Easy tomato and sausage ragu

Why settle for jarred pasta sauce when you can make this easy tomato and sausage ragu with mushrooms and fresh herbs instead? 

Can you believe I was nearly 30 years old before I discovered the awesome glory of sausage?

[Seriously -- if you a regular reader of the Ninj, pick yourself up off the floor, as you know I tend to add sausage or bacon to nearly everything. Are you new? Go ahead, search on "sausage" or "bacon" in the search box. I'll wait ... get it now?]

Growing up, sausage to me meant an oily, hot sausage-and-pepper grinder (hero, hoagie, sub, whatever) -- and those just grossed me out (they still do). Therefore, in my mind I didn't like sausage. Period.

While Mr. Ninj and I were dating, he would occasionally cook for me (ah, those were the days!), and once he made some pasta dish that involve browning sausage as the first step.

This is so pathetic to admit now, but I watched in utter amazement as he CUT THE CASING OFF and added just the ground meat to the pan to brown. Whhhhaaaaattt???? Crumbled sausage? Sausage that isn't in a log shape or drowning in soggy pepper juice? Pure genius!

It's been fast ride straight down the pork hill from that day. All the way to this easy, way-better-than-jarred tomato and sausage ragu.

Slow cooker chicken stock

Learn how to make recipe-ready, freezable slow cooker chicken stock from only the bones of a roast chicken, a handful of veggies and water.

This is one of those recipes for DIY pantry staples that has been in my repertoire for years yet I haven't shared it with you yet.

Shame on me! I think it's because it's one of those not-really-a-recipe recipes that hasn't seemed "worthy" enough. Until now. Because I've been crockpot cray cray lately, as regular readers well know.

If you've never tackled homemade chicken stock, this slow cooker version will change your mind. It's not at all time-consuming because, well, SLOW COOKER. Plus, all you need to make it is the carcass of your last roast chicken (read: NO WASTE! Practically composting!), some common veggies you've likely always got in your fridge, some spices and water.

Talk about making something out of nothing!

Here's what you do: The next time you make a roast chicken, be a little less thorough than you might be when carving it -- leaving a little bit of meat on the bones means a more flavorful stock.

DIY smoked trout

Learn how to smoke trout, salmon, veggies, salt or just about anything else quickly, easily and with no mess on the grill or even on the stovetop.

Let's talk about smoked trout. Or smoked salmon. Or any kind of smoked fish. Do you love it? I do. Whether I enjoy it as part of a charcuterie board or a cheese plate at a cocktail party or added to a pasta dish or salad (like my bagels and lox pasta salad!), I'm a smoked fish junkie.

So the "I can do that!" DIY side of my brain kicked into high gear when I discovered an affordable little stove-top smoker a few years ago.

Yes, a few years ago. Believe it or not, I got this stovetop smoker, made by Camerons Products, for Christmas more than two years ago and just never got around to using it.

(To be fair, we wound up beginning a big cross-country move just after Christmas that year, so smoking fish for fun wasn't really my top priority.)

But I dusted off the box earlier this year and smoked some fish. And then some more fish. And then some salt. And now, since it's so easy, there's pretty much no stopping the smoking train around Casa de Ninj.

If you do nothing else this year that I've told you to do, do this: buy this stovetop smoker -- or give one to someone as a gift. It's the coolest thing ever, I swear. Not to mention that it's crazy easy to use and you can smoke all sorts of stuff with zero mess.

Here's exactly how it works:

Maple candied pecans

Make these 3-ingredient maple candied pecans in 5 minutes, then enjoy them on salads, with cheese, atop oatmeal or as a sweet-and-salty snack.

Sometimes the simplest things are often the best, don't you find?

Think of how many classics are little more than the combination of two ingredients: PB and J, rum and coke,  milk and cookies, Hall and Oates ...

(In fact, if you want to have your mind blown just a bit, check out BuzzFeed's list of insanely simple 2-ingredient recipes -- but be forewarned, some are just kind of creepy).

Anyhoo. I like to keep things simple. Which is why I often blow off little extra steps in recipe if it seems that they might slow down my dinner-making process -- steps like toasting some nuts to put on top of a salad. Pfffft. Sure, I know the nuts taste better toasted, but that's just going to add to both the prep time and the number of pans that need to be washed after dinner.

Yet in making a Brussels sprout salad last week, I felt that it needed a leeetle somethin-somethin to put it over the top, just a little bit of sweetness (Mr. Ninj said that removing all the Brussels sprouts would have made it perfect; I ignored him).

Sweet made me think of candied nuts. But with just a hint of salt. And, in the name of keeping it simple and fast, these maple candied pecans have only three ingredients: raw pecans, pure maple syrup and a finishing dash of sea salt.

Chocolate granola bark

When you craving something a little sweet, a little savory and a whole lotta easy, whip up a batch of this dark chocolate granola bark, loaded with dried fruit and finished with crunchy sea salt. Store it in the freezer for an anytime treat.

We've been talking about vegetables so much lately that I thought I'd give you a break.

I may be a tireless advocate for healthy eating, but I'm no saint. Regular readers can attest to the fact that my recipe index is peppered with a fair amount of sweet or salty treats; Mr. Ninj can attest to the fact that I tend to make batches of cookies in the late afternoon almost every weekend (hello, late-day cravings).

Chocolate barks like this one are an ideal way to keep treats on hand without overindulging. When I make a tray of this chocolate granola bark, I break it into smallish pieces and store them in the freezer. If I need want a little treat -- say, in place of a full dessert or late in the day when dinner is still a few hours away (there's that late-day craving again!) -- I dip into the bag of bark and just eat one small piece.

One small piece is all it takes, too, because the bark made with dark chocolate, which is a great way of satisfying a sweet craving without going overboard. And, of course, we've all heard that a little dark chocolate in your diet is actually good for you, the same way a glass of red wine is good for your heart. And, just as you wouldn't drink a case of red wine in one sitting just because a little is good for you, you won't eat the whole tray of bark either: it's too rich and, frankly, that would just be ugly-ass gluttony, now wouldn't it?

No-bake healthy oat bars

No-bake oat bars made with just six ingredients and sweetened only with dates and honey: a super-easy recipe for a delicious, healthy snack both kids and adults (and dogs!) will love.

We all crave sweets sometimes. I admit it. As much as I try to eat healthy, sometimes I just want to cram a handful of cookies in my face.

I can think of no one, not even the healthiest eater I know, who has ever told me that, when she has a craving, she crams a handful of asparagus into her face.

So I try to keep a bevy of healthy snacks in my arsenal. Not eating crap involves learning how to satisfy your cravings and desires in more healthful ways. I don't believe in complete denial -- I think that just encourages binge eating.

Therefore, when I have a craving for a sweet snack, I indulge it -- with healthier snacks and in moderation. Always in moderation.

These no-bake oat bars are the perfect solution for those cravings. A little sweet, a little salty, packed with protein and fiber, totally satisfying and made with real ingredients and no refined sugar. Plus, no baking!

ERMERGAHD: possibly the world's most perfect snack!

Chai tea concentrate

Chai tea concentrate: an aromatic blend of herbs, spices, fruit and tea ready to mix with your favorite kind of milk for a hot or cold chai tea latte.

I realized recently that I almost never give you drink recipes, unless they're boozy. Which may make some of you think that I never drink anything unless it has booze in it. (Jeez -- I'm beginning to give myself a reputation!)

Au contraire. 

I have become a tea drinker over the past few years. It started on a vacation to the British Virgin Islands a few years ago. On said vacation, I was actually getting a ridiculous amount of sleep and feeling very well rested (this is pretty much the goal of any of my vacations). Which meant that I was not craving wake-me-the-hell-up coffee every morning. And, since it was the British Virgin Islands, I decided to be queenly and have a pot of tea with breakfast instead of coffee.

And it stuck. I'm now a morning tea drinker.

Not so much of an afternoon tea drinker, though. Not even herbal teas. Until last month.

What happened last month, you ask? I went to a local food swap and scored a jar of spiced chai, courtesy of fellow food swapper Lisa Barnes of Fiddleheads Cuisine (you've got to love a food swap with a professional chef!). It was just the right blend of spiciness, sweetness and floral notes -- perfect for an afternoon pick-me-up that doesn't pick-me-up quite as much as a cup of coffee, which would wind up preventing me from sleeping at night.

DIY almond milk and a bonus fruit smoothie recipe

Learn to make your own almond milk (it's easy!) -- plus how to use it in a delicious fruit smoothie.

I've always been a little freaked out by nut milk when I see it in the store. Is it nuts or is it milk? And since there's no milk in nuts, what the hell is it?

Plus nut mlk always seemed a little too non-mainstream for me. You know, like it's something only vegans or latte-ordering hipsters would drink. Right up there with soy milk.

But I'm happy to report I stand corrected. Nut milk rocks. Specifically, almond milk rocks. And is wicked easy to make, which you know is criterion number one for The Ninj's favorite recipes.

Other than planning ahead the night before, making a homemade quart of nut milk takes about three minutes. Not kidding. It's simple: soak the nuts, pulverize the crap out of them, mixed with water and a little natural sweetener, strain the whole thing and -- VOILA! -- nut milk.

Sweet and spicy poultry rub

Try this easy recipe for sweet and spicy rub on chicken, turkey, steak, even veggies for tangy BBQ flavor.

I've never been much on rubs. Whenever I see some kind of rub for a steak described on a restaurant menu, I think, "Meh. So what?"

But, as with so many things I have discovered since I started blogging, I didn't know what I was missing.

Well, maybe not on steak -- I'm still pretty much a purist in that department -- but definitely for poultry.

ZOMG, peeps, this is a seriously good rub. Transformational, even. In that it transforms a simple chicken or turkey into a crispy, sweet-yet-spicy bundle of awesomeness.

I don't know about you but, until I started using this rub on chicken, I never ever ever ate cooked chicken skin. Watching other people do it actually grossed me out. To me, it just was NOT something that you ate. It was merely the packaging on the outside that you removed to get to the real food.

As I said, UNTIL I used this rub.

The first time I baked a chicken with the rub, I took it out of the oven to cool and was intrigued by how aromatic and gorgeous the skin was. So I took a little nibble.

SQUEEEEEEEE!

All I can say is that if you like BBQ potato chips, you'll be in heaven.

Cidered jerky (beef or venison) -- and tips on buying a dehydrator

Some great tips for buying a dehydrator, in which you can make this tangy cidered beef jerky or venison jerky.

A big hug and WELCOME to all you jerky fans!

Since my first chicken jerky post two years ago, I have been promising to post another jerky recipe. At long last, it's here.

Why so long, you ask? Honestly, it was the photographs. Let's face it: jerky does not photograph well.

I've made this particular cidered jerky recipe a bunch of times and the photo shoots were miserable failures. The did not pass the "would I eat this?" test.

But recently I realized that, as with so many things in life, striving for perfection was preventing me from being happy. Because this jerky is so freakin' good that it makes me really, really happy to both eat it and share the recipe with all of you.

Regular readers who know of my ongoing battle for backyard produce with the deer on our property will appreciate that the batch of cidered jerky featured in these photographs came from a big buck taken on our property last year by the intrepid young man who hunts our land.

In fact, I gave the hunter some of this jerky to try. The next day he texted me to let me know he ate it all in one sitting and proclaimed it "awesome", with FOUR exclamation points. So it's officially hunter-approved.

Bourbon apple pumpkin butter

Slow cooker bourbon apple pumpkin butter -- so simple to make in the crockpot, using fresh pumpkin.

It's the third week of October: Are you sick of pumpkin yet?

I hope you appreciate that I haven't been overwhelming you with pumpkin recipes; I've been trying to let apples and other fall favorites have their time in the sun. But I couldn't resist this recipe. It showcases not only flavorful fall apples but also finally-seasonally-appropriate pumpkin ...

... and booze!

There you go: Possibly the most perfect fall recipe yet, no?

I have no doubt you have seen lots of recipes flying around the blogosphere this month for pumpkin butter. But have you really looked at them or made any of them? It's safe to say that 99 percent of them involve cooking down some canned pumpkin.

Come on, peeps: We can do better. (Ninjas always do better.) And it's not hard.

If you're going to go to the effort to make a pumpkin butter, why not use some fresh pumpkin? Jeesh, and if you throw it in a crockpot and then immersion-blend the bejesus out of it, it practically cooks itself.

Which is exactly what I did.

Dried fruit and cereal snack bars

I really don't think you can have too many recipes for snack bars. I mean, really: What other food can stealthily morph from a grab-and-go breakfast to energy bar to sweet dessert, all in one day and without changing shoes?

(You know The Ninj loves stealthy food, especially snacks. And shoes.)

Mind you, this snack bar should not be confused with either a rice krispy treat (too sweet) or a granola bar (too, well, granola-y). It is neither, yet it is both.

I love that it is loaded with dried fruits, nuts and grains yet still offers enough sweetness to seem more like a treat. And the puffed cereal provides just enough chewy-crunchiness to round out the whole dealy.

Oh, hold the phone: DID I MENTION IT'S A NO-BAKE BAR?

Booyah.

Make your own vegetable powders

Via Facebook and Twitter, I'm still reading about folks putting up the last of their tomatoes for the winter, so I think you'll find this post quite timely.

While I do grow my own tomatoes in my garden, my yield is often not what I hope. I have also had much better luck with small, prolific tomatoes like Sungolds than with bigger, beefier tomatoes, ideal for slicing and canning.

So, like many of you, I usually turn to my local farmers when it's time to put up tomatoes for the winter.

This year, I bought half a bushel.

Now, that may not seem like much but, trust me, when you wash them and line them up on the kitchen counter, it's a lot.

And I mean A LOT.

I didn't weigh my box but a quick search shows that the standard weight for a bushel of tomatoes in the United States is 53 pounds. So I'm guessing I had about 25 pounds of tomatoes.

Instead of simply making the whole lot into sauce for the freezer, I got a little creative this year.

Blueberry vinegar

More excitement around Casa de Ninj this summer: the high-bush blueberries are producing!

Regular readers will recall that last year was pretty much a crapfest in the wee orchard: no peaches, no pears, no cherries, a handful of blueberries and a few measly apples. Pffft. Hardly worth the countless hours I spent hand-picking beetles off all the trees.

Of course, all this misery was courtesy of Mother Nature, who is a fickle broad indeed, giving us a killing late spring frost in 2012 -- as if we hadn't gone through enough cold all winter. Similarly, this summer she has given us unseasonably cold temperatures alternating with blistering heat and seemingly endless rain. For cripes' sake, it's mid-August and I'm still waiting on the tomato harvest; if we don't scoot this along, my unripe tomatoes will be touched with frost before I can eat them.

But it turns out there's a silver lining to all this craptacular weather: the blueberries are thriving.

I'm done complaining. We only have four blueberry bushes and I have already harvested at least six quarts, with many more out there just waiting for me. We have oodles, even with my sharing them with the birds this year (we're all peacefully co-existing now that I've started feeding them and gave them some bitchin' bird baths).

So I was delighted when the week's "assignment" from Sherri Brooks Vinton's Put 'Em Up Fruit for the From Scratch Club's virtual book club turned out to include blueberries.

Booyah.

I already put up some of what I'm calling Black and Blue Jam this year, using the aforementioned blueberries and a boatload of wild black raspberries foraged from the edges of our woods, so I wanted to try something other than jam. Behold: Sherri's book offered up blueberry vinegar!

Watermelon soda (for the blog's anniversary)

It almost passed me by without my realizing it but today marks the third anniversary of The Ninj. Well, not exactly. I personally am way older than three. WAY older. But I've been publishing the blog, in all its glory, for exactly three years.

Certainly a lot has changed in three years. Most noticeably, my photographs (thank god). I think my goal for the next year needs to be to remake all the recipes from Year 1 and rephotograph them. There's some good stuff back there but the photos do nothing to make you want to make or eat it. Really: NOTHING.

Also, I no longer refer to myself as between careers. I'm happy to have settled into the content producer role and am even happier that I've taken on some gigs that involve more in-depth writing about food but also about other topics as well (you'll hear more about that soon).

But, of course, other things haven't really changed at all. My dogs are still nuts, I'm still doing battle with the deer (there are TWO MORE THIS YEAR, for cripes' sake!) and I am still loving trying out new recipes to share with you, best-girlfriend style.

Which brings us to the watermelon soda. Holy crap, this stuff is awesome!

I'm not exaggerating. I have never tasted such a refreshing, fizzy drink. And, mind you, I am not a soda fan. I gave the stuff up many, many years ago and don't miss it one bit. Sure, I'll have the occasional natural soda every once in a while, but I wouldn't miss it if I never had another one.

However.

I could seriously become addicted to this watermelon soda. It's fascinating to me because the combination of watermelon with a little mint and some lime juice actually makes it taste a wee bit like grapefruit (I know, right?). It's almost like getting two flavors, watermelon and grapefruit, for the price of one.

Homemade granola

I never knew one could get so freakin' excited about granola.

I bet you didn't either. Frankly, I bet you still don't. But you will, if you make this granola.

Ever since I cooked from Alana Chernila's Homemade Pantry: 101 Foods You Can Stop Buying and Start Making for the From Scratch Club Book Club and took part in the Cook It! 2012 cooking challenge, I've been motivated to make my own versions of some favorite pantry staples. Crackers, Nutella, ranch dressing, chicken patties -- it's been surprising how easy they are to make, but not surprising how much better they all are than their processed counterparts.

One basic I seemed to be overlooking was granola, a breakfast favorite around Chez Ninj. I think part of the reason was that everyone seems to make her own granola and everyone claims that hers is the best.

So I decided to go with one from several sources that I trust.

The winner? It's called "The Best Granola Recipe" by David Lebovitz, who, along with Molly from Orangette, adapted it from Nigella Lawson. Those are three pretty great endorsements, don't you think?

The verdict? David doesn't lie. And Mr. Ninj says it's the best granola he's ever eaten.

Fruit leather

Boy oh boy oh boy, have I got an addictive snack for you.

Fruit leather. Which is simply the grown-up name for the Fruit Roll-Ups we had as kids.

(Do they even make those anymore?)

I longed to have Fruit Roll-Ups in my lunchbox but they were a rarity around our house. This, of course, made them even more desirable, nearly as desirable as candy, which is what they tasted like to me.

This homemade version is no different -- well, other than the fact that it is made with real fruit and no sugar. But it still tastes like candy.

And it's GOOD FOR YOU. I think that makes it freakin' fruit candy!

And addictive? That barely sums it up. I cannot stop eating these bad boys. I made the batch you see here with only apricots -- and it was fantastic. But I'm already dreaming about the different combinations I can concoct when my favorite fruits are in season. I'm dreaming a lot about blueberry-peach.

ZOMG.

Shallot dressing for spinach salad

Do you eat enough greens?

If you're like most people, including me, probably not. Which is why I have started keeping large containers of baby spinach on hand. (Once my spinach comes up in the garden, hopefully I can give the containers a bit of a rest!)

I have two favorite ways to use the spinach:

1) Green breakfast smoothies
2) Spinach salad

The spinach salad has become my go-to side dish when I need one (I'm a big fan of incorporating the veggies into the main dish for a one-dish dinner, like this one, but sometimes you just need to have separate sides). Often, I make a true spinach salad, with dried fruit, seeds and cheese. But more often, I just dump a bunch of spinach in a bowl and toss it with this shallot dressing: my half-assed spinach salad.

Homemade Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread)

Make your own homemade Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread)!

After all the falderall this week about World Nutella Day, I almost didn't include the word "Nutella" in my post title.

But since I doubt that a multinational corporation will be coming after The Ninj for brand infringement, I'm throwing caution to the wind, as a good ninja would.

I made my own Nutella!

I know, based on my Pinterest traffic and site statistics, that y'all are Nutella junkies. I think I could make anything with Nutella and it would get 47,000 pins. Clump of Dirt with Nutella Frosting? Old Leather Shoe with Nutella Sauce? Each would still get at least 40,000 pins onto pinboards titled "OMG, YUM!" or "Sweet Awesomeness".

I love Nutella as much as you do, but I'm not a big fan of processed foods: I feel like I let myself down a little bit with each jar I buy (but notice I didn't say I stopped buying it). Yet I've never considered making it myself because I just assumed it would be too much of a pain in the ass.

I was wrong.

(You should re-read that sentence because I don't say it very often. Just ask Mr. Ninj.)

Cheddar snack crackers

Cheddar snack crackers: grown-up goldfish

I saw a meme recently that said, "There should be a 'DID THIS' button on Pinterest, complete with loud applause when you click it."

Cue the applause.

If you're on Pinterest at all, I'm sure you've seen this one floating around. The pin promised a copycat goldfish cracker recipe.

Fail.

But fail in a good way (unless you're 5 years old), because these crackers are so much better: I'd go so far as to cal them grown-up goldfish, much more appropriate with a glass of wine than a glass of milk.

How are they different? They are much, much cheesier and, while terribly addictive, rich enough that you won't be able to eat handful after handful. Which is probably a good thing because, frankly, these aren't lowfat.

However, made with just five ingredients -- cheese, butter, flour, salt and water -- this is one of the easiest recipes you'll ever pull together. Just pulse everything in the food processor, chill the dough, roll it out, cut out shapes and bake.

Done.