Import 2

Pepperoni sauce

So when I say pepperoni sauce you either immediately think of Top Chef or you think, "Wait, what?" Michael Isabella made this during the 2011 season of Top Chef and I was fascinated by it.  How had this never been done before? It's brilliant, and certainly never occurred to me to make it. I've made some tweaks to it for us -- we like a little more sweetness in our tomato-based sauces, and I also used bacon grease instead of olive oil -- sticking with the pork theme, right? But I didn't stray too far from the original. This sauce is fantastic on a meatball sandwich, on pasta, or anything you'd use red sauce on. I definitely want to try it with pizza soon. Love it!

Pepperoni sauce

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. or so bacon grease (or olive oil if that sounds better to you)
• 1/2 yellow onion, sliced thin
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced thin
• 6 ounces pepperoni, cut into thin slices (I used Boar's Head)
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 large can crushed San Marzano tomatoes
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 Tbsp. sugar

Instructions

1. Heat the bacon grease in a large, heavy pot till it's nice and hot, then cook the onions over low to medium heat till they're very soft -- a good 15 minutes or so. If you're worried about them burning you can add a few splashes of water to the pan to help with that
2. When the onions are soft, add the garlic and cook for 3-5 minutes or so until they're soft -- keep an eye on them because they're easier to burn
3. Add in remaining ingredients and simmer for at least 45 minutes, but longer won't hurt anything
4. Puree with a stick blender or in an actual blender till completely smooth, and enjoy!

I need more ways to incorporate this into my life. What would you use it on?

JACKed sweet potato muffins

I'm pretty sure this is my new favorite recipe. I was going through my bookshelves to see if I had any cookbooks I could live without (spoiler alert: I didn't), and came across this one: Jack Daniel's Spirit of Tennessee Cookbook. This had belonged to my great aunt, and was signed to her from one of the authors, Lynne Tolley. It's a treasure trove! I went looking for something involving sweet potatoes and found these, what they call sweet potato muffin delights. They are SO GOOD, y'all. There isn't a lot of flour, so the eggs and sweet potato make these so light and airy, and the flavors are great! Just a little hint of Jack, but not so much that you can't respectably eat these for breakfast. ;)

JACKed sweet potato muffins

Yield: 12 muffins

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cup sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup milk (I used whole)
• 1/4 cup Jack Daniel's Whiskey
• 1 1/4 cup cooked and mashed sweet potatoes (microwave is fine here)
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• Cinnamon sugar for topping

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425F and grease or line 12 muffin cups
2. Combine eggs, milk, Jack, sweet potatoes, and butter and mix well
3. Put a wire strainer or sifter over the top of the bowl and add flour, salt, baking powder, and brown sugar; shake or press through until all the mixture is sifted into the bowl
4. Mix until JUST combined, then spoon into prepared muffin cups
5. Sprinkle tops with cinnamon sugar, then bake until a toothpick in the center comes out clean; the cookbook says 35-40 minutes but mine were done after 20, so don't go far

Because I am positive that you all need to make these, this is a good time for you to try out my snazzy new ZipList functionality! You can save recipes from One Particular Kitchen (and all these amazing blogs), and create your shopping list as you do it! Just click on that "save recipe" button at the top of my recipes, or you can get to your ZipList recipe box or shopping list from my main menu. Let me know if you have any questions! Also, let me know when you make these muffins, m'kay? Trust me.