Saturday, August 26th
Cooking Tomato Sauce Using Tomatoes from Our Garden

I have to begin with last weekend, since I have not had a chance to sit down and write in my blog. Last Friday (August 25th), Jeff and I made tomato sauce using tomatoes from our garden. My friend from work gave me instructions on how to peel the skin off tomatoes and her recipe for tomato sauce. Jeff is never the type to stick to a recipe, but he likes to check several recipes and decide what he wants to do. He is so passionate about cooking and perfecting a dish. I think it's so cute. He always consults me about ingredients and begs me to taste and give my opinion. I'm not much of a cook, but I love the fact that he likes to include me.

The peeling of the tomatoes was a no brainer. The tomatoes were hot to touch even though I ran them under ice cold water. (Ouch!!!) After we got the peels off, we needed to cut the seeds and cores out of the tomatoes. What a mess!! I thought we were all done, but Jeff thought we need a strainer to put all the miscellaneous juices through. Therefore, I had to go to Kmart to buy one. Whatever makes the cook happy!! I actually believed it was a good idea because we had so much juice on our plates after we pulled the seeds out.

Here's the recipe we used (from my work friend):

Quarter the tomatoes (squish out the seeds)

Chop onions

Chop a lot of garlic

Add any green or red pepper

Salt & pepper

2 tablespoons of sugar (any color)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp oregano, basil, italian seasoning, salt and pepper

1 small can of tomato paste

Simmer on medium low till soft - 10 minutes or less add sugar, cinnamon (yes, believe me) these two things balance out the acidity of the tomatoes. Throw in tomatoes and add oregano, basil, italian seasoning, salt and pepper cook on medium stirring. No lid it will be bubbling on top, but not burning on the bottom. Skim off tomato skins from top (or not). Add tomato paste to thicken sauce.

Taste the sauce, if it is not yummy, add more seasoning and possibly sugar after the sauce is bubbling and you are sick of stirring turn heat to med-low and cook for at least 1 hour if the sauce is too runny, cook longer - no lid, you want the extra liquid to evaporate

Well, the tomato sauce turned out excellent. Jeff didn't add the cinnamon, sugar or peppers (he doesn't like them), but I still thought the sauce had great taste. On Saturday afternoon, he decided to make a lasagna using his tomato sauce. Wow, it was awesome!!! We gave some to his parents and friends and they raved about it. I had it the next day for dinner and thought it was better than the day before. Boy, I'm so lucky to have such a great husband who's such a wonderful cook. Don't ever ask Jeff about the time I made him lasagna. It wasn't a pretty sight!!

Some of the tomatoes from our garden.

Aren't they beautiful?

We used alots of garlic just like the recipe said.

(See Jeff is capable of following some parts of the recipe.)