Georgia's Garden Spaghetti Sauce

Hearty meals, canning and putting up soup for quick dinners to be had later all seem like home to me. And, now that Tahoe is my sometime home, it's a part of the cabin experience as well.  I always seem to have more time for cooking and enjoying family dinners when I'm up in the mountains.  It's part of what has made the last few ski seasons wonderful, and hopefully is the beginning of a lifetime of memories.

A few weeks ago, Mom came up and lent an expert hand to the process by making homemade spaghetti sauce.  In true Mackh-family style, the recipe is a dash here, a handful there, a smidge of this, and a dab of that, but you may attempt to replicate it at your own risk, using the ingredients below.  It was (and is) delicious, thanks to my super-talented mother.  Grandma Enid would have been proud of us!

Ingredients:

4 cans of Trader Joe's tomatoes
2 cans of Trader Joe's tomato paste (rinse cans and put water in the sauce)
1 can of organic pumpkin (plain, unsweetened)
Fennel seed, Oregano, Marjoram, Basil, Pimenton, to taste
4 cloves of garlic
2 big onions
2 large packages of mushrooms - shiitakes and baby Portabellas
3 big carrots, grated
3 zucchini, grated
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt, to taste
1/2 to 1 cup red wine
2 packages (8 links) of spicy chicken Italian sausage
Chopped greens, parsley or kale, added just before serving

Carmelize the onions and garlic in a bit of water at the bottom of your stock pot.  Shred the carrots and zucchini and add them to the mix.  Slice the mushrooms and add to the pot, then add your spices, pumpkin, tomatoes, red wine, lemon juice and tomato paste.  Allow the mixture to cook on low or medium heat for a few hours.  Add more liquid (water, wine, lemon juice), to thin the sauce if desired. Once all of the ingredients are incorporated and thoroughly cooked, the pasta sauce is ready to serve.  Immediately before serving, chop fresh parsley or other greens and stir into the hot sauce to provide fresh green color and contrast. Boo-yaa!

Chicken Shooting Star

There is something cozy about making soup in the winter, and what better place to do it than at a mountain cabin? Lauren and I were inspired by two leftover roast chickens and a partially unfinished bottle of white wine, et voila! Chicken Shooting Star Soup

Ingredients:

Do you remember the Indian shooting star icon,
 that would get you a free Tootsie Pop
if you found one on the wrapper?

• Two chicken carcasses
• Two onions
• Two lemons
• Fresh thyme (4-5 sprigs)
• Star pasta (one package, from Fresh & Easy)
• 5 large carrots
• One small/medium bunch of celery
• One leek
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup white wine

Method:

Caramelize the onions slightly at the bottom of a stock pot.  Add in 1 cup of white wine and simmer for a few minutes.  Add your chicken carcasses and cover with fresh, cold water until fully submerged.  Strip the thyme from its twigs and add the leaves to the pot.  Add one tablespoon of salt and ~1 teaspoon of ground pepper.  Squeeze the two lemons and add the juice to the soup. If desired, you can cut 2-3 lemon slices and float them in the pot, removing them later at the straining stage. Bring the soup to temperature and simmer for several hours, or overnight.

Remove the chicken bones using a handheld strainer, or by pouring through a colander. Cut any chicken meat into bite-sized pieces and return them to the broth. Slice the carrots, celery and leek into slender pieces and add them to the broth, stirring each element into the soup.  Add the package of star pasta, stir and cover the pot.  The soup can either cook slowly over low heat for several hours, or if you have time to watch the pot, you can turn up the temperature to reduce cooking time.  Taste the soup and add additional salt, pepper and lemon if needed.

The end result is a hearty chicken and vegetable soup.  We served it with homemade pizza and got solid reviews from the guests.  I will definitely try this concoction again!