By: Revanche

Cooking on the road to recovery

January 28, 2010

It’s official: I’ve been sick for over a week. Dear friends, I’m a terrible invalid. I whine. A lot. Between racking coughs, I whine and mentally grumble about how much money’s been wasted on those elephant pills that haven’t done a lick of good. The really gross, wild-cherry flavored Robitussin has finally alleviated the cough enough for me to cook again.

But this morning? The sun literally and figuratively came out: it’s gorgeous outside, and half my coughs don’t sound like a dying warthog. Glory be!

I’m getting back on the exercise horse ASAP. Every time I moved faster than a slow shuffle these past several days, I’ve keeled over with the cough so I’ve neglected the Daily Exercise Regimen sadly.

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Dogfood Provider linked to this beyond-awesome pasta sauce recipe posted at Smitten Kitchen.

I modified the recipe like so:
28 ounces canned diced tomatoes with peppers and onions
5 tablespoons butter
1/2 yellow onion, peeled and halved
~~Salt to taste~~

Combine the tomatoes, onion and butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Bring the sauce to a simmer then lower the heat to keep the sauce at a slow, steady simmer for about 50 minutes. Stir occasionally, crushing the tomatoes against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon. Remove from heat, discard the onion, add salt to taste.

I actually didn’t add any salt as both the sauce and the butter contained salt. The rich, melty melding of flavors was absolutely perfect with the modified Garlic Lemon Chicken recipe. (Besswess, I used the juice of ONE lemon, ditched the herbs and rind, and baked with plenty of garlic. It turned out sans bitterness. Might be worth another go if that was your only objection.)

Sauce: $4, 6 generous servings
Chicken: $4, 6 servings
Asparagus: $2, 2 servings

Surprisingly my love affair with asparagus is suspended – I’ve got to find another veggie to round out the meals for a while.