A Pot of Sauce

Ingredients:
A couple (like 4-5) tablespoons of butter
olive oil
(2) 28 oz. cans of crushed tomatoes
any cans of diced tomatoes, jars of premade sauce, cans of tomato puree or whole tomatoes - basically anything you can add to the mix.
an onion, minced
a couple cloves of garlic, minced
fresh/dried herbs
white sugar
Optional: red wine, carrot, celery

Place a tablespoon or two of butter and a few "rounds of the pan" of olive oil in a 2 handle pot.
Bring to medium high heat. Once butter has melted, add the onion and cook a couple minutes.
Add the garlic and cook for a couple minutes more. Reduce heat to medium.
If you happen to have any celery or carrots in the fridge, you could mince up a stalk or so of each and add them now too.
Add crushed and diced tomatoes. Simmer on medium low for 30 mins? No really, keep stirring every five minutes. The pot should be bubbling, but not exploding all over the stove.
Add any other tomato products to stretch the quantity out.
Keep simmering for like ever (until you need to serve it) but at least an hour or 2.
During the last half hour, add any herbs you want. I usually put in fresh oregano and basil, even some parsley. Use dried if that's all you have. Maybe a sprinkle of rosemary and/or garlic powder. Salt and Pepper. A dash of red wine if you have a bottle open.
Lastly, add a small handful of white sugar and 2 more tablespoons of butter.
This is crucial if you're in a rush (well hell, if you're in a rush, then you have no right trying to whip out a homemade sauce, but that's besides the point)
Anyway, the sugar and butter at the end cut out any tartness that the tomatoes may still have.
Enjoy!

Crock Pot Stuffed Peppers

Crock Pot Stuffed Peppers

4 Bell Peppers (We prefer yellow or orange, then red, but not green. Get ones that are more tall and vertical and less short and round)
1 Package of Uncle Ben's Jasmine 90 second rice.
1 lb. Lean Ground Turkey
1 small onion or half a large onion, diced small
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
about 1 tsp. dried oregano
Black pepper, no salt
Ketchup
Marinara/Tomato sauce
Frank's Hot Sauce
Butter and Olive Oil
8 slices of Land o Lakes white American deli cheese
Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Turn on Crock Pot to High. Put about 3 large spoonfuls of tomato sauce into crock pot with about 1/2 cup of water to thin it out.
Cut off the tops of the bell peppers, save tops and mince and throw out seeds/core.
Place hollowed peppers into crock pot, standing upright on top of watered down tomato liquid.
Cover with lid and cook for an hour or an hour and a half on High. After the hour, water will start to naturally collect and pool in the bottom of each pepper. I used a pair of metal tongs to remove each pepper one at a time and pour out the water in the sink, then replace each pepper.
Meanwhile, in a pan on the stove on medium heat, melt a tablespoon or so of butter and a couple tablespoons of olive oil. Add onion and garlic, saute until translucent. Add minced bell pepper tops and cook for 3-4 minutes longer.
Add ground turkey and cook until no longer pink. Drain (I usually put some sheets of paper towel on a newspaper and pour the turkey mixture onto it to absorb the extra liquid/fats)
Place turkey mixture back in pan. Microwave 90 second rice according the package directions, then add to pan.
Add the next items to the mixture (I never measure so these are guesses): Tomato sauce (maybe a half cup), Ketchup (maybe a quarter cup, big squeeze from bottle), Frank's hot sauce (about 8-10 dashes), dried oregano and a few shakes of black pepper.
Mix together, mixture should be moist but not overly wet.
Place one slice of American cheese in each hot empty pepper. (I fold each slice into thirds and line the inside of each pepper, they instantly start to melt and adhere)
Fill each pepper with turkey mixture. Replace lid and cook on low for about 3-4 hours.
The last ten minutes, set crock pot to Warm setting and place an additional cheese slice on top of each pepper with a small handful of shredded cheddar on top of that. Put lid back on to melt.

To serve peppers (a helper is needed)
We use the set of tongs and a spotted spoon technique to lift the peppers, one at a time. The helper brings the plate as close as they can to the crock pot so the pepper doesn't have to go far. You'll see, lol. Oh and never use paper plates, it's kinda disastrous. Enjoy!