Cooking Experiment: Nomato Sauce, Ketchup, BBQ Sauce, and Sloppy Joes

Tomatoes, potatoes, and bell peppers are probably my three most favorite vegetables. Most of my recipes consist of one of these three ingredients and we probably have at least one of the three every day. They are all a type of vegetable called nightshades. It turns out, nightshades have a particular alkaloid in them that can cause allergic reactions in some individuals. I've never had a problem with them, so I've never thought twice about nightshade allergies.

Then, I suddenly had to think about it. My almost-sister found out she's allergic to nightshades. So besides tomatoes, potatoes and bell peppers, she also has to avoid chili peppers of all kinds, chili powder, cayenne powder, curry, and paprika, and a slew of other items. Suddenly, I had to rethink a lot of my recipes whenever she came over to make sure I didn't expose her to any of these things. Which is a bummer because these are some of my favorite veggies and spices.

She told me about a pasta sauce that had been created called Nomato Sauce. It's a pasta sauce made with no tomatoes, as the name implies. It actually contains no nightshades at all. But at $6.00 for 16oz, its a bit pricey. I decided to do some digging and I found a recipe for the sauce that has all the same ingredients in it as the jarred stuff, minus a preservative. After some research, I also found recipes for nomato ketchup, and nomato BBQ sauce. I told my sister, and she was immediately intrigued, as was I. I decided to give it a go


Nomato Sauce:
A combination of carrots, beets, onions, and spices all pureed up to a smooth sauce. I gotta admit, I was skeptical. I am a lover of tomatoes and figured it was going to be difficult to mimic the flavor. But, I like beets and I like carrots, so I tried to stay open minded.

Nomato Sauce

I was surprised at the consistency and color of this sauce. It's texture is almost like crushed tomatoes, and the color is a vibrant red because of the beets. I was also surprised by the taste! It actually tastes like tomato sauce! You can tell its not QUITE the same, but its close enough that I doubt few people would notice. It fooled my 2 year old! The carrots keep it sweet, while the lemon juice gives a bit of tang, and it finishes with a slight beet flavor. I was really surprised by this and I look forward to letting my sister try it! It only took me about 30 minutes to make, which isn't bad considering a good tomato sauce can simmer for an hour or more.


Nomato Ketchup:
This recipe caught me by surprise. Jellied cranberry sauce? Halved pears? Corn syrup? This is gonna be one super sweet ketchup!! I added everything to the blender and then took a whiff before blending. It smelled like ketchup!

Nomato Ketchup

This one, too, was a surprise. It actually tasted like ketchup! It's hard to believe that there was all that fruit and no tomatoes. The flavor was a bit strong, and I think it may have to do with the fact that I was a short a little on the cranberry sauce, pears, and carrots. My cans were 14.5oz and the recipe called for 16oz. This one will have to be played around with a little bit to get the spice levels right, but its definitely tasty and would be a great substitute for ketchup! And it was SO easy! Just put everything into a blender and puree! It has a great smooth texture that's just like ketchup


Nomato BBQ Sauce:
Since the ketchup recipe made SO MUCH (read 4 cups!), I found this derivative of the ketchup to make BBQ sauce. I love BBQ sauce and I love the flavor of meatballs simmering in BBQ sauce. The first time I made this, I just tossed everything in the blender and mixed it all up. I found the soy sauce to be quite overwhelming to the point where I would want to halve it at least. After looking at it again, I realized that you're actually supposed to cook this one for 10 minutes, which will allow the flavors to blend together, the brown sugar to melt, and lessen the sharpness of the soy sauce.

Nomato BBQ Sauce - 1st batch

The second batch was much better. It was still very flavorful and you could definitely taste the soy sauce, but the brown sugar melted into the sauce and counteracted the tartness of the soy sauce. It was also a much darker color. I could definitely imagine having this on ribs, pulled pork sandwiches, or chicken. Travis said the flavor was a bit strong for him, but he's not a huge BBQ fan.

Nomato BBQ sauce - 2nd batch. Look at the color difference!

Nightshade Free Sloppy Joes
So, now that I had all this sauce, what in the world was I going to do with it all? I remembered that my sister told me that she really missed sloppy joes. So, I decided that I was going to try to make nightshade free sloppy joes using the sauces that I had made today. This sloppy joe recipe is one of our favorites, and the meal in general has a very distinctive flavor. I wasn't sure how well it was going to turn out since I wouldn't be able to add any chili powder, and the only substitutes I could find were all nightshades.

I followed the recipe using the nomato sauce instead of the crushed tomatoes, nomato ketchup instead of regular ketchup, and leaving out the bell peppers and chili powder. I ended up having to add 1 1/4 cups of water as the sauce simmered, and I think it toned down the flavor a bit. Next time, I will probably try vegetable broth or chicken broth to help maintain the flavor.

All in all, though, it was really tasty. While it wasn't an exact flavor match, it was pretty darn close, and using broth instead of water may help to keep the flavors strong. It definitely didn't taste bad, and my family (including the 2 year old!), ate more than half of what I made.

The overall verdict:
Nomato Sauce:
Easy to make, beautiful color, quite tasty. This one gets a solid 4 stitches

Nomato Ketchup:
Great texture, slightly strong flavor. Tastes really good as part of a recipe. This one also gets 4 stitches

Nomato BBQ Sauce:
Strong soy sauce flavor, but much better after simmered. Definitely tastes like BBQ sauce. This one gets 3 stars.

Nightshade Free Sloppy Joes:
Even though the flavor wasn't an exact match, it was still very tasty and still sloppy. If I could find a good substitute for chili powder, this would be very awesome. 4 stitches!

My Almost-Sister's Reaction:

She loved it all, and was so happy and grateful that I was able to find these recipes! She told me that sometimes she'll beg her fiance to make her spaghetti or pizza with tomatoes because she misses the flavor so much - and like a good fiance, he refuses. Now, he doesn't have to! I sent the rest of the sloppy joes home with her so he could try them, and while he doesn't care for sloppy joes, he said he they weren't bad and he was thrilled that they now had a way to incorporate some tomato based recipes into circulation for her sake.

Craft: My Year in Temperatures Scarf: January

I've made it a month! I've kept up with my scarf for an entire month! Woot!! I'm actually quite proud of myself because of that. I'm thrilled with how its looking, but I tell ya, Georgia has some WEIRD weather! I've had to purchase an additional 5 colors of yarn because temps got over 70 degrees a few weeks ago, but then dropped below 40 last week. It's definitely making things interesting!

So here's the current color list:
T(F)                Color

75-79 Caron Simply Soft Watermelon
70-74 Caron Simply Soft Grape
65-69 Bernat Satin Foliage
60-64 Caron Simply Soft Blue Mint
55-59 Caron Simply Soft Autumn Red
50-54 Caron Simply Soft Passion
45-49 Caron Simply Soft Dark Sage
40-44 Caron Simply Soft Dark Country Blue
35-39 Caron Simply Soft Grey Heather

Pretty much the 60-80 degree range is the same sort of colors from blue to red, but they're brighter. Blue Mint is a nice bright blue. Foliage is a great green. Grape is a bright purple, and Watermelon is a bright pink.

I've also decided to do 5 row of white between each month. I want the stripes to look deliberate and not just another color variation. There was at least once in January where the temps stayed in the same range for 3 days so it just looks like a large stripe. I decided 5 would give a better break. Anyway, here's the January update!

January 2013

Stay tuned for more! Temperatures can start to warm up in Georgia as early as February! This gonna get super interesting! :-D

Craft: My Year in Temperatures Scarf

Now that I've got my first sweater under my belt, I've decided that I'm actually enjoying knitting - not as much as stitching - but still enjoying it. I found another sweater pattern for myself (and one for Travis, and my brother, and and and...) that I'm planning on starting on Monday during our weekly KAL. While perusing Ravelry yesterday (I've been told NOT to do that!), I stumbled upon this.

Ravelry: My Year in Temperatures Scarf

Now, I totally understand that I do NOT need any more projects! (1 current stitching WIP, 2 commissioned pieces I'm about to start, and 2 others sitting on the back burner) But I just couldn't resist this! It's something that you have to start soon after the new year or you get horribly behind. And its only knitting one row per day, which won't take very long at all. And if I get behind (ya know, because of the birth of a baby, or something), it won't be hard to catch up!

So, here's how it works. Each day, you knit one row that corresponds to the high temperature of that day. I'm actually going to be doing it a day behind, because I want to knit the ACTUAL temperature of the day before, not the predicted. The creator also suggests using 5 white rows at the beginning and end of the sweater, and 2-3 rows in between each month. Since I don't really have a lot of scrap yarn because I'm new at this, I got to go buy yarn and create my own masterpiece! I'm so excited!

So, for now, here are my temperature ranges and colors:

Temp (F)
55-59 Caron Simply Soft Autumn Red
50-54 Caron Simply Soft Passion
45-49 Caron Simply Soft Dark Sage
40-44 Caron Simply Soft Dark Country Blue

 

I've decided to divide my temperature ranges into 5 degree intervals, and use different shades of blue, green, purple, and red. Since it doesn't get much colder than 40 during the day here in Atlanta, I decided to stop there for now. If it does ever dip lower, I'll figure something out :-)

I started on this last night, and am already loving it! After talking to Travis, and doing my 5 rows to start, I realized I wanted a bigger front and end block on the sweater. So instead of 5 rows of white, I did 20. It gives me a nice block of white at the beginning, and I think I'll do 3-5 rows of white in between each month. I'll figure that out when I get to the end of January. I hope to post monthly progress pictures so you can watch this thing progress!

1/4/12

 

Craft: Penelope's Christmas Sweater

So as you all probably can tell, I'm a cross stitcher. I've dabbled in knitting and crocheting, sewing and quilting, but cross stitch is my first love. It's a dying art, and it makes me sad to think that fewer and fewer people are picking up their needles and floss to make beautiful pieces of stitchery.

A good friend of mine is an avid knitter. She's been knitting for quite awhile and makes beautiful sweaters for her daughter, socks for her brother, and scarves for herself and other friends. She is my opposite. She has dabbled in cross stitch, but knitting is her first love.

After discussing, we decided to start doing a Monday night Knit-A-Long/Stitch-A-Long (KAL/SAL), to sorta stretch our other crafty wings. She cross stitches, and I knit. When trying to come with a pattern, I decided I wanted to knit a sweater for Penelope to go with her Christmas dress. Beth helped me poke around and find a great pattern that was pretty easy (and free!) on Ravelry. I bought some really soft white yarn and got started!

I started in the middle of October, and I am happy to report that I have finished the sweater! It's a week early (I need it for the 23rd) and I'm really happy with how it turned out. There's just one little problem...

The sweater is WAY too big for Penelope.

Yeah, I forgot to measure Penelope before I made the sweater. Instead, I just went ahead and made the 18-24mos size that correlates to everything else she wears. BIG MISTAKE. Turns out, when I did finally measure her near the completion of the sweater, her chest was only 19in around, which is equal to 48.26cm (pattern is in cm)...which is smaller than the SMALLEST size (51cm). So it turns out, I could have made the smallest size sweater (which would have gone a lot faster), and it still would have been a little big, but not MONSTROUS! Keep in mind. It's supposed to be a SHRUG.

Either way, its finished, and she might be able to wear it...when she's 10! :-)

Tada!

Keep in mind. Its supposed to be a shrug :-)

Craft: Filled Christmas Ornaments

It's been awhile! I've been busy, and tired, and nauseous, and tired, and cooking, and tired. We found out in August that we are expecting our second child hence all the tired and nausea! It's a lot harder the second time and definitely not as much fun, but I'm making the most of it. Penelope is starting to understand better what exactly is going on, and can't decide if she wants a brother or a sister. We'll find out in just a few weeks!

Anyway, onto the craft!

Having a 2 year old means little hands that want to help/participate in EVERYTHING. She constantly wants to help with me dishes or laundry or feeding Luna or, or, or! Sometimes, it drives me crazy, and other times, I enjoy watching her explore. Either way, I let her help me (just about) every time.

So when it comes to Christmas ornaments this year, I was having a tough time deciding what to do for her. We like to give family members handmade ornaments every year and this year was no exception. I did a Google search and found a TON of ideas - everything from snowmen painted ball ornaments using the child's hand print, to yarn dipped in glue and sparkles and twisted together to make a wreath. I wanted a craft that she could do by herself with minimal help from me, but a lot of what I was finding were things that were too old for her, or things that she'd participate in a little, and then I'd do the rest.

Then I found this: Filled Ornaments.

After talking to Travis about it, we decided that this was definitely something she could do and would probably really enjoy. So off to Hobby Lobby we went to find supplies and the ornaments.

Materials:
Plastic (or glass, your choice) ball ornaments -  we opted for plastic since she's only 2.
Things to fill them with (sequins, buttons, tinsel, pom poms, etc)
Paintbrushes (optional)
Elmer's glue (optional)
Ribbon to make a hanger
Permanent marker to write child's name and/or date
Gift boxes

Procedure:
1. Find ornaments. This was actually quite a bit harder than I expected. Walmart and two of the craft shops near my house were out. I found these at Hobby Lobby, but not in the Christmas section. They were in an entirely different section and I had to ask someone where to find them. I liked these because they're in half and are plastic. I figured this would be easier for her to handle and I would be less worried about them breaking. They were only $1.19 each for these sizes and came in a couple of different sizes.
 

2. Set out fillers. To make it easier for Penelope to fill these, I put each of the little items in a separate bowl. I also cut the colored tinsel into smaller sizes to hopefully contain the mess and make it easier for Penelope to use.

"Snow flakes"

A package of different colors, shapes and sizes of sequins

Buttons, bells, and Christmas lights

Colored tinsel cut into small pieces

 

Three different sizes of pom poms (or as Penny calls them "pom pom poms)

 3. Fill! Penny had a blast filling each half to the brim with the little items! It was so much fun to hear her say "more yellow, more red, more green..." when she was putting the sequins in. I supervised to make sure we had enough supplies for all the ornaments (we made 9)

More!

 4. Because these were split in the middle and didn't close terribly secure, I decided to use a paintbrush to apply a little Elmer's glue to the seam to make sure it stayed closed. It dried clear so it didn't take away from the look of the ornament. (If you use the glass ornaments, you can skip this step.)

Tada!

 5. I took a Sharpie and wrote her name around the top of the ornament and the year. Then I cut pieces of ribbon and tied them at the top to make a loop for the ornaments to hang.

All 9!

6. Finally, I found some cute Christmas carryout boxes and filled them with tinsel. Then I put an ornament in each one and labeled who they were for. Then, just for fun, I stacked them on my table :-)

After all the supplies, these cost me just over $3 each. All of the Christmas craft stuff was 50% off, the ornaments were $1.19 each, and the boxes and tinsel were $1 each. Considering we have 9 ornaments to make each year., this is definitely a fun cost efficient Christmas craft!

Cakes: Part II

Since the last cake photos I posted, I've done 3 more. Two were much more complex than I'd ever done before, and one was a simple design for my church band. Enjoy!

Angela's 50th Birthday Luau Cake:

A very close friend of the family turned the big 5-0 this year, and her sister asked me to make a cake. She was planning a luau and wanted me to incorporate a volcano somehow. This is what I came up with. The cake was chocolate with fresh strawberry filling (including the volcano), and was iced in orange buttercream. The volcano was iced in chocolate buttercream with cookie crumbs on top. I then used some cookie icing for the lava and just drizzled it around. There was a small white cup inside the top of the volcano that I packed with dry ice and just before presentation, I poured in some hot water so the volcano smoked. The orchids on the cake were flown in from Honolulu, HI on the Friday before the party.

Dayspring Worship Band Cookout Cake:

So my guys always complain that I never bring them anything tasty. Well, a few weeks ago, our bass player hosted a band cookout at his home and I promised a cake. The cake was chocolate with fresh strawberry filling, covered in orange buttercream. (This cake was done the day after the luau cake. That's why the frosting is orange.) The piping was done in chocolate buttercream. Each person in the band is represented on the cake and the instrument they play is on the side of the cake under their name. They really loved it!


Josh and Haleigh's Wedding Cake:

This was the first wedding cake I have ever done and it was quite a terrifying experience. A friend of mine's niece was getting married and she asked me to do the cake. I was shaking as I was putting this together, but I am thrilled with how it turned out. The bride's response? "I love it!" The bottom layer was yellow cake with raspberry filling. The middle tier was chocolate cake with white chocolate ganache, and the top tier was white cake with strawberry filling. The daisies were made of gum paste and the cake stand was burned with the couple's name and wedding date (Thanks Stephanie!!).

While I love making cakes, I'm probably gonna take a break for a bit. For now, I've got one more to do for my dad's birthday, and then I gotta start baking for Christmas. Needless to say, I definitely stay busy!!

Squirrels

I hate squirrels...That is all.

Ok, not really. I do indeed hate squirrels, but that's not all. Our house has cedar siding, which was never really an issue for us until we started having issues with woodpeckers. Thankfully, we've been pretty successful in scaring them off so they've been coming around less and less. The squirrels, on the other hand, have gotten worse.

Last fall, we had squirrels in our attic. They would scamper around, chew on stuff, make a bunch of racket, and just be all around annoying. We tried traps, and they avoided them. We also tried a sonic sound deterrent. That seemed to help for awhile, but now, they don't seem to care anymore. We've been trying to figure out ways to get them out of their little holes so we can patch them and get rid of them. We know we have at least 3, possibly 4, and that at least one of them is a baby. Here's the progress so far:

First, we patched the original hole they were getting in. Travis found a piece of heavy mesh, and using some small nails and a staple gun, he covered up the hole. That kept them out of the attic at least.

 Travis:1; Squirrels: 0

"Woohoo!" we thought! We beat them! They can't get in anymore...or so we thought. Then, we noticed that they had discovered the knot hole that the woodpeckers had pecked out of our chimney.

Notice the other hole on the left we had to patch last year

 Travis:1; Squirrels:1


Although it sucks to have them in the chimney, it appears that they can't get to the rest of the attic from where they are. That's a good thing because there aren't any wires in the chimney for them to chew through, but it doesn't make them any less annoying. We've been trying to figure out a way to patch the hole, or scare them off. Unfortunately, this hole is 10+ feet above our roof, which means Travis would have to bring a ladder up on the roof. We've both decided that this isn't a good idea. So, what to do?

Travis came up with this idea last night (I think he's enjoying this a bit) to take a stink bomb, soak a cotton ball in the solution, and somehow get it up in the hole. He decided to try using PVC pipe.

You can only imagine how well that went. After 2 failed attempts (and tons of giggles from me!), mainly because his PVC pipe kept breaking, he finally got the cotton ball in the hole.

If you've ever smelled stink bombs, they smell like rotten eggs. After putting the cotton ball in the hole, Travis found out that squirrels apparently hate sulfur smells. We were quite excited that maybe, just maybe, we had gotten them out. The downside is that our house smelled like rotten eggs last night. We have vents in our fireplace, and the smell was permeating into our living room. Thankfully, the smell wasn't super strong, and dissipated pretty quickly.

And the squirrels? Yeah, they didn't care. In fact, they could have cared less. And this morning, they're still popping their heads out, scampering around on our roof and being annoying.

Travis:1; Squirrels: 2

Ideally, we'd like to just patch the hole with some chicken wire and spray foam insulation and just leave it at that. Unfortunately, because of the height of the hole, that's probably not an option for us to do ourselves. That means hiring someone to do it...which costs money. Let's see what happens. So far, the squirrels are ahead, but we have other tricks up our sleeves. Stay tuned.