Saucy

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.
When your Mom gives your organic heirloom tomatoes, you make sauce.
So I'm at it again. The sauce is bubbling away on the stove as I speak. It's so yummy and super healthy I had to make a second batch!

My recipe...

Step 1. Aquire 20 + pounds of homegrown tomatoes. Store bought absolutely will not do!


Step 2. Cut a cross in each tomato and drop in boiling water for 60 seconds. This will enable you to easily peel the tomatoes and cut out the core.

Step 3. Throw peeled, squished tomatoes into the largest pot you own and toss in a green pepper, kosher salt, an onion or two, whatever herbs you like, a wee bit of sugar and some garlic.




Step 4. Cook on medium for several hours. Skim off any foam on the top and discard.

Step 5. Run ingredients through a food mill. This will get all the seeds out. I was lucky enough to be given a premo one from Italy. I LOVE it!

Step 6. Cook down on low/medium until desired consistency. I like to cook mine until around 8pm.







Step 7. Cool and freeze. Save a little to enjoy for dinner tomorrow night:)


On a seperate note. I was abot to paint two things for ebay this weekend while my husband watched our daughter. A really cool Halloween vase and a horsey Halloween sign. They are both on ebay right now!
Thanks for reading - now go get some tomatoes while they are in season and make yourself some sauce. You will be glad you did when you're eating it over the winter!

Where to begin?

I have so much to blog about today, I don't know where to start.
My garden is growing like gangbusters. My Brandywine tomatoes are now taller than I am! The red Brandywine has a tomato on it that is absolutely enormous and shows no signs of slowing down and ripening. I wonder how big it will get (stay tuned). My poblano pepper plant has several large peppers on it and I'm not quite sure what to do with the. Does anyone have any suggestions?
The lilies I bought from the Michigan Bulb Company are pretty as can be. I bought a mixed bag so I didn't know what colors they would be. The one that bloomed today is the most gorgeous shade of yellow that blends into orange near the center.
If you look back at my May blogs you will see how small some of my gardens are and how lovely they are today. I can't believe how fast everything has grown. Next year I am going to at least triple the size of my veggie garden. I can't wait!

I finished my three week equine in oils painting workshop today. I would say I had fun. I'm not sure how much I learned but it helped to get me back into oil painting.
My painting is not quite finished yet but how much can a person really get done in 6 hours. The instructor, Stephen Leed, was very nice and he said he would help me if I ever needed it. The only other person in the class was a 17 year old who had never painted before so I think she held me back a bit and also took up more of the instructor's time. The nice thing about her is that she lives about 2 miles away and her mother invited Zoe and I over to play with their mini horses and fainting goats.
I can finally get some good mini photos to work from.

Here's a photo of my painting from the class. I would say it is about 75% finished.
The shadow at the top is from my easel.



Lastly, I have completed two more halloween art pieces for ebay. One of my popular Halloween horses and a candle sconce with a witchy theme.

Please check my auctions if you want to bid!



Thanks for reading. It ALWAYS makes my day when someone posts a comment:)
~Jen