Grilled Tomato Sauce From Steven Raichlen Like soup, tomato sauce is one of the dishes you're least likely to think of grilling. But there is a powerful reason to try this sauce. Beyond the mere novelty factor, grilling imparts a gutsy smoke flavor to the sauce and heightens the natural sweetness of the vegetables. Don't take just my word for it. For thousands of years, Mexicans have grilled tomatoes, onions and peppers to make rich-tasting salsas. I have adapted the technique to make an exceptionally flavorful tomato sauce. Serve the sauce over grilled polenta, with any simple grilled fish, or with just about any cooked pasta. Makes about 3 1/2 cups. 5 lucious, ripe red tomatoes 2 - 2 1/4 pounds total, cut in half crosswise, and stem ends removed 1 medium size white onion, peeled and cut into quarters 1 rib celery 4 cloves garlic, peeled and skewered on a wooden toothpick or small bamboo skewer 3 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil 1 tsp. oregano 1/2 tsp. hot pepper flakes 1 bay leaf 6 fresh basil leaves coarse salt (Kosher or Sea salt) freshly ground black pepper 1/4 to 3/4 cup chicken stock, vegetable stock or water Cook the tomatoes, onions, celery and garlic in greased and preheated grill (George Foreman grill) until nicely browned. You may need to cook the vegetables in more than one batch. Transfer the grilled vegetables and let cool. Finely chop the onions, celery and garlic by hand or in a food processor. If using a food processor, run machine in spurts. Heat olive oil in large non-reactive sauce pan over medium heat. Add the chopped onion, celery and garlic, oregano, hot pepper flakes and bay leaf and cook until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Coarsely puree tomatoes and juices with the basil in a food processor. Add the tomato mixture to the sauce pan, with the vegetables. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then let sauce simmer gently until thick and richly flavored 8-10 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper to taste. The sauce should be thick but pourable. If it is too thick, add a little stock or water. Remove and discard the bay leaf. The sauce can be refrigerated, covered up to 4 days. Or frozen for up to 2 months. Let the sauce come to room temperature then reheat it in a non-reactive sauce pan over medium heat, stirring often.

Many times I've wanted to share some recipes, often ones that I haven't made, but am planning to, but they didn't fit the theme. I have one for today's theme though. This is a refrigerated Cherry Cheesecake recipe that I made in my Gr. 9 Home Ec class. The recipe calls for Dream Whip, but Cool Whip or real whipped cream can be used. Refrigerated Cherry Cheesecake 2 1/4 cups crushed graham crackers 1/4 cup melted butter 5 tbsp sugar 8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened 1 pkg Dream Whip, or 2 cups thawed Cool Whip or whipped cream 1 can cherry pie filling Combine and press into a 9"x9" baking dish. The crust can be either baked to set the crust, and cooled, or since this is not a baked dessert, it can be put in the freezer for 15 minutes Whip the cream cheese until light and fluffy. Prepare the Dream Whip as directed and fold into the cream cheese. Spread over the crumb crust, and top with the cherry pie filling. Refrigerate several hours until nice and firm.

Ann, try saving it to your Clippings. Look to the right of your last post (just above this). You will see the word Clippings in green letters. Under that it will say Clip This Post. For each recipe or comment you want to save, click on Clip This Post. Another way to do it is to highlight the entire thread, or the parts you want, right click with your mouse and then click on Copy. Start a new document in Word and paste the thread into that document, then save it to your computer. If you want me to do that for you and then email it to you, let me know.

Ruth , Thank you so much for the gift of he Farmer's Almanac and the lovely butterfly card! Love them both! I usually always buy one, but hadn't this year! Thrilled to get it! Card is gorgeous! Thank you!