A Night in Italy: Homemade Tomato "Red" Sauce

Tonight I decided to take a little trip to Italy... well not really, but I did decide to have a Italian dinner!  I found our old pasta maker and made my own pasta. It was so easy and fun to make it and then let it dry out during the day. 

The Pasta Drying

Not only did I make my own pasta, but I also chose to make my own tomato sauce. Some know it as "red" sauce or even marinara sauce. All ingredients especially the spices, onion and garlic can be changed based on your personal liking. I like a lot of garlic and onion, so I added a good amount.


 Here is a simple and quick sauce to put with any type of pasta. You can even use it was a dip for some yummy garlic bread!

Enjoy!

-Kym's Kitchen


Kym's Homemade Tomato "Red" Sauce
(from: Kym's Kitchen)

The Final Product

Ingredients:

2 cans of tomato soup
1 onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1 can of water (use an empty tomato soup can)
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
basil (to taste)
cilantro (to taste)
oregano (to taste)
2 tomatoes, diced
butter
1 tsp corn starch (if needed)

Instructions:

1. Heat the onions, garlic and butter in a pot until the onions are translucent.
2. Add in the tomato soup and water then stir.  Bring that to a simmer.
3. Next add in the spices and balsamic vinegar. If the sauce seems to runny, then you can add in the corn starch until it thickens to your liking.
4. Lastly add in the diced tomatoes. Let that simmer for a few minutes so that they cook down a little. 

Going Bananas for Banana Pudding...Cupcakes?

Seriously? Banana pudding cupcakes?? Believe it or not, YES!

Here is a cupcake that, in my opinion, is healthy for you! ;) I mean you are eating bananas after all! The recipe calls for 2 medium bananas, but I used 3 because I wanted a good banana flavor. I thought that the extra banana added enough flavor without it being overpowering. If you are unsure, I would make the batter with 2 bananas, taste it and then add more if you need to. I will admit it killed me to make this recipe a little because I had to use a box cake mix! But it was very good!

The recipe calls for whipped cream topping using Cool Whip. I made my own whipped cream and it turned out great! I will put the whipped cream recipe at the bottom too! After you put the whipped cream on, you sprinkle it with crumbled vanilla wafers and a banana chip! Yummy!

Hope you go "bananas" over this recipe! Enjoy!!

-Kym's Kitchen 


Banana Pudding Cupcakes
(from: Betty Crocker Cupcake Book*)

Ingredients:
1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® vanilla cake mix
1 box (4-serving size) banana cream instant pudding and pie filling mix
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 medium)
45 vanilla wafer cookies, crushed (2 cups)
15 vanilla wafer cookies, coarsely crushed (2/3 cup) 
24 dried banana chips 

Directions:   

1. Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pans). Place paper baking cup in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups.
2. In large bowl, beat cake mix, pudding mix, milk, oil and eggs with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Stir in mashed bananas and 2 cups crushed cookies. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. 
3. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to cooling racks. Cool completely. 
4. Frost cupcakes with whipped topping. Sprinkle with 2/3 cup crushed cookies. Top with banana chips.


Homemade Whipped Cream
(From: Kym's Kitchen)

Ingredients:
 
16 oz. heavy whipping cream
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup sugar

Directions:

1. Whip cream in a stand mixer or hand mixer until it peaks. 
2. Add in the sugar and vanilla. Mix until the the sugar is completely mixed in. It should not taste gritty.  


* Link to the website: http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/banana-pudding-cupcakes/bd30a3e2-efba-4128-af8b-843a3105b8c9?term=banana
 

Fresh Cinnamon Apple Sundae

I apologize that it has been so long since I last posted. One of my goals for 2014 (although I am a couple months late) is to post a new recipe or food find at least once a week! So, be on the look out for new blog posts!

I decided to start the year off with apples!! You can never go wrong with apples especially when it involves cinnamon and ice cream! This is a true homemade recipe that I came up with tonight by just putting different ingredients together!

It is a perfect little sundae for spending a nice night on the back porch. Enjoy this quick and yummy cinnamon apple sundae! Don't forget... always make it your own! If you want to add some liquor or something to it, GO AHEAD! I could see maybe a cinnamon liquor or even Pinnacle's Atomic Hot to add a little spice! Or maybe you could add some Jim Beam's Red Stag Spiced Bourbon! The options are endless! If you try something different, let me know! I would love to know what other people try!

Enjoy!

-Kym's Kitchen



Cinnamon Apple Sundae

I know it isn't the prettiest picture, but it is sure good!

(From: Kym's Kitchen)


Ingredients: 
(Makes 2 sundaes)

2 medium apples, cored
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 stick butter (can be salted or unsalted)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Vanilla ice cream


Directions:

1. Take the 2 apples and core them. There are two options to slicing the apples. You can either chop them into cubes or you can thinly slice them (they look like little smiles).
2. Melt the butter and brown sugar in a skillet pan. The sugar should be dissolved.
3. Add the cinnamon. If needed, you can add either a little water or more butter to make the mixture as thin as you need. 
4. Next add the apples. Cook the apples until they are soft about 6-8 minutes. If you want the apples to have a little crunch, then I would only cook them for about 4-5 minutes.
5. Scoop your ice cream into a bowl and pour the cinnamon apple mixture over the ice cream.
6. Enjoy!