Sauce Heaven

Apparently my New Year's Resolution to keep up this blog is failing miserably. I haven't even posted our wedding pictures on Facebook yet! To say I have an issue with remembering this thing is an understatement. But enough about my scattered brain.

You guys. This sauce. Rachel Schultz has a recipe for a sauce very similar and her blog was one of the first places I saw this delicious and delectable recipe. Mine is a little different, having taken it from Alyssa over at the Recipe Critic. The sauce with her recipe is from the parmesan chicken one. I made this a few weeks ago when my main squeeze had the flu and he just wanted a simple pasta with some sort of tomato sauce. I used her recipe, but omitted the chicken because he wasn't super hungry. Thus, the sauce has been used multiple times and with countless varieties of pasta. Our favorite is bow tie, but you can certainly use fettuccine or maybe even spaghetti! I want to experiment with this sauce like I did with the Alfredo sauce, so hopefully that will happen soon!

But anyways. This sauce you guys. It's a tomato cream sauce and it has such good flavor! The good thing is that it doesn't take much nor does it take very long to make (bonus!). It's so delicious that I could just top some garlic bread with it and be a happy camper. I don't stray from Alyssa's recipe much. I add a pinch of crushed red pepper for a tiny bit of heat and I add a little more cheese (we're cheese lovers around here). Oh. And I omit the onions, because duh. Onions. A little time on the stove and you have a great tomato cream sauce! Enjoy my friends.

I know it's not the best picture, but trust me. It's delicious!

Tomato Cream Sauce

1 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, chopped (I omitted)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce

½ cup heavy cream

¼ cup grated parmesan cheese (the canned stuff)

1 teaspoon McCormick Italian Seasoning Herb Grinder (I could not find this, so I just use regular Italian seasoning)

salt and pepper to taste

½ cup shredded parmesan cheese

How to make said perfect sauce:

-Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to a saucepan and add the onion and garlic. Sauté for a couple of minutes until tender. Add the tomato sauce, heavy cream, parmesan cheese, and Italian seasoning. Salt and pepper to taste.

-Bring to a simmer until thickened. Serve over pasta of choice.

Note: The shredded parmesan cheese is meant to top the chicken with in Alyssa's recipe. If I am not cooking chicken with this, I just add it in with the sauce. I use fresh parmesan cheese, not the pre-shredded stuff. It melts easier!

Perfect Scrambled Eggs

I have a love affair with eggs. Seriously! Something so simple can be made in so many different ways, has a center that's yellow that can ruin an angel food cake while using the whites to make stiff meringue for a coconut cream pie. Eggs are wonderful and that is why I must share with you my egg saga.

Eggs were the very first thing I ever learned to cook. My grandmother use to always tell me I started cooking as soon as I could reach the stove. And eggs were the thing she taught me how to make. I use to stand and wait until (by my grandmother's instruction) the outside portion started to get white and I could start moving it around the pan, thus making something very similar to an omelet. 

I always told my grandpa to separate my portion before he added any pepper to them because I could not stand pepper when I was little.

My mama would always cook me scrambled eggs in the morning and place it one of those old school round Tupperware containers (admit it, you still have them!) and I'd eat them on the way to school. 

My babysitter (mom #2, more affectionately known as Mom Sale) would always crumble sausage and mix it into the eggs before she cooked them. This was (and still is today) my most favorite way to eat them.

But nothing, NOTHING, can compare to how my dad fixes scrambled eggs. Breakfast is an absolute favorite for both of us. We could eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner 7 days a week. And his scrambled eggs are always kiss ass tasty. When I was younger he would sometimes add in a little maple syrup for some sweetness. He never had a "secret" to how he fixed them, and I've watched him numerous times. But there is always something delicious about the way he fixes them.

I think I have come as close as I can get to making them the way he does. Fried eggs? Don't stand a chance in my kitchen. I can fry an egg as well as I can pee standing up without missing the toilet. But I have finally figured out how to make my eggs taste just as tasty as his (well, almost!)

The key with his scrambled eggs is low and slow. I mentioned before my grandmother liked to get the edges white before she moved them around pan. Nope. Not happening. Medium heat (around 6) is about the perfect temperature. A splash of cream doesn't hurt either. And I finally LOVE pepper. So! Egg business. Scrambled egg business. In all their glory.

How to make said eggs

2-3 eggs (depending how hungry you are)

Salt and pepper, to taste

Splash of cream, milk or half and half

Scramble your eggs in a bowl, add salt, pepper and cream. Heat enough butter over medium low to medium heat to cover a small skillet but don't use too much! You want your eggs fluffy. Pour egg mixture in skillet and wait. Gently start pushing the mixture back and forth. Constantly moving the eggs is key, don't let them sit too long to get that omelet consistency. I always take my eggs out the pan when they're "almost done" You know, that shiny texture, white part might still be a tad runny. YUM. Not runny like medium fried egg, but shiny! Hopefully you can see what I am talking about in my picture. Eat up!

Italian Chicken Bake

This week I have reverted back to day shift. All week. I have no idea how I did that and I must say I hate getting up early! But, at least it's only three days. I love having the "normal" feeling of sleeping at night and being awake during the day, especially when the weather is super duper nice! My nights have consisted of porch sitting, beer (well hard cider) drinking, Pinterest perusing, working out and talking about the future with my main squeeze. 

This recipe is something super simple! Though it takes an hour to cook it takes about 5 minutes of prep work, if you think cutting up potatoes counts as prep work! This dish was ok, lacking in flavor some but I didn't do two packets of the dressing seasoning like it called for. I have no idea why! There's different versions floating around on Pinterest and the recipe I used was from Ashley's blog. I saw one version where they used ranch packets instead of Italian. I might try that next time or I might just use two Italian packets like she did.

I used a bag of frozen green beans but I think next time I might try canned ones. The frozen ones always have that "blanched" flavor even after they cook for an hour. Anyway, I'll definitely make this again but with slightly different variations. Supper can't get anymore simpler!

How to make said dish:

Enough potatoes (peeled, unpeeled, red, yellow, whatever floats your boat) to fill one side of a 9x13 casserole dish

Same amount for the green beans (canned, frozen or fresh)

3-4 chicken breasts 

2 packets (I used zesty) of Italian dressing seasoning mix

3/4 of a stick of butter

This literally is a dump and bake dinner! Line one side of your dish with green beans, the other side with potatoes and fill the middle with chicken. Cut up butter in pieces and place all over previous said ingredients. Sprinkle packets of Italian seasoning over everything. Cover with foil and bake for one hour at 350.(You may want to spray just a bit of cooking spray on the side the potatoes. Mine stuck a little)