Homemade pasta sauce

It's been a while!

Here is an easy way to make your own pasta sauce. This is a base, so try your own variations on this and post them in the comments!

Ingredients:

• 8 tomatoes, chopped (or 4 cans crushed tomatoes)
• 3 cloves garlic, diced
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 cup fresh basil leaves (or 3 table spoons dried)
• Meat (optional)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 cups water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• Parmesan for garnish

Directions:

• Put onion, garlic, and basil into a food processor, run until almost liquid
• Sauté onion mix for 5 minutes in olive oil in large pan or sauce pan
• Add tomatoes, crush a bit if fresh, stir well
• Add salt, pepper, red pepper flakes
• Add 2 cups water
• Add sugar
• Add meat (optional)
• Boil until sauce reduces to your liking, slower and longer the better
• Serve, mailman, repeat!

This sauce is delicious as it is, and so any additions you make will only make it better. Be careful on the red pepper flakes, they are quite strong with the garlic. Otherwise, this is super easy and can be used for chicken, ground beef, meatballs, sausage, etc. Here's Natalie dominating some angel hair with this sauce :)

Happy cooking mailmanning!

Quinoa and Bean Salad

Hi Drunks!

I know it's been a longgggg time since I've posted.  Our travel schedule has made my cooking pretty much non-existent (I know nobody feels bad for me :), but now that we're back I'm ready to share some recipes again! We shared a delicious dinner with the newlyweds last night and I brought this as a side.

This salad is delish, healthy, and pretty easy to make.  You can put in pretty much any veggies / beans that you have lying around, and could also add some chopped nuts for an extra crunch.  This makes a large batch (it's great leftover / for lunch), so feel free to half.  I pretty much just wing it on the spices, so below are estimates, but definitely give it a taste and adjust to your liking.  Happy Mailmanning!

KReh

This is only ~half the batch :)

Ingredients

• 1.5c quinoa, rinsed if needed
• 3c water
• 1 bouillon cube, chicken or vegetable-flavored (optional)
• 1 can black beans
• 1 can kidney beans
• 1 can corn (or ~1.5c fresh or frozen corn, thawed)
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1/2 a red onion
• 1 lime
• 1/2 c olive oil
• ~1 tbsp garlic powder
• ~1 tbsp chili powder
• ~1 tsp cayenne pepper (gives it a bit of a kick)
• ~1 tsp salt
• ~1 tsp black pepper

Instructions

• Cook quinoa in water, adding bouillon cube prior to boiling if desired (will give it a bit more flavor); let quinoa cool to room temperature
• Drain and rinse beans / corn and let dry
• Finely chop onion and red pepper
• Combine quinoa, veggies, and beans in large bowl; mix well
• Cut lime into halves and juice over mixture 
• Add olive oil and spices to mixture
• Mix everything up really well!



Mellerho mailmanned the whole bowl!

• Mailman!

Mailman! (The mellerho's steak salad was also delish)

BBQ Pork Tenderloin

Wow. This was delicious. And you will want more than you think. The four of us went through 2 whole tenderloins. It was ridiculous.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup soy sauce
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 Tablespoon Cumin
• 2 pork tenderloins

Directions:

1. Mix together soy sauce, garlic, and brown sugar
2. Place tenderloins into a ziploc bag along with marinade ingredients for 45 minutes (we let it marinade for 1.5 hours).
3. Get grill to medium high heat
4. Place tenderloins on grill, directly over heat, cover grill
5. Turn meat every 5 minutes or so, until all sides have nice grill marks and the meat starts to firm up. Cut in the middle of the tenderloin to check for doneness. If you think the pork is on the edge of being done/raw, take pork off grill and let it sit uncut for 5-10 minutes. The pork will continue to cook without getting dried out
6. Slice, and mailman to finish

A four-way mailman sesh for the ages. Be jealous. Be very jealous.

 Happy cooking mailmanning!

Asparagus Bruschetta

This is the perfect light dinner/appetizer for a hangover recovery. Natalie and I were both feeling drained yesterday, so we made this quickly to get us over the hump.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb asparagus
• 1.5-2 large tomatoes, sliced
• Olive Oil
• Basalmic Vinegar
• Parmesan Cheese
• Salt
• Pepper
• Basil (julienne or dried both work fine)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400º F
2. Place asparagus on a baking sheet dowse with olive oil, salt, pepper, and Parmesan
3. Place asparagus in oven for 10 minutes
4. Once asparagus is done, mix tomatoes, asparagus, basil, olive oil, balsamic vinegar (OO:BV should be 1:1)
5. Season with salt and freshly cracked black pepper
6. Serve over toasted bread and fresh mozzerella, triscuits, or by itself as a salad

If salad tasted more like this, I'd eat it every day

Happy cooking mailmanning!

Pear-Raspberry Glazed BBQ Pork Chops

No description required. This shit was delicious.

Ingredients (2 servings):

• 1'' pork chops (1 per person)
• 1-2 tablespoons jam (I used a homemade Pear Raspberry Jam) It was truly the jam.
• Note: Honey is a great substitute here. Use in a 1:1 ratio with the soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon Soy Sauce
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Salt & Pepper

Instructions:

1. Mix soy sauce, jam, garlic, and some salt and pepper together
2. Place chop on grill, add glaze to one side, cook for 5-7 minutes
3. Flip, add glaze to second side, cook for 5-7 minutes or until chop is firm in all spots
• Note: Thinner chops will cook extremely quickly. Keep an eye on the grill, lest you burn these sumptuous treats
4. Serve, mailman, gorge, repeat as necessary!

Yum!

She is dreaming about eating these chops every day

Cyana loves chops because she gets to mailman too!

Happy cooking mailmanning!

Ginger Ale Ribs

For our inaugural post I thought I'd do something a little special, so here is a rib recipe that takes a while, but based on Natalie and I's full bellies, was well worth the wait.

If you don't enjoy this feast, I don't know whats wrong with you.

Ingredients:
2-3 Liters of ginger ale (the better the ginger ale, the better the ribs)
4-5 lbs of spare ribs
16 oz your favorite BBQ sauce (I highly recommend Garland Jack's Secret Six)
1-2 foil trays
Optional:
Dry rub of your choice

Directions:

1. Place ribs in container completely submerged in ginger ale (tupperware works well), let marinate in fridge ~24 hours
2. Next day: preheat oven to 350º F
3. Place ribs into foil tray(s), cover with foil, and bake for 4 hours
4. Upon removal, the ribs will be fall-off-the-bone tender, so be sure to be gentle when you take them out of the oven
5. Carefully remove ginger ale from ribs
6. If you are planning on adding a dry rub, do it here
7.  Refrigerate at least 4 hours (up to 36 hours is fine)
8. Remove from refrigerator and slather BBQ sauce onto meat side of ribs
9. Place ribs on medium-high heat grill, meat side down
10. Spread BBQ sauce over non-meat side, cook for 7-10 minutes per side, depending on heat of grill, just until the BBQ sauce has caramelized a bit
11. After flipping, add a light coating of fresh BBQ sauce to meat side
12. Remove from heat, gorge, repeat as necessary

Natalie with nice mailmanning form. She was starving and  not too happy about waiting three days to eat these. But once the ribs were ready, I think she enjoyed them all the more.

 

Being the graceful mailman that I am, I didn't need a single napkin after eating these ribs. I did however, require a nap.

Cyana will be very pleased with these bones when I go to work all next week.

Thanks for reading, and happy cooking mailmanning!