle Pepper Sauce
ground black pepper to taste

Method:

In a small sauce pot, stir together all ingredients. Bring to boil over medium heat, stirring often. After sauce comes to a boil, reduce heat and simmer (uncovered) until sauce is thick, stirring often.


A couple of years ago, I never would have made my own barbecue sauce.  I wouldn't have even thought to do it.  I'm so happy that I made this sauce, it was so easy and so much cheaper than the store bought sauces.   I think we'll be sticking with this sauce for more daily use and save our favorites store bought brand as a treat. 
I'll be linking to the following blogs this week: 

• Homemaker Monday
• Motivate Me Monday
• Tasty Tuesday
• Tuesdays at the Table
• Tempt My Tummy Tuesday
• Kitchen Tip Tuesday
• Works For Me Wednesday
• Make It From Scratch
• Food On Friday
• Frugal Friday

Roasted Garlic and Potato Soup ~ Crock-Pot

If you read my recipe post for Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic, then you know I added some potatoes and onions under the chicken to cook at the same time. 

When the Chicken with 40 Garlic Cloves was finished cooking, I removed the chicken to one bowl and the potatoes, onions and some of the garlic to another bowl.  I reserved those potatoes for this recipe: 

Roasted Garlic and Potato Soup

Ingredients: 

• Roasted Potatoes, Onions, Garlic*
• 1 quart homemade chicken broth**
• 2 additional cups potatoes, peeled & diced
• 1 cup carrots, chopped
• 1/2 cup celery, diced
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 Tbsp. Kosher salt
• 1 tsp. ground black pepper

Directions:

• Place previously roasted potatoes, onions and garlic in crock-pot with chicken broth, cover and cook on high for one hour.
• Using a stick blender,*** puree the potatoes and onions to your desired consistency and texture. 
• Stir in the additional potatoes along with the carrots, celery, water, salt and pepper.
• Cover and cook on low for 5-7 hours, or until vegetables are tender. 

Potatoes and onions in chicken broth.

Pureed potatoes and onions in chicken broth.

Finished product! 

Mmmmm! 

  *I really love how easy it was to make this soup using the previously roasted vegetables.  I added extra veggies since I planned on pureeing the roasted veggies, but still wanted a chunkier soup. 

 **I made homemade broth using the bones and the cooking juices from the Chicken with 40 Garlic Cloves.  Store bought broth or stock can also be used. 

***If you don't have a stick blender, a food processor or standard kitchen blender will work.

I really enjoyed this soup.  It was very hearty and had lots of flavor.  We each had two bowls along with sliced French Bread for dipping! 

Even after our hearty portions, there was still about a quart of soup leftover.  I put that in the fridge for leftover night (probably Saturday)!

I'll be sharing this recipe with the following blog carnivals: 

• Food on Friday
• Ultimate Recipe Swap 

Rice-A-Roni Fake Out

While taking stock of my pantry, I found 3 bags of fine egg noodles.  I didn't even realize they there!  I don't use them and I didn't buy them!  Sometimes Joe does the food shopping and odd things like this end up in our pantry! 

I made chicken noodle soup the other night and included some of the fine noodles instead of the heartier noodles that I prefer.  I was shocked at the small amount that was needed from the bag!  Still had more than half a bag left and 2 more full bags in the pantry!  I'll never use them up! 

I saw a recipe on the package for Pasta Rice Pilaf.  After checking to see if I had all the ingredients, I planned this for dinner the next night! 

I am known to be product loyal with some things.  For instance, Acme's knock off of Bush's beans are awful!   Other things, I love buying the store brand in order to save some money.  Giant brand of Raisin Brand is just like Kellogg's Raisin Bran.  (Before that  discovery, I could only eat Kellogg's Raisin Bran...see, I'm product loyal.)

I was super-surpised and thrilled with this recipe!  Not only did it taste better than beef-flavored Rice-A-Roni, it was easy, made larger serving sizes and I am sure WAY cheaper!!!!  (I don't have a price break down at the moment.) 

So, here's the recipe: 

Pasta Rice Pilaf

Ingredients:

• 
  
  1 cup uncooked long grain rice
• 
  
  1/2 cup fine egg noodles
• 
  
  1 Tbsp. butter or margarine
• 
  
  2 3/4 cups water
• 
  
  2 Tbsp. dried minced onion
• 
  
  4 tsp. beef flavor bouillon granules
• 
  
  chopped fresh parsley, optional 

Directions:

• 
  
  In large skillet, cook rice and noodles in melted butter or margarine, stirring frequently until rice and noodles are lightly browned.
• 
  
  Add water, onion and bouillon granules.
• 
  
  Bring to boil.
• 
  
  Reduce heat, cover and simmer 15 minutes until rice and noodles are tender.
• 
  
  Garnish with fresh parsley if desired.

I served this with grilled London Broil and steamed broccoli. 

This recipe makes 4 hearty portions.  Hubby and I have big appetites and usually when a recipe serves 4, we don't have any leftover.  I had plenty of rice to put away! 

I left off the fresh  parsley, since we didn't have it, and I'm not much for garnishes when it's just the two of us for dinner. 

The recipe calls for beef bouillon, but I cannot wait to try it with chicken bouillon next time! 

Also, the recipe calls for the fine egg noodles, but I'm sure this would work great using the broken spaghetti, angel hair or vermicelli bits left at the bottom of the boxes.  Save them up and use them for this recipe!  I also think that orzo pasta would be a great match too!  We always have a 1/2 a box or so left in the pantry! 

This post is linked to Food On Fridays. 

Food on Fridays: Pepper Steak

As promised on my Menu Plan Monday post on my other blog, I actually measured while I made this meal, so that I could share it here on my recipe blog.

My mom made Pepper Steak a lot when I was a kid. I liked the gravy and the meat and the rice. I picked out the peppers and onions. What did I know? I was a picky eater...THEN. Now that I am older and cook for my husband and myself, I use peppers and onions in a lot of my dishes.

Also, I make my pepper steak a bit different than my mom. My dad likes his food pretty basic and more traditional, so my mom doesn't really add a lot of different things to her dishes.

But after watching Food Network for so many years, I like to spice things up a bit! Don't get me wrong, I am in no way saying I am a chef or anything, I just grew to love food and have been starting to try new things where cooking (and eating) is concerned. And we LOVE spices!

Since I rarely measure anything while making this dish, it never turns out the same way twice. But after making it tonight and measuring and writing it down, I think that tonight's result will be a keeper!

Alison's Pepper Steak

Ingredients

• 1 lb. London Broil, diced in small cubes
• 1 Tbs. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 2 cups onions, chopped
• 2 cups red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 heaping tsp. garlic, minced
• 2 1/2 Tbs. A-1 Steak Sauce
• 2 1/2 Tbs. Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 1/2 Tbs. McCormick's Montreal Steak Seasoning
• 1 tsp. black pepper
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 can tomatoes (14 1/2 oz), diced or stewed
• 2 Tbs. McCormick Brown Gravy Powder
• 2 cups water
• 1 can (14 1/2 0z) corn (optional)
• cooked rice, brown or white

Directions

• In a skillet or dutch oven, brown steak cubes in hot oil.
• Add steak sauce, worcestershire sauce, peppers, onions, garlic and steak seasoning, salt & pepper.
• Cook for about 15 minutes over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally.
• Add tomatoes, cover and reduce heat to low.
• Cook for 25-30 minutes, meat should be really tender by now.
• Mix water with gravy powder, making sure to get all lumps out.
• Add gravy to pot and cook for another 10-15 minutes, until gravy is heated.
• Serve over rice, with corn on the side.

Although, I altered the way my mom made this, some things remain the same. Mom always added tomatoes to her pepper steak and I really like them in mine as well.

She also always used powdered brown gravy mix in the packets. I've been having a difficult time finding the 2 cup packets in my small town. But I did find a bulk container of the McCormick's brown gravy powder mix! I love it! Very inexpensive at Costco and I just know that I will get several meals from the one container of gravy mix!

My mom always served corn on the side and used white rice. I still use the white rice, but after noticing that both of us would just put the corn on top of the steak and rice, I started to just add the corn right to the pot after I add the gravy. One less pot or microwave-safe bowl to clean at the end of the meal!

Now you may want to be easy on the Montreal Seasoning if you have kids or someone that can't handle spice. It's not terribly hot, just a bit of a zing! Kids may be sensitive to it. I suggest maybe trying a tablespoon less of the seasoning and taste test it before adding the full amount.

This recipe is also being shared on the Food On Fridays blog carnival. Food on Friday is an anything-food-related-carnival hosted by Ann Kroeker. To read more food related posts, be sure to check it out!