Pasta for Dummies - Rose Sauce

Remember when I had you put two jars of sauce in a pot and heat them up? Remember that? Yeah, well we're going to do that again.

Behold! Super easy rose sauce! It is called rose sauce because we mix a red sauce with white sauce, which in color wheel land would equal a pink sauce...but in real life it's actually rather orange.


We'll start with our two jars of sauce!

Since I wasn't sure how it would turn out, I didn't use the entire jars. However, the proportions would be right I think. I didn't use equal parts of each sauce, but I used equal parts of the jars. As in, I used 2/3 of the jar of alfredo sauce, and 2/3 of the jar of spaghetti sauce, so using the entire jar of each would work out as well. Alfredo sauce tends to come in slightly smaller jars than spaghetti sauces so I think in most cases these proportions would be right. Although you could just mix the two until you get the color you want.

You're aiming for this color, I guess.


If you're really cool you can wear a tomato themed apron while you do this.


Now for chicken slices! (I had the chicken breasts marinating in Italian salad dressing)


Multitasking! I'm cooking a whole wheat shell pasta for this experiment.


I plated it on a blue plate because orange and blue are complementary colors and I like to prove to my mother that I am using my art degree.


I think it came out pretty yummy. I don't think it's as great as the alfredo/pesto mix, but it's still pretty good. At least it gives you something different to do. I actually think I might mix the rest of the sauce together and make a lasagna with it.

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Flank Steak, etc.

You want this.


Trust me.

Flank Steak Marinade:
1/3 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 Tbsp red wine or balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon mustard
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

I put mine in a big ziploc bag and it sat in the fridge overnight AND all the next day. I mean business.

Steak needs sidekicks, so I decided on corn on the cob and spinach. But before you start thinking I've gone healthy, keep reading.


Corn by itself is just corn, so let's make it better!

Start with some herbs...say, thyme, parsley, basil, and tarragon (or whatever you like/have), a 1/2 tsp of each.


And add them to some butter!


This equals herb butter! Yippee!


Now we can have corn with herb butter! I will continue to narrate in all exclamations!


Wrap up the corn so the herb butter doesn't escape!


Now let's cook it! Med-High heat, for 15 - 20 minutes!


Here's our meat that's been marinating for a long time!


You must have a paper towel dipped in oil, so you can oil the grill grate and prevent sticking!


Side one, you're up! (well, down actually...for about 5 minutes)


Side two, time for you! (for another 5 minutes)


Here I've got my meat tented (it must rest!), and my corn cobs cooked!


OMG GREEN STUFF AGGGHHH!!!! (it's about to get steamed in herb butter :D)


Hello beautiful!


*sigh*


That's nice and colorful!


Ha, whaddya know, I didn't eat all the green stuff


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Better BBQ Sauce

Okay, so this is a small little "recipe" but I felt it was worth posting, because after I put it together one day (after having made it plenty of times before) a cooking show came on that made almost the exact same sauce.

It's really a concoction my dad came up with, basically just a way to doctor store-bought bbq sauce to make it better.

There's no specific amounts (in my version at least) I just go for what looks good, and smells good, and makes a good consistency.

Here's our ingredients:

worcestershire
bbq sauce (I used Kraft, the cooking show used Bulls-eye)
mustard
butter/margarine
brown sugar (the show used molasses)
garlic powder

I mixed mine up in a plastic container with a lid, since I was bringing it to a bbq later. I started with butter and worcestershire, and added brown sugar. I microwave that for a little bit to help the sugar melt and mix better (you can also wait to microwave it at the end). Then I just add in what seems like appropriate amounts of the other ingredients, and mix it all up.


The smell is sweet and smokey and just better than what you started with. We mainly use this when we grill sausage, and since that doesn't take long to cook, there isn't a big problem with the sugar burning. In the case of basting chicken, you may want to use less sugar, or wait to baste the meat only on the last flip or two.



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