Making jar spaghetti sauce taste homemade

Using a jar of spaghetti sauce to create a great meal saves a lot of time and money. While it would be ideal to be able to make a homemade sauce every time, it isn’t always possible. With the high quality and variety of sauces on the market, however, it doesn’t take very much to touch up a jarred sauce. When it's done right, no one will even know that you didn’t do all the work yourself.

Add meat

You can take a basic jar of marinara sauce and add some meat to make it a great meal. Italian sausage can be sautéed and thrown into the sauce with some jarred roasted peppers. This sauce is perfect to throw into the slow cooker in the morning when you leave for work and you will come home to a pot filled with sausage and peppers which can be served on a hoagie roll or over pasta. The only real work involved in this meal is sautéing the Italian sausage. If you want to use pasta, you can even stick it right in the slow cooker with everything else and have a complete meal in a pot.

If you prefer, you can add a pound of cooked ground beef, a bag of frozen meatball or sautéed chicken. Once the sauce has cooked for several hours with the other ingredients, no one is going to know that you used jar sauce.

Other additions

If you didn’t get your meal started and you are now home and need to come up with a homemade tasting meal using you jar sauce and you only have a few minutes, there are still some great things that you can do.

Cream

Take a jar of basic sauce, add a good splash of heavy cream or half & half. This will turn the bright red sauce a pretty pinkish color. If you want a protein, chicken is a good choice with this sauce. Grab a jar of roasted red peppers and slice the peppers thinly and add to the sauce.

Hopefully, you have a jar of artichoke hearts on hand, chop the hearts into bite-size pieces and add to the sauce. Dice a small one and add to olive oil and chopped garlic in a sauté pan and sauté with the chunks of chicken. Meanwhile, boil up a pound of pasta. Add all the ingredients together and cook for about 15 minutes. 

Parmesan

Grate some fresh Parmesan cheese over the top and serve with crusty Italian bread. You can also add some Parmesan when you are warming up the sauce to give it a unique flavor. 

Just because you need to use a jar of spaghetti sauce it doesn’t mean that your meal can’t taste homemade. With a few of your own touches, you can make jar spaghetti sauce taste homemade and turn the pedestrian into something really special.

Best fruit pie combinations

Pies are one of the most popular desserts in the world. When many people think of pies, it is fruit pies that they envision. Apple is the universal favorite, but there is no reason why a combination of fruits can’t be as delicious as a single fruit pie. What are the best fruit pie combinations? We have all heard of fruits of the forest, these are some less common ones. You decide.

Strawberry Rhubarb

Strawberry rhubarb is a prime example of the two-fruit pie. While certainly both of them can stand alone in any dessert, the combination is magical. The sweetness of the strawberries is a perfect foil for the tartness of the rhubarb. The proportion of each of the fruits must be considered carefully, but when it is done well, this is one of the most flavorful pies in the world. I make this into a galette.

Apple Pear

For a true taste of autumn, nothing beats apple and pear. Both of these fruits are in season in the fall and combine beautifully. There is a similarity in texture and sweetness, but the taste is so uniquely different that the blend is heavenly. Many different varieties of both apples and pears can be used and each variety has its own texture and sweetness. 

Bosc pears and Cortland apples work well together. When making your choice, try not to choose both a tart or sweet pear and apple, use one sweet and one tart. It makes for a better taste combination. This is one of my absolute favorites.

Apple Berry

Apples combine well with most berries. Apple and blackberry is a traditional combination and certainly, a combination of mixed berries and apples makes what is commonly called a razzleberry pie. This is perfect for when you have a mixture of leftover berries that you want to use before you lose them. Given the health properties of both berries and apples, this is a healthy combination. 

Pear Fig

Pear and fig is a less common, more unexpected combination of fruits, but the result is sweet and delicious with Italian influences. If using dried figs, they need to be rehydrated before baking.

Peach Cherry

If you have very sweet luscious peaches, they make a beautiful combination with a sour cherry. The interaction of the bright red and the yellow is visually appealing. The tastes also meld together harmoniously.

Nectarine Plum

When using fruits such as nectarines and plums, a one-crust pie is often the way to go. It is very attractive to slice the fruits and arrange them in a pattern within the pie crust. Use nuts to flavor the crust and add a nice crunch to the whole dessert.

Oasis Cafe Ocala, Florida

After having been closed for a time, Oasis Cafe reopened with new owners and a new menu and look. Located on Route 200 in a small plaza it is rather close to our home in Ocala and we decided to give it a try. We had been unimpressed with its previous incarnation after one visit and were somewhat reluctant to try again. I am very glad we overcame that reluctance.

We went there this morning at about 10:15. We were seated in the back room and soon had our coffee and orange juice in front of us. I had been told by my brother in law that two people he knows swear by their eggs Benedict. That got my attention and that is what I ordered. The eggs Benedict are served with shaved ham in place of Canadian bacon and also come with homefries, hashbrowns, grits, a tomato slice or fresh fruit. I opted for homefries which I would not order again. 

Al ordered a bacon, egg, and cheese on a hard roll. Unfortunately, they don't offer a hard roll so he had it on white toast. He also got home fries. What we really liked was they asked how he wanted the egg cooked, no one ever does that, we said medium well and Al said it was perfect. 

I was very pleased with the eggs Benedict, the eggs were cooked perfectly and the sauce was good. The homefries were not great, quite plain. I would opt for the fresh fruit next time. We did ask for the homefries well done and I don't think it was necessary. 

They had some very interesting things on the menu and I will be delighted to go back and try it again maybe get the French toast. 

Freddy Frozen Custard and Steakburger Ocala, Fl

Freddy's Frozen Custard is located on Rte 200 very close to I-75. We were looking for a burger and I Googled best burger in Ocala. Last year we fell in love with Burger 21 but they have closed so we needed to find some place new to enjoy. Freddy's is the name that came up consistently. 

We dined in and the atmosphere is a combination of 1950's diner and modern fast food. You place your order then your number called. 

Burgers are not cooked before you order them, they are fresh cooked for you. That makes a big difference. The beef does not seem to be a premade pattie either. They are all cooked one temperature but ours were wonderfully juicy and delicious so it didn't seem to matter. The French fries are very thin and well cooked but frozen so nothing to write home about. 

We got a single burger meal which included the drink as well. For $11 I thought it was a great bargain for a very tasty burger. We got it with grilled onions and it was very good. 

The staff was very efficient and friendly and they give you a number and you go and get your burger when it is done a lot like 5 Guys. Now if we could get the French fries from 5 Guys and the burgers from Freddy's , we would have the absolutely perfect meal but the burger is good enough to justify choosing Freddy's. 

Anyone Can Do it Lemony Chicken

I love lemon and chicken, especially chicken piccata. I decided that it was time to try to make it myself. I bought just about a pound of thinly sliced chicken breasts. I also bought a mallet so I could pound the chicken to make it thinner.


Since I have loads of new cookbooks I looked through several of them and combined what I liked from several different recipes.

First I put about a quarter cup of Wondra on a plate and added salt and pepper, this you can do to taste. I used my red copper pan and heated a combination of olive oil and butter on medium. Place the chicken in the pan and cook 2-3 minutes per side until the chicken is fully cooked.

I took the chicken and placed it on a plate in the oven at 325. I cook a bag of Barilla penne pre-cooked pasta.

Now for the sauce.


2 tsp butter

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup chicken stock

1/4 cup capers

1 tablespoon crushed chopped garlic

1 tablespoon Wondra


Add all the ingredients to the pan with the oil and butter and scrape all the brown bits up.

Reduce until it begins to thicken.

Place the penne on a plate, put the chicken on top and pour sauce over. Enjoy.






#lemonychicken







Al loved this and says he could see eating this once a month and I agree, it was delicious and quite easy.

Country ribs in the slow cooker

I bought a rather large package of country ribs at Winn Dixie on Monday. I thought I would cook them in the slow cooker. They are in here now on 8 hours of slow cooking. I added a bottle of Sticking Fingers Sweet Carolina BBQ Sauce and a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, I would have loved to have a can of crushed pineapple to add. 

At the end of cooking time,  I placed the ribs and sauce in the fridge for dinner the next day. I warmed the ribs up in the microwave for 4 minutes and made mashed potatoes and lima beans to go along with it. 

Al's opinion of them was "excellent, excellent, excellent". From his that is the highest praise since what I usually get is "not bad". I have to agree, it was absolutely delicious. The sauce was delicious and frankly, I didn't miss the pineapple but I think next time I will try it. 

This is a recipe we loved and I will definitely be making it again. 

Leftovers

Use a thermometer for perfectly cooked meat

When it comes to cooking meat of almost any kind, the internal temperature is very important. Not only will it guarantee that your meat will be cooked just the way you prefer, well done, medium or rare, but it will ensure that your meat is cooked enough to kill the bacteria that may be growing in and on it. It is not a very appealing thought to be sure, but meat safety has become a real issue as more and more people are sickened from e-Coli and other bacteria. This is where your trusty meat thermometer comes in.

Different meats have different requirements

Different types and cuts of meat have different cooking requirements. While one temperature may be perfect for beef it may not be okay for chicken. One of the things that every cook needs to know or at least have access to is a list of the correct internal temperatures for the types and cuts of meat that they are cooking.

Most good general cookbooks such a Good Housekeeping or Betty Crocker will have a chart to assist you. You can also use your smartphone or computer to help you. The website Foodsafety.gov is a good place for general information on meat food safety. For more specific temperatures for types of meat that can be served at different temperatures and still be safe, try this website.

Poultry
Poultry is one of the most worrisome types of meat when it comes to safety. It is important that it be cooked enough to be safe but if it is overcooked, it can become dry and tasteless. Using a meat thermometer can help you to find the perfect time to take the poultry out of the over. Cutting into the meat to check the redness allows juices to escape and is not good when you want juicy meat. With a whole bird, the thermometer should be inserted into the thigh near the breast but not touching any bone. You want it to be one of the thickest places. 

Steaks and roasts

With steaks and roasts, always place the thermometer away from the bone, but not in fat or gristle. It should be as close to the center as possible and in the middle of the thickest part.

Types of thermometers

There are several different types of meat thermometers. The traditional type goes in when the meat does and you need to check it every so often to see where the temperature is. Some have large dials can be viewed without opening the oven door if placed correctly. Digital instant-read thermometers allow you to just stick the probe into the meat and get an instant reading. Keep in mind that the meat will continue to cook after it is removed from the oven, so a couple of degrees shy of perfect is really perfect.

When purchasing your thermometer, read the packaging carefully to be sure that it is designed for meat — not all thermometers are.

A meat thermometer will help you be a better cook. It will let you keep your family safe, but still, serve juicy meat cooked just the way you like it.