Surprisingly Saucy Sauces

I love the summer time, the warmth and the humidity we have in the Northwest is so wonderful.  The few days that we get a cloudless summer sky are so precious and great that we always try to get out and have some sort of lunch or picnic outside.  This week we picked our favorite sauce recipes that have been in the family for years, sauces that can help improve any simple dish that you would take with you on a warm summer day.  Enjoy!

Bertha Kartchner’s Chili Sauce (Ketchup)

I use this in place of ketchup whenever I can.  Luke’s grandma used to call this her “homemade ketchup” and he grew up putting it on his grandma’s homemade macaroni and cheese.  We’ve listed it here as a chile sauce because it bears more of a resemblance to a southern style chili sauce than a traditional ketchup, only it lacks any kind of spice.  If you wanted to make it into a proper chili sauce it would be a simple addition of the peppers of your choice to the mix.  I put this chile sauce on scrambled eggs, hamburgers and hashbrowns.

Ingredients:
24 larger ripe tomatoes
2 large anaheim peppers (optional)
4 larger onions
8 green onions
1/4 cup salt
1 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ground cloves
5 cups vinegar

Directions:
Peel tomatoes and onions, remove seeds from peppers (if any) and chop fine. Stir all together and add salt, sugar, cinnamon, cloves and vinegar. Cook slowly about 1 hour or until thick, stirring occasionally. Pour into sterilized jars and seal properly.

Pesto Sauce

Making pesto sauce is so rewarding and so easy.  As apartment dwellers, we can still grow our own herbs on the small balcony and window sill and always have fresh basil, cilantro or chives for sauces like this pesto.

Ingredients:
2 cups of tightly packed fresh Basil leaves
1/4 Parmesan cheese
2 garlic cloves
2/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup pine nuts
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a blender or a food processor, adding enough olive oil to make a thick smooth sauce. Serve over hot noodles or mix into a tortellini salad.

Finding a go-to BBQ sauce is difficult because there is so much variety and so many recipes out there.  This recipe is our favorite due to its minimal ingredients (only 8) that provide maximum flavor.  Best of all most households will have all of the ingredients in the cupboard or refrigerator already.

Perky’s BBQ Sauce

Ingredients:
2 cups of ketchup
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 cup bottle liquid smoke
2-3 Tbsp cumin and oregano
1-2 tsp cayenne pepper
Garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.  Marinate ribs or chicken or cover over a pork roast in a slow cooker to make excellent pulled pork sandwiches.