Easy Roasted Tomato Sauce

 I love growing tomatoes in my garden. Nolan and I especially love a variety called Oxheart. As you can see from the photos, these tomatoes tend to be large! They also are slow growing and ripen late in the season. This is why I now have an abundance of tomatoes sitting in the sunroom. I've been making roasted tomato sauce with these because it is so EASY! I know there are lots of recipes floating around the web for this type of sauce but I thought I'd share my method. 

 Generally people roast a less juicy tomato like a Roma, but I think a juicy tomato works well for this sauce. You just have to roast it a little (or a lot) longer! Step one: wash your tomatoes. Since my tomatoes came from our backyard garden, I know the only thing that needs washed off is a little dirt.

 You'll need a cutting board, sharp knife, pan to roast the tomatoes (it must have sides or you'll have a grand mess) olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and any herb you prefer.

 Cut out the stem end and any bruised or "nasty" parts of the tomato. No need to peel it. Once you have all the bad sections in the compost, cut the tomato into cubes.

 Fill the tray making sure the tomatoes aren't overlapping too much. Drizzle with olive oil (I always say more is better than less), add salt and pepper to your liking (see note on olive oil) and toss to coat.

 Roast at 400F. for 45 minutes to an hour depending on your tomato type and how many you're roasting. You can see from my pan on the right, I roasted a little too long. No worries, it all came out wonderfully anyway! Check the tomatoes every 20 minutes or so and give them a stir. Let them cool a little once done.

 Today I used bottled garlic and oregano from our garden. Generally I like to roast whole garlic cloves with the tomatoes. Unfortunately I didn't have any so I went with the bottled. 

 Dump all the ingredients into a blender. I don't measure the garlic or herbs, I just add until I think it looks good (or I run out of something!) Blend for a few seconds to puree. 

 There you have it: Delicious roasted tomato sauce. We like this sauce for our spaghetti squash because it really sticks. I'm putting these in the freezer for a later date. I still have a table full of tomatoes that I'm letting ripen a little longer. I bet I have enough for another 4-6 pints of sauce. Yum!

Now....who wants to do the dishes?

Meal Planning....It Helps to Be Organized

 Now that I'm a working woman again, the task of meal planning and grocery shopping becomes a little more complicated. I'm blessed that my husband shares the cooking and the shopping. I have found when we aren't organized we end up running to the store almost daily. This is a money and time waster so I'm trying to get organized.

Since I've been back to school/work, I have to go to market on Saturday mornings. We try to buy as much of our food at market as we can. Since I can't just pop in any old time I want, I have to be organized by Saturday morning. So I find a Friday pm or early Saturday am date with my recipe collection to work out well. 

I recently organized my printed recipes into a binder which I hope will help streamline my meal planning. I also find that if I try to stay with one source for the week's meals it keeps things simple. This week I've chosen a Martha Stewart Everyday Food magazine that I've had for about a year. It has lots of fall recipes, including several that use butternut squash which we harvested from our garden in the last few weeks. 

Here you can see the method to my madness. My mother-in-law likes to comment on the "goldness" of my personality (I like things in order) and this really showcases that side of me. But, hey, I've gotta be me! So onto my method. First I decide how many meals I need to plan for and if there are any evenings that we need easy meals or no meal due to our schedules. I generally plan for 6 or 7 meals at a time. I then just let my fingers do the walking through the recipes. I also keep in mind what is in season and what I already have on hand. We buy our meat in bulk for our freezer so that makes shopping one step easier. 

When I choose the recipes that I want for the week, I write them down along with the recipe book and page number so whoever is cooking can easily find the recipe. I then make my lists. You got it right, I make two lists. One is for market and one for the grocery store. With list in hand I make two trips and our shopping is complete for the week. 

Although I don't always feel like sitting down to meal plan, I do generally enjoy it. I am always happy during the week that the planning is complete because I certainly have less brain power to make meal decisions after work every day. 

I'd love to hear how you do your meal planning. Is there a method you use? Do you live close to a daily market and can shop fresh daily? Do you grow most of your food? Are you a monthly planner? Let me hear from you!

Feast of San Paschal Baylon

Yesterday was Ascension Day which trumped the Feast of St. Paschal Baylon on the Church Calendar. However, since St. Paschal is Nolan's confirmation saint we chose to have a little dual celebration meal. Above you can see the little St. Paschal that I had made for Nolan for Confirmation. There aren't any readily available statues or medals and one of our fellow parishioners makes these lovely little saints. Isn't he great? If you'd like to read a little about St. Paschal you can click here. This is the best summation of the religious and folklore that surrounds St. Paschal. Nolan loves him because he is the patron of cooks and kitchens. If you have younger children you may be familiar with his story by Tommie de Paola, Pascual and the Kitchen Angels.

For our culinary celebration I wanted to have something southwestern because although St. Paschal is from Spain, he is well known in Mexico and the south western U.S. Above you can see the Chimichangas and Spanish Rice we ate. I think I'm still full but it was decadent and delicious.

 In celebration of the Ascension, we had these Sopapillas (or little pillows). They puff up in the oil when cooked which I thought was sort of reminiscent of Christ rising to Heaven. Ok, that's kind of pathetic but Nolan loved making the dough and we all had fun eating them and it brought about some conversation. Works for us! Here's the web site I used to find the recipes. It was not the most healthy of meals but feast days are for celebrating, right?

Friday Photo Notes

Mike and I enjoyed a Friday morning at the Landis Valley Herb and Garden Faire. We bought lots of sweet and hot peppers and some eggplant and squash for the garden. It was a beautiful morning to spend out of doors.

You can see some of our heirloom peppers.

I promised Nolan he could make some homemade pasta tonight. The dough had to sit for 30 minutes.

Of course, what is homemade pasta without homemade sauce? We used the last of Nolan's 2011 sauce for his Confirmation party. This sauce was made from scratch but with canned tomatoes. Nolan's Secret Hobo Spices added just the right flavors. Yum!

This is my herb planter. We've started using the herbs already. Oregano and basil were added to the sauce tonight.

Here's garden box number three. I love the little baby lettuce. My sugar peas are growing like crazy! I added a little chicken wire support for them this morning.

Have a wonderful weekend and happy Mother's Day to all you moms!

Gardening and Quilting

 These red beets look a little larger in this photograph than they were in real life. They were between one and two inches in diameter but they came from our little garden. Nolan and I had great fun pulling them out of the ground last night.

 Since I knew that the greens were edible and full of some kind of nutrient (800% RDA of vitamin K among others) I sautéed the greens in olive oil and added them to our plate. I roasted the beets with some sweet potatoes.

In other news, I'm doing some more organic line quilting. This is the last quilt I wanted to finish while I was off work and before my Philadelphia classes begin in June. I'm hoping to finish quilting it today and fully finish the quilt this week. What I'll do with it after that, I don't know. I do love the line quilting because it reminds me of life's journey. The road is never straight and sometimes it gets closer or farther from others roads but the journey is really the important thing. It's what makes us who we are.


Well, I'm off to help a friend dye her hair for a job interview! I warned her I've never done such a thing so I'm glad she trusts me!

You Call It Trash, I Call It Chicken Stock

 Homemade chicken stock is easy and VERY nutritious. Additionally, it is made with everything that is generally thrown away. Each time I cut up onions, garlic, parsley or carrots, I put the peelings and stem ends in a gallon Ziplock bag that I keep in my freezer. After we roast a chicken, I put the carcass and the contents of my freezer bag into a stock pot.

 Here you can see the veggie waste on top of the carcass. This batch includes carrot peelings, onion and garlic skin, celery ends and parsley stems. 

 Fill the pot with cold water. Some people say to use filtered water but I really can't be that complicated when I cook. I just use water from the tap. You should add a little vinegar to assist in pulling the minerals from the bones but I almost always forget to do that. 

 Simmer the mixture for as long as you can stand it.

 The water will evaporate and the vitamins and minerals from the chicken and the veggies will be added to the liquid. 

 If the liquid gets too low just add more water and keep simmering. It's best to let it simmer until the bones from the chicken are brittle and break easily. This means you've gotten all the minerals from them and your stock will be very nutritious.

When the stock is finished simmering, strain it into a container or two. I use these glass Ball jars. I generally get between 7 and 8 cups of stock. The fat will rise to the top and the stock may become gelatinous when it cools. You know it's really good if you get a gel. MIne doesn't always gel but it is always good. 


Why is it important to make your own stock? First, take a look at the ingredients of the chicken stock in the grocery store. Here's the list on a Swanson Chicken Broth container:

• CHICKEN BROTH, SALT, MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE, DEXTROSE, YEAST EXTRACT, CHICKEN FLAVOR, FLAVORING, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT, CHICKEN FAT, HYDROLYZED SOY PROTEIN, CHICKEN BROTH POWDER.

I don't know about you but I don't find that list very appetizing. Additionally, my broth didn't cost me anything more than time (ok, and the water and the electricity to heat the stove). I used only those items that were left over from cooking something else.

Finally, the nutrition. Homemade stock has so many nutritive values that I hesitate to list them all here. You'll think I'm an infomercial. Kitchen Stewardship has a really good article that explains it all better than I could. Additionally, the Nourished Kitchen website (which is where I learned to make stock) has some great information about stocks, broths and the like.

Today I'll be using the left over chicken and some wonderful veggies from my Market trip on Friday to make chicken soup. The wonderful thing about this kind of soup is that depending on the time of year and the contents of my garden and refrigerator make each batch of soup just a little different. Todays batch will include leeks, sweet potatoes, garlic, carrots, chicken and parsley. Happy Cooking!

The Great Salad Experiment

A black radish. At market it looked like a basket full of coal.

The insides are white. It's a spicy treat.

In June I'll be traveling to Philadelphia every day for 7 weeks. It's going to be an intense time and I know I'll be exhausted. I want to try to take a healthy lunch and I'm a big salad eater over the summer when it is hot and the veggies are fresh and local. I wondered if the salad would stay fresh if prepared all at once for the week. So today I started the grand experiment after returning home from market. My salads have 2 kinds of lettuce, carrot, black radish, breakfast radish, mushroom, red pepper, avocado, tomato, bacon and feta cheese. I also make my own salad dressing. It's usually a conglomeration of items I find around the kitchen: olive oil, lemon juice, herbs, onions, peppers, etc. I haven't had a bad batch yet.

Duck Soup

The last day of vacation. Sigh. Time to prepare for the school and work week ahead. That meant a little grocery shopping, finishing up a school project, bread baking and soup cooking.


We roast a chicken several times a month. I always make roasted chicken stock from the carcass and then generally make a good nourishing soup with it. Soup is an excellent way to finish up those vegetables that may have been in the fridge for just a tad too long. It's never the same thing twice.


In this case, I'm making duck soup. Yup, duck. We roasted a duck over the Christmas Holiday and I used the carcass to make stock. Making stock is so easy! The broth is so much better than anything you can buy at the store. Basically, just throw the carcass into a pot, cover the bones with water, add an onion, garlic and some carrots and bring to a boil. Let the mixture simmer for several hours. I generally add water once to fill up the pot during the boil. Then just strain the liquid through some cheese cloth and you've got some really delicious, nutritious broth to do with as you will!


Today's soup includes the duck stock, onions, garlic, green beans, carrots, tomatoes (frozen from my garden) and the left over duck meat. I pulled out some pesto to add in at the end. I forgot I had a whole bag full in the freezer!


Nathan and I made three loaves of whole wheat bread this afternoon so I'll cut a few slices for the boys (who aren't too wild about vegetable soup) and a simple, nourishing meal will be served with enough leftovers for Mike and I to have for lunches this week.


Now, back to the old grind!

Traditional Italian Tomato Sauce

This tomato got herself stuck on the fence. I think we'll have to cut her on the day of sauce making!

My friend Heather wanted a copy of Nolan's sauce recipe so I thought I'd just post it for everyone to enjoy. This recipe comes from a Martha Stewart magazine from many, many years ago. I've listed the recipe with Nolan's adaptations in parenthesis. 

4 twenty-eight-ounce cans whole Italian plum tomatoes (Nolan uses large fresh homegrown tomatoes. 20 large, 40 small or some combination)

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

1 tsp crushed red-pepper flakes

1 cup Chianti or other dry red wine

1 TBSP dried oregano

8 leaves fresh basil

Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Puree the tomatoes in a food mill, removing most of the seeds. (**Nolan informs me he peels the fresh tomatoes, puts them in a big bowl and "mushes" them up with his hands. This is perhaps one of the reasons he loves making this sauce. LOL).

2. In a medium stockpot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic, and saute until golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes. Add red-pepper flakes. While oil is sizzling, slowly add half of the pureed tomatoes. Add wine, stirring to combine. Add remaining tomatoes.

3. Reduce heat. Add the oregano, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until sauce has thickened slightly, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

4. Add the basil. Season with salt and pepper. Store sauce in an airtight container, refrigerated, up to 4 days. Alternatively, store in freezer up to 1 month. (Final note: I keep it in the freezer up to 1 year).

Putting Up....again

My mother froze corn every year of my life. In fact, she is still doing it. She makes the BEST chicken corn soup EVER with the frozen corn. To be honest, I refuse to eat corn that comes from the grocery store. It has to be fresh or frozen fresh or I'm leavin' it behind. That being said, I love a warm cup of soup for lunch during the winter and decided to get my corn on the cob this morning. 

Here's Mike helping me husk. We probably should have done this outside but it didn't make too much of a mess in the sunroom. The husks went right into the compost.

Yummy close up. I bought 4 dozen ears.

 I realized that my kitchen is perfectly set up for blanching the corn. Above you can see the pots that are not quite boiling and the corn ready to be added.

 Turn to the middle and we have two sinks full of ice water (Mike was on the ice run when I took the photo).

 Finally, the draining section to the right.

 We set up the card table just outside to cut the corn off the cob. I wanted to get a photo of Nathan and I cutting and Nolan and Mike blanching but my fingers were too messy.

Here's the bounty for the freezer. Just over 8 quarts. That'll be enough for 4 pots of chicken corn soup this winter. I wonder if that's enough?

CSA Bounty

 Today was the first CSA pickup! Yeah! We have been eagerly awaiting the local garden bounty. Mike and I hesitated for a long time to join a CSA because we tend to eat the same veggies over and over. We just weren't sure that we would eat the vegetables that we had paid for. Recently, we have been doing a lot of reading about food and changing our food buying and food eating habits. That includes trying new things and eating seasonally. So, we went ahead and joined Goodwill at Homefield Farms.  


Here's the bounty we received. While Mike and I gathered our goods in the barn, the boys went out to the strawberry field to pick our box. They've really enjoyed being on the farm and getting to pick their own food. Homefields has several gardens that are for the shareholders to pick themselves. I love that, especially for the boys. There's certainly no fresher food than the food you pick yourself.


As you can see we had lettuce and garlic scape, chard, bok choy, strawberries and kale. It was the kale that worried me a little. I've never eaten it. None of us ever did. 

 Here you can see what I did with it. I chopped the firmer veggies and sautéed them first (onion, bok choy, garlic scape) and then added the kale. I used sesame oil which adds a little flavor to the dish. After the whole thing wilted, I added some fresh ground salt and pepper.

Mike was grilling burgers while I was dealing with the veggies. You can see my plate full above. Now, I'll admit, these veggies aren't much to look at but WOW were they delicious. I'm looking forward to making it again another night.

Here's the best dessert of all. Fresh strawberries and blueberries. I bought the blueberries at market on Tues. and I can't imagine they are local but they were delicious with the strawberries. Now I have a hankering for a berry smoothie for breakfast. Yum. 

Weekend Getaway and a Gift.

The photo above is one of the magnificent waterfalls that can be viewed if you hike Rickett's Glen. Many months ago, Mike and I decided that we could really use a weekend away. A weekend away together. A weekend away together but without the boys. To some people that may sound terrible. Really, though, I think it is good for your marriage to get away. Mike and I love to camp and hike. We don't mind terribly if the weather isn't the best. Our boys like camping and hiking ok. It's not their favorite thing in the world. So Mike and I decided it would be nice to spend a weekend together, doing something we love and allowing the boys a weekend with my parents. 


As I said earlier, the above photo is one of the waterfalls from Rickett's Glen. It wasn't, however, a photo from this weekend. That picture was snapped last year when Mike and the boys went to the Glen. This weekend was so cold and rainy I didn't want to take th camera out on our hike for fear of ruining it. Turns out the rain tapered off about 30 minutes into our hike so I could have taken some photos. Oh well. Those falls aren't going anywhere.


Despite the cold and the persistent rain, Mike and I had a lovely time. So much of it was spent in silence. We spoke when the mood hit and talked about many different subjects but we also spent a lot of time in companionable silence. One of the things that has kept our marriage strong is that we don't feel the need to always be doing or thinking about the same things. We have many activities that we both enjoy doing, and I think that is important. We also have our differences. In most things (like music and books) we overlap in the middle but also have our extremes. We're like a Venn diagram often. Personally, I think that's healthy. We respect those items that one loves and the other does not (for me, Frank Zappa falls in that category). We tease each other about our obsessions that are not shared but for the most part we have much in common and enjoy our time together.


One thing that we enjoyed about this weekend was what we called our gourmet campfire fare. Friday night we had Salmon and Asparagus on the coals and Saturday night's feast was a beef and veggie coal fry. Delicious. Again.....not something the boys would have been very thrilled about. They had pizza with grandma and grandpa. They were happy, we were happy.


Of course, we were glad to set off for home this morning. It was raining and damp. We packed up as soon as we left the sleeping bags. We were home by lunch and happily unpacked and cleaned up (ok, except for the soggy tent. That'll have to wait for a sunnier day) by the time the boys walked through the door. We were happy to be a reunited family. 


That's when I got my gift. Last week on Mother's Day the boys informed me that my present was late in arriving. Apparently it arrived on Friday after Mike and I left. Guess what? They presented me with an iPod Touch!!! They boys purchased my case and Mike the toy. Wow! What a surprise! I'd been using Nolan's for a while and was really enjoying it. With all the driving I've been doing I loved having my music all in one place. So now I'm getting ready to personalize that gift! App store, here I come.


All in all, it was a fabulous weekend.

Bread Credits

I know, I know....I haven't posted in a long time. I've wanted to, really I have. It amazes me how quickly time passes. We have a busy few weeks ahead of us. Last week the boys and I spent most of the day (like 8:30am-9pm) at our Church's youth outreach camp. It is a wonderful way for teens to help parishioners and local agencies. This is the second year my boys were eligible to attend. Boy was I tired at the end of the week. This week is vacation. We rarely go away for the entire week for many reasons. This week we will head to the beach for a few days and take a few day trips. Yesterday we visited a goat farm where they make cheese out of goat milk. We have been buying cheese from them at Central Market (yummy...if you are from Lancaster you must get some) and they hosted an open house (open farm??) yesterday. We were able to see the goats and learn about the cheese making process. Lovely family (they homeschool, too). We then headed out to Jim Macs for mini golf and ice cream. Again, if you live anywhere near me (Jim Macs is actually in York county) you can get wonderful ice cream for CHEAP! Yum.


Today we're off to Hershey Park. We had no intention of getting there this year because the ticket prices are so high. Then, what to my amazement, I won four tickets! So....we're off later this morning. Needless to say the boys are very excited. They were able to go earlier this summer with Mike's sister and her fiance' so this will be the first time in their lives to get there twice in one summer. 


In sewing related news, I have been making clothes this summer. I know I promised to show you what I've been making and I still have to take pictures. I find photography to be more difficult in this house. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Anyway, after reading a post from my friend Michele about the book Sew Serendipity: Fresh and Pretty Designs to Make and Wear, I headed out to Border's and was able to purchase it with a VERY good discount. I've made a dress and skirt so far. I also purchased several patterns from a garage sale that I'm hoping to work on this summer. I'm really going to try to get you some photos of the items I've made. I'm making it a priority (once vacation is over, that is).


Finally....the title of this post, Bread Credits. What, you may wonder, am I talking about? Well, Nathan starts High School this year (how did that happen???). So, he needs to work on earning credits. One nice thing about homeschooling is that he can earn credits a little here and a little there. He loves to bake so I thought one of his electives could be cooking/baking. Nolan will be away at camp next week so I thought this would be a great week to start working on those credits. I've been wanting to bake bread and he likes to eat bread (always a good motivator) and since there is a lot of science that goes into bread making I thought this would be a great place to start. The downside to the bread making (for me) is the bread eating. Thus, I thought I'd try to find some healthier recipes. I've looked through the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking cookbook and thought it looked interesting and recently saw Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day: 100 New Recipes Featuring Whole Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, and Gluten-Free Ingredients. I'm hoping the library will have copies of both. If you have any bread making tips or recipes....send them our way!