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Chocomouse--We liked the tomato sauce with the skins. These are thin-skinned tomatoes. (I'll have to ask my husband what they are.) I tried this after making ratatouille, where the recipe did not call for skinning them, and it was fine. With the sauce I made last week, most of it was used for the spaghetti squash-turkey casserole (like a lasagna without pasta). With the spaghetti squash, the texture of the skins was not noticeable.
If you are looking for a smooth sauce, for a recipe where that is central, then you will need to skin the tomatoes.
A note on the Lemon-Anise Biscotti: These are quite sweet, so I'm having them with tea without sugar. I mentioned to my husband perhaps reducing the sugar when I bake them again. He said that it is needed to offset the anise--a flavor he does not really like--although I notice that he is eating the biscotti (and keeps leaving the lid part-way open). The lemon flavor does not seem to come through; perhaps it supports the flavor profile in another way.
For dinner on Monday, I made a Spaghetti Squash-Turkey Casserole. It’s a variation on a lasagna (great minds think alike, Len), only without noodles. The base recipe came from the cooking blog “eatyourselfskinny.com, when I googled spaghetti squash casserole. I used 93% lean ground turkey, I used my homemade tomato sauce that I made on Saturday. I added more chopped onion and garlic (from farmers’ market). I did not use the chicken broth or the Stevia (cannot figure out why it was in there). I did add 1 Tbs. tomato paste to my meat sauce, and I used 2 tsp. Penzey’s Tuscan Sunset salt-free seasoning in place of her spices, since I know my husband likes it. I added 2 Tbs. flax meal to the sauce. I used 4 oz. Mozzarella, which I cut into pieces. To cook the spaghetti squash, I followed the directions in Ken Haedrich’s The Harvest Baker. It is not a quick recipe, but it makes a 13x9 inch pan, so we have plenty of leftovers for another three meals at least. We cooked up some frozen peas as the side dish.
If you are interested, here is the link:
Note on Lemon-Anise Biscotti:
It's a great recipe, especially if you need one low in saturated fat. After baking the recipe, I have some adjustments/suggestions.
1. The recipe does not say when to add the lemon zest, vanilla, and anise seed. After I whisked together the eggs and sugar, I then whisked in these three ingredients.
2. I used a "Danish whisk" to incorporate the flour mixture.
3. You do not need to oil the pan. Just line it with parchment paper.
4. I dropped the dough in mounds, after dividing it, to form the long logs. I used slightly wet, rather than floured hands, and a metal table knife, to help shape them.
5. I cut mine straight, rather than on a diagonal, as I wanted them mostly the same size. I may have cut mine thinner, as I got about 60 slices.
6. I did the second bake by standing the slices on edge on the pan. I still baked 15 minutes.Flavor note: These are quite sweet. The lemon flavor does not come through. I like the anise.
I'm sorry to hear about the freezer failure, Mike. Losing all the food makes it that much worse.
The hardest part of my low saturated fat diet is having to avoid the cookies and pastries that rely so heavily on butter. While a little butter can be ok, a lot of my recipes call for significantly more, and even a modest serving can add up when attempting to stay at 11 g or less of saturated fat per day, especially when I've already assigned 3 grams of that to dairy, and I still need to add in meat and/ or eggs--and the Land o' Lakes light butter-canola spread I plan to have on my sweet corn tonight. I spent yesterday afternoon exploring some recipes at My Nebraska Kitchen, and I printed some promising ones.
On Sunday afternoon, I baked Lemon-Anise Biscotti, which was submitted to the Baking Circle on April 8, 2004 by Bettina (aka Laura Four Paws). She had it from a Cooks Illustrated email that invited subscribers to send it to friends--and we were all friends on that site. Assuming an egg is 2 grams of saturated fat (I’ve also seen it listed as 1.5g), these biscotti have only 4 grams of saturated fat. When cut into slices, that will be quite acceptable, and eggs have valuable nutrients as well.
The recipe is missing one step, as it does not say when to add the lemon zest, anise seed, and vanilla. I whisked them in after first whisking together the eggs and sugar, before sifting in the flour mixture over the egg mixture and incorporated it with my large dough whisk. It is a very sticky dough. I weighed it on saran on my scale. (I need to weigh my bowls so I can divide dough in them on the scale.) Instead of floured hands, I used slightly damp hands and a metal knife to spread and shape the two rolls on the parchment-lined cookie sheet. (I’m not sure why the recipe says an oiled cookie sheet covered with parchment. It must be a mistake.)
After the loaves had cooled, I found that they stuck to the parchment, and I could not get a spatula under them, but I pulled up the long side of the parchment next to each loaf, so that I turned it over, and then the parchment was easily peeled away. I cut mine straight rather than on the diagonal so that the pieces would be about the same size. That actually gave me 5 dozen. For the second bake, I stood them on their sides, but still baked for the stated 15 minutes. (I'm not fond of turning biscotti.)
The flavor of the crumbs from when I cut them is great, and I'll try one after they cool, but this recipe is certainly a keeper. I look forward to having them with tea and coffee.
It's not in the recipe section, but in the saved threads:
