Brown Sauce for Stir Fry

• The original recipe was found here. It's a double recipe so it makes enough for two meals or lots of extra dipping. We didn't have everything the recipe called for so we made some substitutions which are in parenthesis.
• 2/3 cup soy sauce
  1/2 cup chicken broth
  1/3 cup rice wine (we used apple juice)
  3 1/2 tablespoons sugar
  1 tablespoon sesame oil
  1/4 teaspoon white pepper (we used black pepper)
  2 tablespoons cooking oil
  1 tablespoon minced garlic
  1 tablespoon minced ginger
  2 tablespoons cornstarch (we used flour)
  1/4 cup water
• Directions:
  
• 1. In a bowl, combine soy sauce, broth, rice wine, sugar, sesame oil and white pepper.
  2.Dissolve the cornstarch in 1/4 cup water.
  3.Heat a pan over high heat; add the cooking oil, swirling to coat; add the garlic and ginger; cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 15 seconds.
  4. Add the soy sauce mixture; bring to a boil.
  5. Reduce heat to medium and cook for 1 minute.
  6. Add the cornstarch solution and cook, stirring, until the sauce boils and thickens
• This sauce was AWESOME. Or as Zoey said, "This is the best YUM ever!"
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Pasta Pomodoro

I got this AWESOME pasta recipe from Runner's World magazine. It's easy, way better than canned sauce, and soooo goooood. Even Zoey liked it. Also great for freezing and using later.

Pomodoro Sauce

1/4 cup olive oil

3 garlic cloves, crushed

3 16 ounce cans of peeled, whole Italian plum tomatoes

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1 Teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

red pepper flakes (to taste)

Heat oil in saucepan over medium. Add garlic and saute until golden brown. While garlic browns, put tomatoes in a bowl -- squeeze with your hands to break them up*. Add tomatoes and juice to the saucepan. Add all seasoning/spices. Simmer for 45 minutes. Sauce should be bright red throughout all cooking. If it turns brick red it is too thick. Just add water.

Pomodoro Pasta

Boil your choice of pasta in salted water. Two minutes before it's cooked, drain and add to simmering Pomodoro sauce. Cook until tender; allow pasta to absorb sauce. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with your choice of cheese.

* Zoey LOVED doing this part

Mom's One Pot Pasta

This recipe is ridiculously easy and fast And yet I have still managed to screw it up... twice. I'll share my failures with you in hopes that you will be able to avoid my errors.

Ingredients:
1-2 cloves garlic
28 oz can of crushed or diced tomatoes
12 oz pasta (rigatoni or penne works best - we use whole wheat noodles)
1/2 cup cream (I use half and half - it's the lowest in fat and calories)

Optional toppings:
ground beef
fresh spinach

Use a large, deep saucepan.

Saute the garlic in olive oil over medium heat - cook until you can smell the garlic, but don't let it get brown.
(You could also saute some chopped onions at this point if you so desire.)
Add the can of tomatoes and 3 cups of water.
Salt.
Bring to a boil, and add the pasta.
Cover the pasta, and check it again in 12-15 minutes. You want the noodles to have absorbed a lot of the tomato sauce.
Add the cream, stir well.
At this point, you can turn off the heat and add the fresh spinach, stirring well, and let it wilt.

You can also brown some ground beef on the side and add it, but I haven't done this.

This is a super easy and delicious way to cook a big pot of pasta and tomato sauce!

Oh, and as promised, here are the moron mistakes I made:
- Be sure to actually saute the garlic before adding it. I forgot once, and tried to add the raw garlic later. Needless to say, it went poorly.
- Use crushed or diced tomatoes, NOT pureed. The sauce is fairly tasteless with pureed tomatoes.
- The cream is important - it really thickens up the sauce well.