August 3, 2012 - Busy, Productive Day

I started off the morning with a big pot of colorful tomatoes, waiting to be turned into spaghetti sauce for the evening meal.  They were simmered until soft, blended smooth with the stick blender, then run through the chinoise to remove the seeds.  I like to make my sauce this way, using the skins, which are completely undetectable when the sauce is finished.  There is very little waste.  I let the sauce cook down a bit, then added some onion and garlic that had been sauteed until soft, dried basil and oregano from last year's garden, salt and pepper.  One taste let me know a teaspoon of sugar was needed, as I like a hint of sweetness in my spaghetti sauce.  I had also decided to add a bit of red wine to the sauce, but.......I don't drink, so I didn't have a corkscrew!  The next best thing?

It worked!  It took me a few minutes, as my muscle man wasn't home.

Some browned lean ground beef was added, seasonings adjusted to taste, and the entire conglomeration was dumped into the crockpot to cook slowly all day.

My neighbor, the ones with the weeds (but also an apricot tree, a peach tree and an apple tree), had brought me a bag of peaches that were too bruised for canning, but perfect for jam.  I made one batch of freezer jam yesterday, and still had some of the nicer ones I had set aside for eating.  I decided to go ahead and make another batch of jam instead.  I could only find one half-pint jar, so I also had to use three pint jars.  Where oh where did I put the half-pints?  I'll probably find them next December.

With the jam finished, I got to thinking how good a loaf of French bread would be with the spaghetti we were going to eat for dinner, so that was the next chore on the agenda.  Done!

I hadn't been out to the garden yet, so that was the next thing that had to be accomplished.  I wasn't expecting a very big harvest, as everything has slowed down with this hot weather.  Well, the harvest was definitely acceptable.

Soooo......that's where I am right now.  The sauce is cooked, the bread is rising, the jam is finished and the garden goodies have been picked.  It looks like we'll be having some sliced cucumbers,  fresh corn and broccoli tonight, and I'm thinking I might have to beg the neighbors to take some yellow summer squash.  And I'm right back where I started with tomatoes.  Too many to eat fresh, not enough (and too small) to can, so tomorrow there will be another pot of sauce.