Ooh Yeah

I am apparently really awesome at updating blogs. In case it isn't apparent, sarcasm is the special ingredient of the day.

I'm going to dedicate today to red things. Namely, tomato sauce and Red Velvet cake. 

I don't have any pictures of the tomato sauce, but I have plenty of the cake!

I really like to make my own pasta sauce. Biggest reason is Tyler's general dislike of tomato sauce, and secondly because I'm not a huge fan of chunky sauces. So this way it's made exactly how we like it :)

Paige's Tomato Sauce
1 large can crushed tomatoes
1 small can garlic tomato paste
2 tsp minced garlic - I like to use the freeze-dried stuff. Freeze-dried spices are my new favourite thing.
2 tsp seasoning salt
1 tsp basil
2 tsp freeze-dried oregano
sprinkle of red pepper flakes
sprinkle of thyme
sprinkle of celery salt
sprinkle of cinnamon
4 bay leaves

1. In a medium sized saucepan, combine the crushed tomatoes and tomato paste. Allow to warm up slightly before adding the spices in whatever order you see fit.
2. Add the bay leaves last, making sure that you remember where they are or that you choose big enough ones to be spotted easily.
3. Allow to simmer for as long as you need it to (for example, if you're making the meat and pasta as the sauce is going). Remove bay leaves and add about a quarter cup of water. This makes it more of a pasta sauce consistency. If you want to have the leftovers as a pizza sauce, omit the water in the batch and just add it to whatever you're going to use.
4. Add to whatever meat you want, or go meatless. I've also done little fun things every so often, for example adding a couple dashes of Worcestershire sauce and lemon juice. That made it definitely interesting.

Red Velvet Cake

Okay. This cake had always intrigued me. I saw it once on Throwdown with Bobby Flay
I was so intrigued by it that I decided to make Nick this cake for his birthday. I searched AllRecipes and tried to find the correct recipe, because I thought I remembered that on Throwdown they mentioned that a Red Velvet cake SHOULDN'T have a cream cheese icing. And, well, Nick hates cream cheese icing. So I sought out a recipe without. Turns out, that recipe was really weird so I went with the McCormick spice brand sponsored one.

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1 (1 oz) bottle red food colouring
2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
2. Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed for 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time.  Mix in sour cream, milk, food colouring, and vanilla.  Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until just blended. Do not overbeat. Pour into cake pan OR spoon batter into paper-lined muffin cups, 2/3 cups full*.
3. For cupcakes, bake 20-25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. For a cake, it was like 40 minutes. Allow cakes and cupcakes to cool completely before icing.

* This recipe makes a buttload of batter.  I mean I made a double layer cake AND a dozen cupcakes. Full sized ones, even.

The icing I made was some sort of cooked icing that REALLY didn't turn out. I mean really. And I followed the directions to a T. So here's the recipe that I followed

1 cup milk
5 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a saucepan, combine the milk and flour. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens. Set aside to cool completely. Cream together butter, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy, then stir in cooled milk and flour mixture. Beat until icing reaches spreading consistency.

I beat the crap out of that icing. I mean, I've got a professional grade KitchenAid mixer, and I let it fly. And it just didn't taste good. SO, I added icing sugar and vanilla until it got to the taste and consistency that I wanted it at. I'm going to say 2 cups of icing sugar and about another teaspoon of vanilla. Maybe I added some almond too? Either way, I really wish that I had been measuring and remembering what I added because it was the most delicious icing ever. AND it had the best spreading consistency! I was so super proud of myself that I thought "Man, all those cooking shows have really paid off" despite the fact that I hadn't watched any in months. Residual knowledge? Who knows.

Either way, the cake was delicious and everyone said so. Nick, the pickiest person of all time (not for food, but just for life in general) even enjoyed it. So Paige won.