First off, happy Friday to you all!
The weekend has arrived and things at The Gables are downright farmy!
Now. Take note. This particular rose has taken until now to put these blooms forth. The blossoms are the most glorious hues of salmon fading inward to a pleasant and punchy yellow…these flowers prove that everything tends to bloom when RW comes home.
Also, may I solicit your prayers for Madame Judith who seems unable to produce eggs?
The poor thing.
Is there a patron saint of egg laying?
RW has been giving her plenty of hugs, trying to encourage her to pop a few eggs out. We expected her to begin laying in August and we fear she may think she’s a rooster.
She’s become quite a handsome lady, hasn’t she?
Farley has become the keeper of my tomatoes (and yes, he always sits on steps like this). Remember a couple of weeks ago when we were having our first freezes here? Well, my tomatoes survived and are coming ripe all at once, as usual.
When this happened last year, I made batches and batches of pico de gallo salsa and ate it for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day (and then I took tortilla chips into the bath and had chips and salsa while soaking). This year, I planted a total of 25 tomatoes plants in the various gardens of The Gables. I have a considerably higher fruit yield and last weekend I made a foray into canning my own pasta sauce as a way to preserve some of this garden goodness into the winter months.
The outcome of my first attempt was positively delicious and I am prepared to share the recipe with you now, should you like to can your own pasta sauce or just make a delicious, fresh, from scratch marinara sauce for dinner this weekend. My recommendation is that you use your own garden fruits or scout out some beautiful, vine ripened, organic tomatoes from your local farmer’s market (store bought tomatoes are the saddest things in all of the grocery world) Easy peasy. Here it is:
Jillian’s Superdooperlicious Pasta Sauce
8 cups coarsely chopped and peeled tomatoes (about 9-10 tomatoes OR 4 lbs)
1 cup chopped onion (Walla Walla sweets are GOOD in here)
3 cloves of minced garlic
2/3 cup of red wine (no matter here, I use 2 buck chuck)
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
1 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
1 tsp pickling salt
1/2 tsp granulated sugar
1 can or 6oz tomato paste
1. Combine ALL ingredients in a large saucepan, bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 40 minutes or until mixture reaches desired consistency, stirring frequently.
2. Remove hot jars from your canner and ladle the sauce into jars and leave a 1/2 inch of headspace. Process for 35 minutes for a pint and 40 minutes for a quart.
This should make you 8 cups of pasta sauce.
Notes:
1. If you don’t have the patience to can (and this recipe IS VERY time consuming), I don’t see why you can’t store this sauce in freezer containers (glads or zip-locks) into the winter.
3. I’m very picky about following canning recipes because I fear botulism. I wouldn’t mess around with the ingredient portions here too much folks, if you do INDEED can this sauce.
4. This sauce is delicious on the spot if you just want to make it for dinner. Fortify it with mushrooms and your choice of meat, if you like. We’ll be adding elk, antelope and venison to ours this winter!
5. On it’s own, it’s positively scrumptious over pasta (quinoa pasta for me) with freshly grated Parmesan on top. And that’s the honest truth.
Happy canning!
See you on Monday!
xx
Plume
Dear Plume,
When I need a bit o' beauty I come here. Your photos and words are inspiring, along with your handiwork. What kind of camera do you shoot with? Also, do you knit your own finger gloves? Beautiful!
Thank you! Keep on keepin on 🙂
I just posted an eerily similar pic of my puppy on fb
Happy weekend to you!
What a great recipe! Thanks for sharing I've been thinking about canning and will visit the farmer's market next week and collect the ing. Poor Judith – we will keep her in our prayers. Maybe she is just tired of her room mate getting all of the attention:O) Have a great weekend and that's an order:O) Hugs, Sal
Hey there Annie & Seth!
I use a Canon 50D most of the time. When I'm out bushwhacking or climbing, I use my XTi.
As for my finger gloves, I'm a very lucky, and really lovely ladies all over the world (Finland, Poland, Alaska, Kentucky…) tend to mail them to me:) I really should learn to whip some up for myself since I wear them every single day in the fall, winter and spring:)
Thanks for being such a lovely part of my world!
x
Q: I'm off to check!
Sal: You should!!! As for the great weekend, I'm already on it:) xx
That Farley…. ha ha.
All looks lovely, and perhaps you should let Judith rest…maybe she does not want to lay eggs!
On another note, delicious as tomatoes are they are somewhat acidic for delicate stomachs, so watch out.
Happy weekend Mme Plume!
xoxo
I agree!
Judith should rest!
I need you to help me convince RW that he's squeezing her too much:) I keep telling him she isn't a tube of toothpaste!
HA!
As for tomato acidity, you're positively correct, I'll be careful with the tummers. x
take heart my dear! my buff orp Fiona just started as of a week ago so there's still hope for Judith yet.
Oh yeah, and when they start squatting I like to give them lots of back pats and tail tugs.. seems to get them in the umm "spirit" of laying so to speak.
😉
Sweet Judith was perhaps waiting for the return of RW herself…hasn't she earned her keep by eating a variety of insects and other invertebrates in your yard? She'll lay eggs when she's good and ready, and then she'll be a trooper about it–Buff Orpingtons are AWESOME chickens.
By the way, that rose is spectacular!! We have a daylily, two years old now, that refuses to bloom until September–lovely lavender ruffled petals–one blossom SLOWLY emerging at a time. It's a lovely treat for summer's end.
You two have fun with the hens and dogs!
Mmmm, I might be just using this recipe as a dinner time delight in the near future.
Also, your use of the words "2 buck chuck" nearly had me spitting my double bergamot onto my keyboard.
That is all 😉
Jillian has misrepresented my treatment of Judith – yes I do give her a squeeze from time to time but it is mostly Judith who harasses me! Every time I walk outside or try to do some work Judith comes running (well more of a crazy waddle flightish sort of thing) over to me and begins pecking my shorts, shoes or anything else she thinks is edible. — This mainly started after I began feeding her sunflower seeds – I now almost always have bag of Spitz in my pocket to apease her. But guess what — She likes me Best!! RW
She does like RW, rather quite a lot. And he is guilty of doting on her, something fierce.
Oh that man….
Your canned sauce sounds divine. Forget the Spitz. You should try growing sunflowers and making your own. They grow nicely in this area. Last year I grew and roasted a ton and if there were any left I'd give you loads for yourself and Judith. I have too many hungry seed-gobblers of my own, I guess.
Well…Madame Judith shall be in my prayers even though it appears that she is in wonderful hands :)!
As to the sauce – yum!…but I will say that this summer, I have discovered roasting veg of all kinds and have been making a similar sauce recipe excepting I have added roast cauliflower, roast broccoli and roast carrots (all roasted together) to your mixture (excepting I haven't used wine and I use cinnamon instead of sugar)…all together in my Vita-Mix and whirred to a moderately chunky consistency.
I regret to report that I do not garden.
BUT, I do buy from the locals who DO garden, so do use fresh MT produce and heartily agree with "other than grocery" stuff.
And I freeze vs can which works for me as I use up the summer's freeze each Fall/Winter.
At any rate, makes wonderful red sauce for pasta, pizza or wherever red sauce is used.
Thank you for sharing your brew!
Melissa: The Spitz thing is all RW! I think he picked it up this summer while on fires — instead of chewing tobacco. I have my own sunflowers! I've never considered making my own spitz! Great idea!
Ann: Firstly, let me say, you look like a darn handsome woman in that profile picture of yours! Your sauce sounds scrumptious. I'm planning on asking RW for a VitaMix this Christmas. I hope he says yes. I'd ask for one for my birthday but I'm already getting a puppy;)
Just canned up some lovely tomato sauce! Eight cute little jars… turned out beautifully! Thanks so much for the recipe! I just chucked in a few different herbs I have growing here and used a little home brew! 🙂
Thanks for all you share.