Here is a recipe I wrote for basic chili sauce and posted here eight years ago: Basic Chili Sauce 8 whole, dried chilies (Ancho, Pasilla, Guajillo combination*) 2 cups water 3 cloves garlic 1 tsp dried or fresh oregano 1 tsp red wine or balsamic vinegar (optional) Remove the stems from the chilies and slit open to remove seeds and membranes. Place the chilies in a saucepan with the rest of the ingredients (except the vinegar) and simmer covered for 20-30 minutes, or microwave for about 2-1/2 minutes and let stand for 20 minutes, microwave for one minute more and let stand another 10 minutes. Blend coarsely with a stick blender (or pulse in a blender), and strain the mixture through a coarse sieve (or food mill) to remove chili skins. Store in glass jar in refrigerator until ready to use. If you plan to store it very long, add 1 tsp of vinegar - I normally use it within 2-3 days, if not immediately, however. For two cups of water, I would use 3 Ancho chilies, 2 Pasilla chiles and 3 Guajillo chilies, all of which are dried, but you can vary the amounts. Using 4 Anchos and 4 Guajillos is also good. For the last chili sauce I made, I used fresh Poblano chilies (in place of Pasilla chilies) and smoked them, but you could roast them over a gas flame instead. I do not use any raw fresh chilies in chili sauce, and some people fire roast the dried ones before making sauce, but I have not found that to be necessary. I make a Habanero chili sauce with chilies from my back yard, and I grill them (in a grill pan) over mesquite charcoal/wood with some red bell peppers to make a Habanero sauce that is very potent, which is why I add the red bell peppers. I add quite a bit of vinegar and salt to my Habanero sauce so that it will keep longer, as it takes me a while to use it up. True chili sauce does not have tomato in it - if it does, it is then what I know as Adobo sauce, which I also make but use differently. Chilies have a very distinctive flavor that is best appreciated in a pure form to start with, and then you can combine them with other ingredients, but it is best to start with a pure chili sauce, and then it will be more versatile, and you will appreciate the true flavor of the chilies. The chilies I listed for the basic chili sauce are all very mild (by my standards), and so I generally add habanero sauce as needed for heat. If you want to use Arbol chilies, make a sauce with them by themselves - they do not blend well with other chilies. They are good in Adobo sauce and benefit by being diluted with tomato, but their flavor is so complex that I find them difficult to utilize. Where I grew up, you could order one alarm, two alarm, or three alarm chili (made with beef), and I never went beyond two alarm. I think in Minnesota, the one alarm chili in Texas would have been way too hot! I eat chili sauce every day, in one form or another, whereas I seldom use black pepper, although I do like it. I find the flavor of the various chilies to be more complex and interesting. Lars

I used to basically live on frozen pizza and burgers when I first moved into the house. So much going on and not much time to cook, it was easy to just throw one in the oven and pop open a beer. I've tried most all of them out there. I can't stand Digornios. It's like a piece of Texas toast with sauce on it. I want a pizza crust or something unique. I do like Freshetta though. That's much closer to a pizzeria crust and the flavor of the pizza is good. As long as I remember I've always liked Totinos for some reason. I really started to like them back when they put some sauce on them. Today it looks more like it's a dyed crust but I do like the crust on them. I doctor them up with cheese, bacon, sausage or whatever I have. Don't need to doctor up the Freshetta much except maybe some Romano. I haven't had a pizza of any type in a long time now. For a while I picked up the u-bakes from Aldi or someplace. 16" loaded with meat for less than $6, and occasionally under $5. Not a bad way to cover the craving. I can't remember the recipe I used to use for a quick dough when I'd make my own. I saw it on TV one time. It was a knockoff of Pizza Hut's pan pizza. I remember you used self-rising flour and club soda. Maybe that was all there was to it? I always added some Italian seasoning, garlic and maybe some onion to the dough with a little extra oil and it was pretty decent. Also made the "crazy crust" quite a bit for a while. Haven't done that for a long time either. I've tried the shelf crust like Boboli and I guess for desperation they'd work. I guess I'd prefer the Pillsbury to them if that's all that was available. After making one of the simple crusts, Boboli is not even given a second look by me anymore. The local store had their version available in a wheat crust but the bad memories left it sit on the shelf. I know people who buy the frozen bread dough to use for a pizza crust. I've never tried it.

I made another batch of this today, and so I have my recipe up. This recipe makes a double batch, and so I freeze half of it. I figure that as long as I am making it, I might as well make a lot, so that I do not have to make it as often, as it is a bit time consuming and labor intensive. However, I feel that results are worth it. You can make adjustments or substitutions for the botanicals, according to your taste and for what you like to have on hand. You can easily omit lemongrass, but try not to omit any of the ingredients listed above the sarsaparilla root. Citrus zest can be adjusted as long as the total amount is used. For me grapefruit is essential, but the rest can be substituted for each other. This recipe is just for the syrup, and so when you have to add carbonated water to it in order to make tonic water. Homemade Diet Tonic Syrup Quinine Tincture 6.50 grams powdered cinchona bark 160 ml (5.33 oz., 2/3 cup) Everclear (120 proof) For the botanicals 40 grams citric acid 40 grams angelica root (37.6 to use bag for 3 batches) 40 grams lemon & lime peel, (2 large lemons plus 2 large limes)* 40-50 grams orange peel (2 Valencia or navel oranges)* 60-70 grams grapefruit peel (2 ruby grapefruits)* 30 allspice berries – 2.82 grams 16-18 grams coriander seed 10 grams green cardamom pods (cracked) 10-12 grams juniper berries 7-10 grams sarsaparilla root (to make up for reduced angelica root) - optional 3 stalks lemongrass, cut into quarter-inch rounds (or 2 tsp lemongrass paste) 1100 ml water (4-1/2 cups) 2-3 bags lemongrass tea - optional - if you do not have lemongrass paste 3 bags Camomile tea - optional 96 (96 packets) grams Splenda (4 cups bulk Splenda, equiv to 4 cups sugar) Make the quinine tincture Mix the cinchona powder with the Everclear, cover, and let sit overnight. Strain through a paper towel in a strainer being careful not to add the sediment. Discard sediment. Make the botanical syrup Zest all citrus using a vegetable peeler. Add all the botanicals ingredients except tea bags and Splenda to a medium saucepan. Heat over medium-high heat until it comes to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes. Add the teabags and let steep for 10 minutes. Remove teabags. Store in fridge 2-3 days mixing twice a day. Strain and add Spenda. Measure out 120 ml (4 ounces) of the quinine tincture and mix into the cooled syrup. Keep the rest of the quinine tincture in an airtight container (the tincture will keep indefinitely). Store the syrup in an airtight container in the refrigerator. It should keep for at least 3 weeks. Yield: 56 oz. (7 cups, 1-3/4 quarts) *All zesting to be done with a very sharp vegetable peeler. Use sarsaparilla if you run out of Angelica root – it is not essential, and neither is camomile or lemongrass tea. Basically, just use what you like.

I made Ida's soup and it's fantastic!!! I made a few changes. I sauteed fresh onions with all the spices, used fresh grated ginger, cut back slightly on the cumin. It's really a flexible recipe. A little tomato paste with the aromatics until it caramelized a bit, and skipped the tomato sauce. I used chicken stock and crunchy peanut butter (TJ's), a little extra because it's so good. I skipped the chickpeas this time because I wanted to see how the fresh sweet potatoes did on their own. Awesome! Then a whole pack of frozen chopped spinach, although fresh would also be good. Less prep with the frozen. I would definitely include chickpeas next time for added protein and heartiness. It sounds like I made a lot of changes to the recipe, but I think it speaks to how easy and flexible it is. The spices are warm and comforting and it comes together in the time it takes for the cubed sweet potatoes to become tender. A little immersion blender and it's a wonderful soup/stew. I have a lot of leftovers and I'll bet it will be even better tonight after the flavors have had a chance to marry. Had I not used chicken stock, it would have been vegetarian/vegan and gluten-free. Thanks, Ida, this is a keeper.