This came about because I was listening to NPR’s “All Things Considered,” the “Found Recipes” segment. You may THINK this sandwich doesn’t sound or look all that worthy of a blog post, but I’m telling you it absolutely IS good, if not fantastic.

So, the NPR program was all about mid-summer favorite dishes. Listeners were invited to send (or call) in their suggestions and the story that went along with the recipe, and the list was narrowed down to 3. Those 3 contenders’ stories (in their voices) were featured on the program, then listeners were asked to vote for their favorite. This recipe was the winner, and when I listened to the 3 stories, this is the one that stood out in my mind too. It was so unusual, I just had to try it myself.  (The other two stories were about a strawberry trifle and a spicy cole slaw).

We don’t keep sharp cheddar on hand, so we needed that, and a hothouse cucumber. And by the way, the author says it’s really important to have sharp cheddar, not medium or mild. The slice does not need to be all that thick to do its job. We have good grainy bread, but at the last minute I decided to make it with the super-soft white bread I had in the freezer. Usually the bread I use is a thin sandwich bread, but my DH bought the wrong kind. Oh well, no matter.

According to the story from Marti Oleson (an elementary school librarian), she used to work with Diane Dickey of the recipe’s name, but the recipe, if you can call it that – yes, it IS a recipe – was from Diane’s Dad. Hence the full title. According to the story – this sandwich, composed of bread, peanut butter, onion, tomato, cucumber and cheddar cheese – must be made in a specific stacking order. Here’s the exact order, from the bottom up . . .

P – peanut butter, CRUNCHY

O – onion

Cu – cucumber

T – tomato

Ch – cheddar, SHARP

My brain is getting old and remembering that order was going to be a problem, so I needed an acronym – POCU-TouCH. Not quite remember-able. but maybe it will stick in my brain. I’ve added the ou in the middle just because it helps to make a word –  and added the u for cucumber and the h for cheddar. Got it? Okay, good.

The full sandwich (2 regular slices, preferably grainy bread) uses 2 T. of crunchy peanut butter. I made a half a sandwich, so of course, used just 1 T. crunchy peanut butter. I also soaked the regular  onions in some acidulated water (1/2 c water, 1 T white vinegar) because I’m not so crazy about raw onions. Nor did I want to buy a sweet onion (they’re expensive) for just one slice of it. Soaking doesn’t take out the crunch from a regular onion, but it removes the rawness from the onion. I had a beautiful yellow heirloom tomato with just a few tinges of red on it. I sprinkled the tomato with salt and pepper, then added the thinly sliced hothouse cucumber, and finally the 2 thin-thin slices of sharp cheddar.

I took my first bite. Oh my goodness! Was it ever good. I mean it. I really, really mean it. How to describe it – you taste and feel the crunchy cucumbers and onions, but the tomato slightly squishes (in my sandwich, the tomato is thicker than any of the other interior components), and gives some nice moisture to the bite. The cheddar gives it loads of flavor. And the peanut butter – funny thing – I couldn’t even taste it until the last when all the cucumbers and onions were gone, when all that remained were tomato and cheddar.

When I entered the recipe into my MasterCook recipe program, it had a big hissy fit over the “1 slice cheddar cheese” – either the program’s got a bug, or defining calories of a “slice” of cheddar cheese is just not specific enough. It wanted to add about 800 calories for 2 slices of cheese. At any rate, the calories are a little off on the recipe below, but not by much. I ate HALF a sandwich and it satisfied me all afternoon. I’m not including the nutrition because I had to remove a few ingredients and make them text (meaning no calorie count added). Without doing that the calorie count was over 1800 calories. Adding in each ingredient, I finally narrowed it down the problem to the slice of cheese (obviously a variable) that was throwing off the numbers. Anyway, this sandwich is about 550 calories for a whole one. Maybe 600. Next time I’ll make it with the very thin sandwich bread. Or maybe I’ll use the good grainy bread I have. But eat it again, I will!

What’s GOOD: everything about it. The crunch from the cucumbers and onions, first and foremost. The fresh veggies. The squishy tomato. The soft, but tasty bread. Oh, the cheddar too. It’s just fantastic. Will I make it again? You betcha! Sooner rather than later, I’ll tell you for sure!
What’s NOT: nothing at all. It’s fabulous. Note that I made it with a soft white bread – you can decide. I also specify Laura Scudder’s peanut butter, but you can use whatever brand you want.

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Why don’t we make compound butter more often? Is it because we think a finishing butter is too rich, too many fat grams? Just something that’s over the top? But compound butters are SO very easy to make. And they give a grand taste to a piece of grilled meat.

Surely, if we’re going to have a really nice, well-marbled steak, we don’t think we NEED any more fat calories on it, right? But did you know that almost all restaurants put some kind of finishing fat on steaks? Rarely are they taken off the grill and whisked directly from grill to plate to table. Fish, particularly, is usually finished with a little slab of butter. You don’t SEE the butter once it’s delivered to your table, but it’s there nevertheless. Unless you ask the server not to. It’s why steaks and fish specifically, are so luscious at a restaurant. And you wonder how come? . . . you may think it’s the quality of the meat or fish, from a purveyor you can’t visit. Probably not! It’s the butter!

A compound butter is nothing more than some butter mixed with herbs, usually, or garlic, and it’s rolled up into a log shape and chilled, then a chunk is allowed to melt on top of a piece of grilled meat as soon as it comes off the grill. Just in time for it to melt completely.

This one, from Steven Raichlen’s book, Barbecue! Bible Sauces, Rubs, and Marinades, Bastes, Butters, and Glazes. In his chapter on finishing sauces, there are several types, but this one spoke to me since we have a tarragon plant in the kitchen garden. It’s mixed up with some lemon juice, salt, pepper, garlic and lemon zest. If the butter is at room temp it’s very easy to mix it up with a fork, then you scoop it onto a piece of plastic wrap and gently roll it into a log shape and chill.

Once the meat is grilled, slice off a little chunk – a coin – and place it on top – in a place where it won’t all melt off an edge, but almost puddle on top if that’s possible. Ideally serve this with a nice steak or a flavorful fish steak. Even salmon, though it will be hard to keep it on top – I’d advise you rub the butter on each piece in the kitchen.

What’s GOOD: it’s easy to make, even several days ahead. It offers a nice, subtle succulence to a piece of grilled meat. If you have extra, use it on some al dente green beans or broccoli. Or on pasta.
What’s NOT: nothing, really.

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This recipe title is misleading. It isn’t really a salad dressing, which is what you’d think from the word VINAIGRETTE. According to wikipedia, the word can also mean a sauce or marinade. In this case it’s more like a sauce, but it’s a “fresh” sauce, not a truly cooked one, although it is cooked a bit. I know, very confusing . . . read on for a better description.

I have to laugh – within one week, at different times, once reading a newspaper, and another time reading Bon Appetit, I clipped out two recipes for cherry tomato vinaigrette. Having never heard of it before, it took me a few days before I realized that on one side of my kitchen island I’d put one, and on the other side I’d put the other. Only after I started making the one did I notice the other clipping. I compared the two. Hmmm. Almost the same (tomatoes, vinegar, S & P, olive oil and herbs). So I combined them both. One had you cook all the tomatoes. The other one had you cook half and add raw, whole ones at the end. I cut all of them in half and cooked half and added the other half at the end. One called for basil; the other one chives. I used both. One recipe did suggest this for a green salad, so I kind of made up what I wanted to do with it along the green salad line. I wanted these tomatoes to be the “star of the show” on a green salad with rather sturdy greens.

Tomatoes are just beginning to show up in ripe fashion at our supermarkets and at Trader Joe’s. I nearly bought a dozen gorgeous heirloom varieties the other day ($4.99/pound) but wasn’t sure what I’d do with them, so I held off. But I did buy a big box of mixed-color and mixed-variety cherry tomatoes at Trader Joe’s. They are SO sweet and delicious. The box contained 2-3 cups of them – just the right amount for this recipe.

First I fixed the tomatoes, which didn’t take long. If you’ve never used the quick and easy method of slicing cherry tomatoes, go to this youtube video and watch these 2 guys. I learned this at a Phillis Carey cooking class several years ago, but some people have never seen it or done it. It’s SO simple – it took me about 2 minutes to cut all of the cherry tomatoes in half using a serrated knife.  Then I sautéed the shallot in olive oil, added half the tomatoes and cooked them just a bit, then added the red wine vinegar. Once cooled, I added the other raw tomatoes (I wanted the texture of some raw and fresh tomatoes, not all mushy ones).

Do use it within an hour or so, otherwise refrigerate it (without the herbs). According to the recipes, you can serve this in a variety of ways – on top of a steak as a kind of salsa thing – in an omelette with Ricotta cheese – on top of pasta (I think I’d add a bit more oil) – or on top of a skirt steak or flank steak – or you can use it in a green salad as I did, below.

GREEN SALAD: I combined a variety of sturdy stuff – Romaine, some celery, green onions, sugar snap peas, a tiny bit of multi-colored mixed greens just for color, AND some goat cheese. First I piled the tomato mixture on top of the salad and tossed it. I tasted it that way, but felt there wasn’t enough dressing, so I added the last of my new favorite Molasses Honey Vinaigrette to the salad. Not very much, as it didn’t need much. Then I sprinkled the top liberally with chopped basil and chives.

The dinner also included a nice big chunk of pork that my hubby grilled. If you haven’t prepared this yet, do try it – Grilled Rack of Pork with Rosemary, Garlic and Sage (except I didn’t use garlic or sage this time, just rosemary and chives). I guess each Costco store is different, but at one of ours we can buy a long, long rack (about 14-18 inches long) of pork chops on the bone. I cut it up into manageable portions, vacuum seal it and freeze. We had a guest for dinner, so I pulled out a 3-bone roast, which took about half an hour on the grill. I also made a raw apple-sauce in my new Vitamix blender. It was delicious, although it turned an awful shade of brown. And I made one of my old favorites – a sweet potato and black bean salad. I’m going to write up a re-do of that recipe in the next day or two. It’s so darned good it’s worth re-visiting.

What’s GOOD: If you have an abundance of cherry tomatoes, this is a great way to showcase them. We all loved, loved the salad. It’s nice to be able to make the tomatoes ahead of time. The salad ahead of time too. Then you just have to toss it all at the last minute. Do have some dressing on hand in case it needs a bit more than what’s in the tomatoes.
What’s NOT: nothing at all.

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Oh, yum. I hate to use that word, but there’s really no other one to describe how scrumptious these are. Just slightly caramelized and enhanced with some Grand Marnier, honey, fresh lemon strips and fresh thyme sprigs. If you happen to have fresh figs, please do try these.

The other day I saw fresh figs at the market. I’ve probably mentioned it here before, but I’m no fan of Fig Newtons, which was mostly my introduction to figs from my childhood. If you’re of a certain age, then Fig Newtons were just about the only kind of fig anything there was. Growing up, we had a fig tree in our back yard, and my mother never did anything with figs except put them in a fruit bowl for my mom or dad to eat them out of hand. Fig Newtons? My dad loved them. He could eat them day in and day out. Not me. I didn’t mind the occasional fresh fig, though.

So, on the rare occasion when I see figs – now’s the season – I don’t usually know what to do with them. But then I got the idea to roast them – seems like nearly every living plant life is enhanced by oven roasting. I did a search online for “roasted figs” and up popped a recipe from my favorite Paris blogger, David Libovitz. He did something wonderful – fabulous – with fresh figs. My plan was to use them in a green salad. We’d been invited to dinner at our extended family and my task was to bring a green salad. I wanted something different. Something kind of special. So I made a salad (I’ll tell you about that in a day or two) with these figs beautifying the top.

The figs . . . cut off the stems, halve them, then pour in the glaze stuff (Grand Marnier, warmed honey, fresh thyme, brown sugar). Toss them around gently, place them cut side down and roast for 15 minutes (if they’re really ripe and sweet) or longer, like 30 minutes (if they’re younger unripe figs) until they’re caramelized. I baked mine cut side up (I misread the directions) and ended up turning on the broiler at the end just to give them that golden crispiness. I let them cool to room temp (I did them a couple of hours ahead of time) and covered them with plastic wrap. I just placed them on the salad – on the top – so they’d look beautiful. But oh gosh, were they delish. I think they’d be wonderful with vanilla ice cream, especially with some of the saucy stuff drizzled over the top. Or served on the side as a garnish or condiment along side a pork roast or chicken, or lamb.

What’s GOOD: everything about them. Who knew roasted figs could taste so darned good, I ask? Succulent, seedy (of course, that’s what figs are all about but in a good way) and these are perfectly caramelized. I thought they were terrific on a green salad.

What’s NOT: nothing whatsoever.

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Peperonata is a sauce. Or a kind of relish. Not exactly a condiment, but surely it could be. You could even eat it plain with a piece of toast – or as an appetizer on baguette slices you’ve toasted. It means “stewed sweet peppers,” and that’s exactly what it is. Note the tiny basil and parsley flecks in the sauce.

Last week I promised I’d give you a recipe from my write-up about bell peppers, and some other recipes that were at the forefront of my mind took first place. And, truth be told, I think I liked the scones and tea sandwiches better than I liked this bell pepper dish. Not that it wasn’t good – it was – but it wasn’t great. And yet, some people might think this was terrific. If you’re a lover of bell peppers, you might just think this was the cat’s meow. The taste is gentle – nothing about it pushes the taste envelope – and sometimes that’s a good thing. When you want to have some vegetables, or in my case I wanted a sauce to serve on these stuffed eggplant things, well, this might be the right thing. Last time I served these (they’re a ready-made product from Personal Gourmet) I made a creamy tomato sauce. This time I wanted something altogether different.

The recipe came from the book I told you about when I wrote up the essay about bell peppers, How to Pick a Peach by Russ Parsons. The recipe is also available online at the Los Angeles Times. He got this recipe from a book called Honey from a Weed: Fasting and Feasting in Tuscany, Catalonia, the Cyclades and Apulia by Patience Gray. Parsons recommended that of the 4 recipes included in the book, his favorite was tuna-stuffed peppers. But they were meant as an appetizer, finger food actually, and it just didn’t appeal to me. I had all the ingredients for the peperonata, so I went with it.

It was quite easy to make – the onions were gently sautéed in olive oil, then you add some chopped tomatoes (not a lot), the roasted and peeled peppers and a roasted jalapeno. A bit of red wine and that cooks a short time and then you add a kind of basil-parsley pesto (pictured at left) – it contains garlic, basil and parsley only. That cooks a really short time and it’s done.

You can eat it hot, room temp or cold. In the finished picture at the top, you can see the flecks of basil or parsley on the peppers. The green mixture kind of muddies the color, I thought, but it’s the flavor that’s important, ya’ know? The color contrast of the peppers with the pesto (above) was so pretty. Then it was gone . . . once I stirred it in.

What’s GOOD: it’s easy. It’s tasty, although not off the charts – at least not my charts. It’s versatile – it could be mixed with pasta too.
What’s NOT: only that it wasn’t a “wow.” But if you like more subtle flavors, have a bunch of bell peppers to use, this mixture works!

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When you say a sauce is a Béchamel, it conjures up a fancy something-or-other. This sauce is anything BUT fancy. It’s a simple butter-flour-milk gravy with the only added ingredient being some tomato paste. Claude Monet called it a Tomato Sauce, but I’ve re-named it.

When I went to my account at Eat Your Books, I put in “tomato sauce” and began perusing through the dozens and dozens of them from all my cookbooks – looking first at the list of ingredients. There’s no quantity, just the major items named. I looked at Italian style sauces mostly, since I wanted to put something on the eggplant rollatini you see above. After I’d studied about 20 or so (with the usual list of ingredients like onion, garlic, fresh or canned tomatoes, basil, parsley) this one stuck out because of its lack of canned tomatoes and because of the milk. A plain tomato sauce from canned tomatoes just sounded so blah to me – or something that might easily overwhelm the subtle cheeses in the rollatini.

You didn’t ask for a history lesson about Claude Monet, but you’re going to have one anyway, since he was quite a foodie. Years ago I purchased the book Monet’s Table : The Cooking Journals of Claude Monet, and eventually found the companion book, Monet’s Cookery Notebooks both written or compiled by Claire Joyes. I’m embarrassed to tell you that until now I’d never cooked anything from it. The first book (above) is mostly lavish photographs of the property and his paintings with stories about the entertaining Monet and his family did at Giverny, his home for so many years. The 2nd book has more stories and photographs of the interior of Giverny, and recipes (not all that many). He shared the home with his 2nd wife and his mistress, who was married to another man (Monet supported her and her family – husband and children – for many years – most likely so he could have this other woman [Monet’s mistress Alice], by his side). I’ve read several books about Monet or the Impressionists, including  Claude & Camille: A Novel of Monet. I really liked that one. The other one about Renoir was Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland.

Monet was always interested in food – and even when he and his first wife Camille (who died very young, soon after their 2nd child was born) were nearly destitute and living in a hovel in Paris, they would not only have food, but they’d share it with others – mostly other starving artists like he was. He didn’t become famous until some years later – after his wife had died. He caused a huge stir by painting Camille on her deathbed – not when she was alive, but once she had passed. He was inordinately proud of that painting. That kind of thing simply wasn’t done back then. He kept the painting nearby for the remainder of his life, even after he remarried. Once a few of his paintings sold he was finally able to buy a home, first in Paris, then later outside Paris and he spent nearly all of his remaining years at Giverny. Monet didn’t cook at all – or nearly so – but he was passionate about food, which is why there are recipes attributed to him. Maintaining a nice home with servants was just part of his history – if you were a gentleman in that time, you just did. Once he established himself at Giverny he had enough wealth to have servants. He made most of the decisions in the family about what they would eat and when. The Cookery Notebooks book is filled with recipes, and more stories about the entertaining style. Monet was well-traveled and he fell in love with food in many places he visited. Likely he served dishes that were sometimes unfashionable only because they were not French or even known to most French.

Being a fan of the Impressionists in general, I have always liked Monet’s paintings. Dave and I have sought out his paintings in museums around the world – in addition to most of the other Impressionists too. The most notable was a small room at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia, where they house 43 Renoirs. We were on a tour of the museum and the guide, a very dour young woman, gave us 20 minutes to see the entire room. Most of us were very unhappy about that! But they would not allow us to linger longer than that.

For many years I had this van Gogh painting hanging in my house. A very, VERY cheap copy of it. It was the only picture in my daughter’s bedroom when she was a baby. There weren’t many baby-oriented wall decorations back then, and I used it because of the yellow color scheme I did in her bedroom.

So now, let’s get back to this tomato sauce, huh? There was nothing to it – making it – I melted some unsalted butter, added some flour, stirred and cooked that for a minute or two, then poured in whole milk that I’d heated just to boiling. The sauce thickened almost immediately. I seasoned it with salt and pepper, then added some tomato paste out of the tube I have in the refrigerator. I did this half an hour before I was going to plate our dinner, so all I had to do was re-heat it on the range and add some chopped up tomato. The fresh tomato in and on top was not in Monet’s recipe, but I really did think it needed a little spark of color. I had some vine-ripened tomatoes which worked perfectly.

What’s GOOD: it was very easy to make. This sauce isn’t a sauce for pasta – it doesn’t have enough heft, in my opinion, but was perfect for the nuanced eggplant. It would be nice on cooked vegetables, on fish. You could put some cheese in it – like Gruyere or Parm and give it some different flavors. It wasn’t anything extra special, but it fit my need perfectly.

What’s NOT: no problems or dislikes.

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The easiest of sauces – you can make it as sweet as you prefer – I made it on the tart side. It would be great on top of French toast, breakfast yogurt (I can attest to that one since the left overs have garnished several morning bowls), or as a fruit puree with a creamy dessert like cheesecake. Yum.

If you read my blog regularly, you already know that I made Lindy’s Cheesecake and wrote up a post with a very brief history of Lindy’s deli in New York City. It closed in 1957, but the famous cheesecake lives on in home kitchens, and perhaps a lot of restaurants too, since the recipe became public. It was recently listed in Saveur magazine as one of the top 100 recipes ever.

When I made it, I decided it needed something along side – something with some color. It’s too early in the season for reliably sweet strawberries, so I decided to use mangoes. It was perfect. The recipe came straight out of the Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition – 2006. Maybe it was in Rombauer’s earlier editions, but this is the book I own because my old one from the 1950’s was falling apart. I looked up many other recipes, and they were all the same – mangoes, sugar of some form and either lime or lemon juice. Plus just a bit of water to make the sauce almost pourable. That’s it. See? I said it was easy!

I whizzed it up in the food processor, although the blender would likely work just as well. I used the frozen mango chunks from Trader Joe’s. You could use fresh mangoes too. Do defrost the frozen ones some so they will puree. Add some citrus (the lemon juice or lime juice) and add as much sugar as you want – I used about a rounded 1/4 cup of powdered sugar. You can use regular sugar too. Either one. And then some water – the texture of the mangoes will determine how much water you’ll need – you want it thick, but not so you can’t pour it. In the photo at top you can see it’s almost the consistency of pudding, but it spread out flat once I put it on the plate with the cheesecake.

What’s GOOD: the delicious FRESH taste of mango. Citrus does that in all of its guises. I made mine on the tart side since the cheesecake was already plenty sweet, but use your own judgment based on what you’re serving it with. It keeps for several days. I think the recipe said 3, but I don’t know why it wouldn’t keep a week. It is also fantastic drizzled over Greek yogurt for our breakfast. And I just know it would taste wonderful on French toast.
What’s NOT: it was perfect for how I needed to use it, as a sauce for cheesecake.

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An easy sauce – relatively speaking – to make to fancify a lovely grilled steak.

Deciding that we would have a really nice dinner, I planned ahead a few hours and marinated the steak first. I can’t say that the marinade was all that memorable, although it was a bit different because of some additional spices used (from Ree Drummond’s website, Pioneer Woman). She served the marinated steak with canned beans. I wanted something a bit more sophisticated, but next time I wouldn’t mix the two (the marinade and the mushroom sauce). So, I’m just giving you the recipe for the sauce. Truth to tell, I liked the sauce a whole lot better than the marinade!

Anyway, the sauce is fairly straight forward – have mushrooms? Can make! You will need a shallot, a little bit of cream, some good Scotch whiskey (I have a bottle of Dalwhinnie single malt that I bought about 12 years ago at the Glasgow airport that still has about 1/3 remaining – it was almost a waste to use that good single malt for a sauce – but it’s the only Scotch I had in the liquor cabinet!). Lemon zest adds a nice piquant addition – you really won’t quite know it’s there, but it adds a bit of flavor depth.

The rest of the dinner came together rather quickly – Brussels sprouts, parsnips and a nice green salad. Sometimes it’s the right thing to have a plain steak – my DH’s go-to version utilizes garlic salt and that’s it – but this time I wanted it to be something different. Nice. Fancy. It was.

What’s good: the mushroom flavor, and you can distinguish the Scotch, so if it’s not your thing, you can leave it out. Use a little medium or cream sherry instead. Yes, I’d make it again, but I would try to do it an hour ahead – it’s a bit labor intensive at the last minute. Not for long, but I wouldn’t want to be making it when I have a house full of people.

What’s not: really nothing – next time I would try to find some of the more exotic mushrooms, though. Am sure the flavor would be enhanced!

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Do you ever wish you had something to serve with or on sausages? Sausages are kind of – sort of – bland and plain if served all by themselves. Mostly I serve them with good mustard. Well, here’s an easy gravy that goes well with just about any kind of sausages (here it’s with German Bratwurst and a Nuremburger sausage).

It’s just amazing what you’ll find on the internet nowadays. I wanted something to serve with sausages, so I did a search for “what to serve with sausage” and up came a long list of links, mostly to something called sticky onion gravy. Having never heard of sticky onion anything, I took a look at nearly all the recipes. This is a British sauce that is a favorite in pubs. If you’ve ever been to Britain, you know about bangers and mash (bangers just means sausages – but they’re nothing like American breakfast sausage or raw Italian sausage, nor are they anything like German bratwurst either). Usually they are served with mash – mashed potatoes. And in some pubs they spoon on an onion sauce or gravy to go with it. I would assume it’s called sticky because this sauce is thickened with cornstarch and one hopes it will stick some to the bites of sausage.

Finally I settled on a recipe at ask.com and after making it and tasting it, I made some changes to it. Ideally you would serve this with mashed potatoes. We try to limit carbs – particularly white carbs – so I served this with braised red cabbage and apples on the side.

The onions do need to cook awhile – and you particularly don’t want to brown them. That point was stressed in most of the recipes, including Jamie Oliver’s version. So you cook them long and slow (about 30 minutes or more), then you make the sauce part (beef broth, some wine, balsamic vinegar, a little sugar, and I added some Worcestershire and sherry vinegar also). It can sit on the stove over very low heat for awhile – just add a bit more water if it gets too dry.

Mine did just that, so I didn’t have all that much sauce. If you don’t want to use wine, just add more water. The taste of the beef stock or broth will determine how flavorful it is – I used Penzey’s soup bases for the broth and with 2 cups water with it and a cup of wine.

We’d purchased some really good sausages from a deli – they were already cooked, so all I had to do was simmer them in water for 6-8 minutes and they were ready to serve. The onion sauce is spooned over them – about 1/2 cup per serving. If you have mashed potatoes, it would make one delicious morsel with a bite of sausage, an onion draped over it, then pushed into a little bit of potato. Yum.

What’s good: that it goes really well with sausages or some kind of meat. It’s not rich. It’s not some “wow” sauce you’ll want to make for special occasions – this is a simple saucy gravy to give some  extra flavor, texture and moisture to a protein you’re serving or as a sauce for mashed potatoes. I think it would be great with left over roast beef or roast pork.

What’s not: it does take some time to make – at least 45 minutes.

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Do you ever wish when you served a simple dinner (like a piece of grilled fish, or a chicken breast) that you had something to put on it, or next to it. Something that would fancy it up a little bit and give the protein some other texture and flavor? Something that you already had on hand – not something you had to make – but could just grab from the refrigerator? This is it. It will keep for at least 6 months in the refrigerator.

Are you like me – on some nights when I make dinner, I just don’t have the energy to create some kind of sauce or relish. I don’t want to make rich, calorie and fat laden sauces all the time. I love-love the Mississippi Comeback Sauce a lot. But it’s composed of mayo – at least half of it is mayo. Not all that healthy. I also love-love the Bell Pepper Relish for Meat too. That one’s not particularly fat-driven, but it’s sweet. Not always the right thing, depending on what kind of meat you serve it with. Oh, and the Siciliana Sauce is also a good one. It’s a tomato-based sauce, also somewhat sweet. And Romesco Sauce too.  That one is served with Shrimp in the recipe I have here on my blog, but I always have leftovers and I use it on a bunch of different things. It is mostly composed of bread, peppers and almonds. I think the first time I had that it was with pork. But it would be equally good with chicken too.

What I was doing was catching up on my blog-reading – I probably subscribe via RSS to about 100 blogs. Probably too many, but fortunately they don’t all post every day. If I go a week without looking at them it can take me a couple of hours or more to go through them all. Anyway, I was reading Food52 and the story about this recipe caught my interest. Torrisi’s is a venerable restaurant in New York City. They have a sister restaurant called Parm, too. Anyway, this is a sauce adapted some from Torrisi’s owner and written up in New York Magazine. So this is their authentic sauce. In the story about it that caught my eye – they said somebody had cradled the sauce on the train for an hour or so to bring it in to the Food52 team. That got my attention.

The write-up suggested that you could throw this together from canned stuff on your pantry shelves. Well, maybe New Yorkers always stock cherry peppers. I don’t, so those had to be purchased (canned). The only problem was, the cherry peppers at our market aren’t hot – they’re peppers, in multi-colors, mostly red, but they’re called “Sweet Cherry Peppers,” although there isn’t any added sugar in it at all. Or heat. So I had to improvise a little bit. I’ll have to look at our local Italian deli and see if they have hot cherry peppers. Anyway, this contains the (hot) cherry peppers, roasted red peppers, a few fresh tomatoes, olive oil, red chili flakes, dried oregano, sugar and salt.

It’s very cinchy easy to make – throw everything in the food processor, whiz, and it’s done. Yea! Pour into a container and chill. Or not if you’re using it immediately. I think it would make a great (and easy) dip to put out with bread. Or sturdy crackers maybe. It’s more liquid-y than I had anticipated from the photo at Food52, but it doesn’t distract from the taste.

Because the cherry peppers were sweet, not hot, I added some Sriracha sauce (or you could add any kind of hot-sauce-heat, like Cholula, Tabasco or whatever). I added about 2 T. of Sriracha for the cup of Spicy Sauce. Add more if you like it hotter. Here are the possibilities for using this: on eggs (fried, scrambled, in a frittata), in sandwiches, with roast pork and potatoes, on stir-friend greens, on brisket, or stirred into soups, stews and pots of beans. I served it with some roast chicken. All of those sound good! It’s also pretty darned good straight out of the container on a spoon!

What’s good: how easy it was to make – pile everything in the food processor and whiz. Done. I’m sure this will keep for weeks – the only “fresh” thing in it was a few cherry tomatoes and those would be mostly “pickled” with all the other ingredients. It should be fine for a long time – the recipe indicates 6 months!
What’s not: it’s a thin sauce (not watery, as there isn’t any in it, but the cherry peppers are brined and did have a bit of liquid).  There’s not much of any way to avoid that. Be careful not to over-process it – you don’t want it to be a puree – it needs some substance.

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