This has been one hell of a summer. I can’t really talk about most of it until after next week, but I feel a little like the puck in a game of air hockey. And I almost didn’t get this post up at all.

In one way, this month’s Can Jam wasn’t a surprise, and in other ways it kind of snuck up on me altogether. I should have known Tomatoes would come up sometime this summer. After all, most of the rest of you are swimming – nay, drowning – in them right now. Sure enough, that’s what Julia at What Julia Ate, chose for this month’s theme. And for the umpteenth time, our tomato season is actually in the winter/early spring times, so I searched. And searched. And searched. While I did eventually score some local tomatoes, that was a bit of a miracle. Someone in the southern end of the county must have planted a “heatwave” type. And they’re not bad at all.

But I probably should have been canning tomato stuff earlier and saved it for now. So, in a bit of a mad scramble, and using some of my own home-canned Mango Ginger Jam as an accent flavor, I made barbecue sauce. Because I’m gonna love me some barbecue this winter while the rest of you are freezing your patooties off! Hehehe.

I based my recipe on the Summer Sizzle Barbecue Sauce recipe in The Complete Book of Year-Round Small Batch Preserving by Topp and Howard, omitting the tomato sauce, adding the jam and using freshly ground chipotle pepper and chipotle pepper hot sauce. I also used the delicious new vegan, gluten-free Worcestershire sauce produced by my friend Jim at Oxford Falls.

Mango Chipotle BBQ Sauce
(makes about 5 half-pints)

Ingredients:

2 Tbs. canola oil
2 medium onions, chopped
2 large cloves garlic, minced
3 cups tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup dry red wine (I used a Malbec, because, after all, the Argentinians know their barbecue!)
3 Tbs. honey
1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbs. cider vinegar
1 tsp. dry mustard
1 tsp. peppercorns (whole)
1 tsp. chipotle pepper powder (or less, to taste)
1-1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup mango ginger jam
2 Tbs. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. chipotle pepper hot sauce

Preparation:

Heat oil in a medium non-reactive saucepan, over medium-high heat. Add the onions and garlic, sautée until soft, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the tomatoes, wine, honey, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, mustard, peppercorns, ground chili pepper, and salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and boil gently, uncovered, for about 30 minutes or until thickened.

Remove the pot from the heat and carefully run the contents through the blender until thoroughly smooth. Or do what I did, which is use my stick blender right there in the pot and not dirty another appliance.

Return the sauce to the pot (if you had to use the blender). Add the water, jam, brown sugar and hot sauce, combine thoroughly and bring to a boil.

Ladle the hot mixture into hot jars (no need to sterilize them this time, just make sure they’re good and hot), leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Cover with new lids, tighten the screw rings finger-tight, and process in a boiling water canner for 15 minutes. Wait 24 hours and test your seals before labeling and storing.

Tasting it right out of the pot, this stuff’s got that hit of spicy, smoky chipotle peppers, and is not terribly sweet, despite the honey, jam and brown sugar. It’s gonna be awesome on chicken and beef, and even on veggie burgers. Can’t wait to get my new grill!

We’ve been big pizza-eaters around here, lately, so the timing for this assignment couldn’t have been better!

To review, Michelle over at Big Black Dog, organized a group to bake from the book by Dr. Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe François, Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

Our assignment was to make a batch of the Whole Wheat Olive Oil Bread and make several things, including pizza!

This one’s oven-baked, as we don’t have an outdoor gas grill, just at the moment. Actually, it’s been a couple of years since we’ve had one. Sucks. I’ve always wanted to try grilling pizza, and it will happen, someday. But I digress.

This dough was pretty easy to work with, although I’m now in the habit of wearing disposable gloves when I do so. The instructions say to roll it out using flour to keep it from sticking, but I prefer good old corn meal for that purpose. Corn meal doesn’t get absorbed by the dough, therefore making it easier to move the dough disk around, and gives a nice, crispy bottom crust – a texture I’m fond of.

I baked this directly on the stone, loading it up with mozzarella cheese, raw spinach, and sliced tomatoes. I sprinkled some salt, pepper and garlic powder over the spinach leaves before placing the tomatoes, thereby getting both the spinach and tomatoes seasoned, without burning. The spinach cooks nicely, picking up moisture from both the cheese beneath it, and the tomatoes above it. Lastly, I sprinkled a little extra virgin olive oil on the top.

I’ll definitely make this again, trying to get the crust a bit thinner. If you’re not used to whole wheat pizza crust, the taste will kind of throw you off, initially. But after the first couple of bites – especially with delicious toppings – your palate will become accustomed pretty quickly.