1. Pick tomatoes, wash them. Any tomatoes will do.

2. Set up a pot of water to boil. The first step is to blanch the tomatoes. Take a knife and score an X at the bottom of the tomatoes and drop them in the boiling water for 10-20 seconds.

3. Quickly move the tomatoes from the boiling water to a bowl of ice water.

At this point the skins will have burst and will be easy to remove.

4. Remove the skins.

5. Now remove the seeds, while keeping the juice. I found the easiest way to do this was to squeeze the tomato over a strainer and measuring cup. Since I had scored the tomatoes on the bottom, and these were small, this got rid of most of the seeds and juice.

6. Now chop the tomatoes up in whatever form you want. If you want the sauce to be a little chunky, give them a rough cut. If you want the sauce to be smooth, you can use an immersion blender or puree.

7. Now let’s chop a few veggies to flavor the sauce. Here is 1 carrot, 1 stalk of celery, 1 small onion and a bit of garlic.

8. Now (finally!!) let’s get cooking!  Start with some olive oil and all the veggies in a pot. Cook them 10-15 minutes, or until they start to soften/lose some color/cook.

9. Add in your tomatoes. Let the sauce simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30-45 minutes.  If the sauce ends up too thick, add some of the tomato juice you captured earlier during de-seeding. Add salt to taste.

YUMMY!

We made ours a generic tomato sauce. We could put this over pasta as is, or make it more of an Italian spaghetti sauce by adding basil and oregano.  I’m sure you could can this, although I only made a few servings in this batch so I opted just to freeze it. I can’t wait to thaw it out a few months from now when it’s snowy outside and enjoy it that much more because it came from my own garden!

I’m sorry, you probably can’t see it quite well enough. Let me show you a closeup:

The night after we closed, Wes and I drove down to the house to see how easily the wallpaper might be removed. We peeled a bit and low and behold the vinyl portion of the paper just came right off. Starting to look better already.

Saturday, after a BIG trip to Home Depot we got out our DIF blue goo and smeared it all over the walls. A few hours of scraping and we got all the paper removed. What was underneath? Well burgundy walls of course!

Yeah. We don’t get it either.

Sunday we primed and painted. Our walls our now Cancun Sand, which basically means a nice cream color. Tape comes off tomorrow so this shot will have to suffice for now:

Of course the other fun thing about our house is that the previous occupants were serious gardeners. This means we got lucky and get a bit of the end of the season produce. We watered today, and collected an enormous zucchini, a squash, a couple peppers, okra, tons and tons of tomatoes (the cherry ones are SO good – and I don’t even like tomatoes!), blackberries and concord grapes. YUM!

ETA For more pictures of the house visit the whole album here.

In the last few months it has become increasingly clear that we need more space. We both have too many activities that involve equipment, and we’re just plumb out of storage space. Combine that with a loud upstairs neighbor, a lack of backyard space, our desire for covered parking and you guessed it, we’re ready to find a place of our own!

We’re meeting a broker tonight to go out and look at a few homes to get a better feel for what we’re looking for. We’re hoping to purchase at some point this summer and move in early fall.

Of course the thought of MOVING makes me want to throw up everything away.

Wish us luck!

Sausage Stuffed Butternut Squash
courtesy of Cooks.com

1 butternut squash (cut in half)
1/2 lb. Sweet Italian Sausage
3 slices of bread, cubed
1 egg, well beaten
1 small onion
Garlic
1/8 to 1/4 cup parsley.

Place squash cut side down in greased shallow baking dish. Bake at 350 for 40-60 minutes until squash is tender.

Meanwhile, remove sausage from casing and fry until brown and crumbly. Add onion and garclic and saute until onions are soft. Stir in egg, parsley and bread. Remove from heat.

Scoop seeds from squash. Remove squash meat and add to sausage mixture.

Spoon mixture back into shell. Return to oven and bake another 15 minutes until top is golden brown.

P.S. In full disclosure, I sidelined myself last night early in the game with the knife, so Wes did the actual cooking. DELISH!

1. Dock, 2. Wes & I Kayaking, 3. Shadow Water Lily, 4. Water Lily, 5. Water Lily Garden, 6. Water Lily, 7. Gnarly tree, 8. Tree & Sky, 9. Fresh peach cobbler!

This weekend I experimented with what I had in the kitchen and whipped up some potato salad from scratch. Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of it (the one above is borrowed) but it was extra special tasty!

I started with boiling about half a dozen red potatoes and half a dozen small russets. I also threw an egg in the water to boil as well. (next time I think I would use two, but I only had one in the fridge!) After they had boiled for approximately 30 minutes and the potatoes were fork tender, I put everything in a ceramic bowl in the fridge to cool for an hour.

After an hour I pulled everything out of the fridge and started assembling. I cubed the potatoes, smashed the yoke of the hard-boiled egg, and diced the white part. Then I chopped several stalks of celery and got a few small handfuls of fresh dill. I added a few teaspoons of Dijon mustard, several tablespoons of Miracle Whip (sorry for the lack of measurements – I was going by taste and look!), and finally a sprinkle of garlic salt and pepper. Then the whole thing went back into the fridge for another hour or two.

It was delicious – even more so today as the dill had time to infuse the leftovers! Enjoy!

Apparently I seem to have a fixation with blue right now. Clockwise we have Stefanie Japel’s Airy Wraparound Sweater in Filatura di Crosa, ChicKnits Ribby Tank in Elann Incense, a sample for an LYS in Rowan Bamboo Ribbon, and my (almost there!) Pomatomus socks in Dream in Color Smooshy. I can’t wait to get some of these projects off the needles! I’ve also got a baby blanket (the bright Encore in the background) and a few other gifts to get to knitting so it’s going to be a busy month!

We’re also doing some growing over here. We planted on Sunday night and as promised our basil has started sprouting in 3-4 days.

This weekend we’re heading to my inlaws to finish up the bookcases that will frame the entertainment center and to bring Wes’ bike back to KC since it’s now SPRING! Next week I’m heading out to LA to see friends and family, visit A Mano, and do assorted wedding planning (get fitted for my dress!). Luckily all of this will include transport time which means more knitting.

Friday night we started with a knitty girls dinner at the famous Jack Stack for some great margaritas and BBQ (and mmmm cheesy corn bake!). Saturday morning dawned too early for me. I got to the hotel just before 9am and settled into a class taught by Stefanie. I was so impressed! She’s fun and funny, and a great teacher. While I was too advanced for the class, I enjoyed hearing about how she applies her techniques to existing patterns and she had some great thoughts about designing your own patterns using some simple tips and tricks.

Then lunch time arrived and it was time to SHOP! I was pretty good, but I did pick up a few things….

First I got a long awaited project bag from Girley Purls. The proprietress has been one of the most welcoming people since I arrived here in KC and her work is really amazing. She hand crafts each one of these bags, and she actually thinks about her customers and picks fabric that she thinks suits them. This one is perfect for me! I would highly recommend visiting her site and snapping up some project bags, stitch markers and anything else she sells!

But then there was YARN.

From left to right: Memphis from Textiles A Mano, Knitty Bits sock yarn from Two Windows Dye Co., and Happy Feet from Misknits here in KC. I also picked up some stitch markers and some beautiful buttons (for the purple yarn).

Then last night 20 of us knitters (along with Stefanie) went out to dinner. I think we scared the restaurant staff when we showed up, ordered drinks, and pulled out our knitting to hang out for the evening. What a great day!

Today was a lazy day. I slept in a bit and then started some laundry. Wes and I took a long walk on the paths near and around our complex and then did a quick grocery trip. We also managed to set up a garden! No, we’re not planting outdoors but for Christmas I bought Wes an Aero Garden so that we could try hydroponic gardening (water, seeds and light – no soil!) We set it up tonight and in a few days we should have herbs sprouting in our kitchen. Within 28 days we can harvest dill, chives, cilantro, basil, parsley and a couple of others.

Tonight he’s cooking dinner and I’m knitting my little arse off (working all week means I’m really behind on my commissions and samples) and preparing for Monday.

That’s why I was so glad to find this little helper.