@bower
Your reluctance to use other people's sauces to make your own sauce is nice and something I try to do too.
But not always.
I use A1 Worcestershire and soy sauce for the most part.
Ketchup not really.
Yellow mustard sometimes.
What is a huge turn off for me is when someone makes a recipe and you have to buy their over priced products on line.
Lots of this happening on YouTube.
Most I've stopped watching all together if everything they make has their stuff in it.
One thing I use a lot of it tomato puree.

Ratatouille.
Wanted to test out my new mandolin slicer.
What better way.
The egg plant was salted let set and then squeezed to get all the water out.
Everything was sliced to 1/8" thick.
Tomato.
Yellow squash.
Zucchini squash.
White onion.
Sweet peppers.
Scraps are reserved for the sauce.

Got busy and didn't take a picture.
But imagine a bunch of chopped up onions tomatoes garlic peppers scrap squash herbs de provence smoked and sweet paprika black pepper and eggplant cooking in olive oil.
Then I added some sweet sherry and sweet vermouth.
This sweet type fortified wine offsets the tartness of the tomato.
Why add sugar when you can do the same thing with wine?

Added Knorr tomato chicken bullion powder for salt and some water.
Added 1 15 ounce can of tomato puree.
Now it's reducing into a thick sauce and cooking at the same time.
It's tasty as all get out as it is.

Boat motor AKA stick blender used to chop up all the cooked vegetables but not too much.
And let simmer some more.

Once the sauce thickened enough so I could drag the spoon across the bottom and you could see the bottom for a bit it was ready.
Left some in and took 2 cups out.
The next step took awhile but it was fun.
No idea how I came up with the perfect amount of everything.
Now it's ready for the oven.
I've got a little blue cheese leftover that I'll put on top as well.

I was raised on this peasant dish all summer growing up.

Shrimp with Thai Chili sauce, fresh lime, cilantro, and toasted peanuts on Lo Mein noodles.

Ruffled scalloped potatoes.
Ingredients besides potatoes include stuff I need to use.
Creamy Alfredo sauce.
Dried swiss cheese.
Others are.
Yukon Gold potatoes sliced 1/8th thick.
Pecorino romano.
Thick powdered milk.
Black pepper.
Nutmeg.
That's it, nothing fancy and I don't know what I'm doing.
Cooking in the lodge cast iron loaf pan.

Twenty meatballs ready to go in the oven.
Ingredients are.
Grated.
1 Onion.
Pecorino romano cheese.

Chopped sweet peppers.
Garlic powder.
Black pepper.
1 egg.
Teaspoon of beef bullion powder.
Dash of soy sauce.
About a half cup of cracker meal.
Herbs de provence.
About 2 pounds of ground chuck.
Mixed all the ingredients first let sit for awhile then pulled apart the meat into chunks and mixed up all together.

Scalloped potatoes are ready and on standby with foil on top.

Used my mandoline for the first time. Decided not to go to the ED for stitches. Take my word for it, use the hand guard. While I was bandaging my hand, I burned the chips. Trying to make baked chips I can eat while watching my diet. This mandolin can make REALLY thin slices.

Unfortunately I increased the thickness before slicing my finger.
I need to play with the temperature. I read 425 degrees and I used 425 on convection but the edges start to burn before the center starts to brown. Maybe turn down the heat. I thought the convection setting would make them crisp up more evenly. I might try turning the sheet pan over and putting them on the bottom and see if that helps.

While I was attending to my injuries, and my neighbor stopped by as well. Pressure dressing on my finger now.:



Post injury, edible but not what I am looking for:



I don't give up easily. Tomorrow is another day.

@Sue_CT
You seriously cut your finger on the thing?
You must be careful and use the holding device.
Even I do.
The mandolin is one of the most dangerous tools in the kitchen.
Please be careful.

Yup, seriously cut my finger. I was trying to decide if I needed stitches but decided they would just put a pressure dressing on it. Held pressure on it for 10 minutes and the bleeding slowed down a bit so I put a dressing on it. Hasn't bled through so I will probably be fine. Haven't had a tetnus in over 10 years so I will probably need to call my PMD in the morning and she will probably want me to get one. Tetnus comes from the soil so anything that might be contaminated with soil, you usually need to get one. Potatoes grow IN the soil, so...

Not to worry, I have in house medical care by a very experienced nurse (read OLD, lol).

Made 2 racks, 3.5# each, of meaty pork back ribs yesterday on the BGE. Probably the best ones I’ve ever made. Seasoning seemed just the right amount and proportions (Meat Church Holy Voodoo). Smoke flavor and level was perfect (two fist sized chunks of hickory) temperature was a bit lower than I usually go on ribs, mostly kept the BGE at 220°-250°. 220° early with the heat gradually rising. Took the ribs off around 4 hours later. Brushed a very thin layer of western north carolina barbecue sauce right after the ribs came off and were still hot. The ribs had a little less dark bark than usual.

Meat was moist, tender and full of flavor, but not fatty. Hint of sweet from the rub mostly, just a tiny back end kick of spice from jalapeños in rub, sauce contributed something yummy, maybe that tomato note.

I tend to like pork back ribs probably better than pork spare ribs although that might be sacrilegious. If I go for back ribs, I want the heavier rack, three pounds plus, three and a half even better. If I go with the spare ribs I like smaller racks on those. Closer to 3# for St. Louis cut.

Served the ribs with pasta shells boiled in water with chicken bullion cubes added. Shredded Oaxaca cheese added to cooked pasta along with butter. Side of crunchy whole spicy and german style pickled gerkhins. Pasta with the Oaxaca cheese was perfect with the ribs and the pickles were the absolutely necessary acidic accompanying flavor.

Got a lot of leftover ribs. We’ll eat again them tonight with something green and fresh served on the side.

I heated up my ratatouille and had it with the scallop potatoes and meatballs.
The ratatouille got really dark and sweet from the long bake.
Not Better Homes and Gardens pretty but very flavorful.
The ruffles in the potatoes worked really well holding the sauce.
I used a thermometer to check when they were cooked to perfection at around 214F.

The meatballs were good too and I used some of the sauce on them.

A truly fetching Old German was chosen to represent the Tomato for the combined Monday Morning BLT Brunch/National Cheeseburger Day's Bacon Cheesburgers: The lovely and long suffering Mrs. Gotch really outdid herself: If the Tomato to the right looks a little...um...picked over, I saved seed.

The Gotch

Had a simple seasoned fillet of tilapia, butter poached slowly, along with some steak house style creamed spinach from scratch. Filling, but not too much. Will have some grapefruit supremes later for dessert/snack.

I like to cycle the food in my house every few months so periodically I force myself to use up ingredients that have been sitting around for a while. So tonight I made, …..check that…...created, a new dish that I call “Leftover Delight.” It’s a mysterious yet playful little dish. Despite my best efforts it actually turned out pretty good. It’s critical you use the ingredients in their proper proportion. Here’s the exact recipe so please pay attention:

4-6 eggs (a few eggshells bits are optional. They lend a delightful crunchiness)
1 package of 4 year old frozen spinach. Be sure to squeeze the crap out of the spinach to avoid making your mixture runny
however many capers are left in your jar
a bunch of cayenne
taco seasoning
a big ‘ol handful of mozzarella cheese
half cup of 4 day old refrigerator rice
a partial stick of cream cheese. The cream cheese must be specially aged to the point where it is almost moldy

Stir this together til it has the consistency of wet Portland cement. Dump the whole batch in a fry pan. Cook however long you want. Serve with a light topping of Feta. Garnish with finely diced chives.

Deeeeeeeeeeelish!

You’re welcome.

I've got something going on, not for sure what it is.
A conglomeration of a bunch of stuff I need to cook and eat like the remainder of the scallop potatoes.
Rest assured it involves bacon and cheese.