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!

Zucchini Bread

What does one do when they are procrastinating a paper due in December (that's really far away), and they received a local produce box with 3 zucchinis in it? Make Zucchini Bread!!!!

Super easy recipe, the hardest part is grating the zucchini. I highly recommend using a food processor for this!

Ingredients:

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 1/4 cup white sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 c grated zucchini

Directions:

1. Grease two 8x4 inch pans. Preheat the oven to 325 F, or in my case make an educated guess because my oven's numbers disappear before 450 F. I would suggest a working internal oven thermometer in this case. For some reason mine isn't working....

2. Mix flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in a bowl.

3. Beat the eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar in a large bowl. I decided to use my Kitchen Aid mixer. Then, gradually add the dry ingredients. Stir in the zucchini. This is also where one could add walnuts or chocolate chips. I didn't have any on hand so it is plain zucchini bread.

4. Pour into the prepared pans and place in the center of the oven for 40 to 60 minutes. Mine took over 60 minutes. You can check when bread is down by inserting a toothpick. Bread is ready when the toothpick comes out clean.

5. Cool on a rack for about 20 minutes. Then remove it from the pan and let it cool completely. I found this last step near impossible.

6. Mailman and Enjoy!