Hi Elizabeth, well done you for cooking through the heat. You deserve a medal!!!
In the hellish hot days of summer here, I spend time swimming at the beach or sitting in the cool of the house, writing. I cook our meals halfheartedly but we mostly have BBQ's, which avoids the kitchen (and of course everyone knows the men cook BBQ's).
As our produce ripens in the veggie garden and orchard, we tend to freeze the goods and then cook it up in the cooler days of autumn/winter.
I don't make tomato sauce for pasta as I have a 'thing' about eating pasta with 'red' sauce. I make basil pesto, mint pesto, nasturtium pesto etc.
I make our tommies into Mum's old fashioned English tomato sauce recipe (the kind one has with fish and chips). Also a tomato chutney recipe of Mum's and a fruit chutney recipe from an aged community cookbook. In fact we're making apple chutney this weekend!
I love filling the pantry with homegrown comestibles but summer for me is salads and sea...
All those pestos sound amazing, Prue! I'm a huge fan of using bunches of herbs and vegetables that way, though I've never tried mint or nasturtium pesto. Yum! You will have to help me understand what "hellish hot days of summer" means for you. Regardless, I love the idea of postponing the work until a time when the outdoors isn't calling out so loudly. As long as the larder is filled at some point, or there are other sources for those kinds of products, it's a total win. Thanks for giving me a glimpse of your process. :)
Our far south temperate summers range from daytime 21-30 in the La Nina years with relatively high humidity. On the El Nino years there's no rain and the temps go up to 35-36 and higher during the day. Nights can be warm (18-20-ish) and I thank the stars for air con. And seabreezes. But we've had a 3 year reprieve and I'm honestly dreading summer this year.
Summer motto..."Survive and move on"....By the way, I love pasta...and your recipe looks terrific...I might need to hire "thumb- guy" to come and help me.😅
I do try to appreciate it for what it is - but golly, I'm grateful for a/c! Give the recipe a try sometime. It's easier than it might seem, especially in small batches. I'm counting a full report! 😋
Oh, thank you, Rebecca. Those are generous and welcome words. The guys wish the website was more up to date, but who's got time for that? If you want a more "in the moment" view, check out @mcbegfurniture on Instagram or McMartin & Beggins Furniture on Facebook. Or -- wait -- did you tell me, once, that you're not a social media person? Hashtag: proud partner. 😁
Gosh, thanks, Roe. Such a lovely compliment, especially from someone with your Italian heritage -- all those delicious words, and gestures, and foods...!
It’s a wonderful ritual! I enjoyed seeing the beautiful cutting board and the artfully arranged different colors of tomatoes. I just did that with some different colored baby potatoes on the baking sheet before roasting them much to the amusement of my other half. 😉
Mmm....baby potatoes! I have to admit, any artful arrangement on those tomatoes was purely accidental. Other than shoving them together into stripes, I just took whatever color came out of the bowl next! Thanks for chiming in, Janet.
What a meal of a story. I savored it all. It got me thinking about the garden my mom kept when we kids were all off at our colleges and beyond. Tomatoes, pole beans, cukes, carrots. The novelty for me was okra, which she liked to pickle. In this essay of yours, the dessert for me was the link to Jims' website, and the video about the linen chest. What a treat! You always have good links. People, if you aren't clicking through, start now!
Ah, thanks for that plug, Stew, and for appreciating the J-squared efforts. You'll find a livelier bunch of images on their social pages, but I'm not sure you spend any time on such sites.
Your mother's garden sounds amazing, in no small part due to the addition of okra. I left North Carolina with a great attachment to that much maligned vegetable, and, like your mom, love to pickle it when I have enough!
Kathy, it's worth noting that I don't "can" this sauce. I freeze it, in quart or pint Ball jars. I've had a casualty here and there, across the years, mostly from overfilling, I think. But, also maybe from jars that were compromised in some way without me noticing. I don't have a pressure canner, which I'd need (according to health officials) for this recipe.
The mix-up between caning and canning is SUPER funny! Please do let the world know if you ever can a chair! :D
Hi Elizabeth, well done you for cooking through the heat. You deserve a medal!!!
In the hellish hot days of summer here, I spend time swimming at the beach or sitting in the cool of the house, writing. I cook our meals halfheartedly but we mostly have BBQ's, which avoids the kitchen (and of course everyone knows the men cook BBQ's).
As our produce ripens in the veggie garden and orchard, we tend to freeze the goods and then cook it up in the cooler days of autumn/winter.
I don't make tomato sauce for pasta as I have a 'thing' about eating pasta with 'red' sauce. I make basil pesto, mint pesto, nasturtium pesto etc.
I make our tommies into Mum's old fashioned English tomato sauce recipe (the kind one has with fish and chips). Also a tomato chutney recipe of Mum's and a fruit chutney recipe from an aged community cookbook. In fact we're making apple chutney this weekend!
I love filling the pantry with homegrown comestibles but summer for me is salads and sea...
All those pestos sound amazing, Prue! I'm a huge fan of using bunches of herbs and vegetables that way, though I've never tried mint or nasturtium pesto. Yum! You will have to help me understand what "hellish hot days of summer" means for you. Regardless, I love the idea of postponing the work until a time when the outdoors isn't calling out so loudly. As long as the larder is filled at some point, or there are other sources for those kinds of products, it's a total win. Thanks for giving me a glimpse of your process. :)
Our far south temperate summers range from daytime 21-30 in the La Nina years with relatively high humidity. On the El Nino years there's no rain and the temps go up to 35-36 and higher during the day. Nights can be warm (18-20-ish) and I thank the stars for air con. And seabreezes. But we've had a 3 year reprieve and I'm honestly dreading summer this year.
I want the sauce!
Thank you so much.
Tom and Linds
You are so welcome, Tom (and Linda). It's always good to hear from you!
Summer motto..."Survive and move on"....By the way, I love pasta...and your recipe looks terrific...I might need to hire "thumb- guy" to come and help me.😅
I do try to appreciate it for what it is - but golly, I'm grateful for a/c! Give the recipe a try sometime. It's easier than it might seem, especially in small batches. I'm counting a full report! 😋
Such a lovely post, Elizabeth - even your telling of Mr Knife's thumb story was gentle enough to be encompassed by the word 'lovely'.
Thank you for the link to McMartin & Beggins! What absolutely beautiful work.
Oh, thank you, Rebecca. Those are generous and welcome words. The guys wish the website was more up to date, but who's got time for that? If you want a more "in the moment" view, check out @mcbegfurniture on Instagram or McMartin & Beggins Furniture on Facebook. Or -- wait -- did you tell me, once, that you're not a social media person? Hashtag: proud partner. 😁
LOL - you're right about the social media side of things, Elizabeth! But that's beautiful work right there! 😘
Reading your melodic description of sauce making ('gravy' according to my italian family) made me teary. Absolutely poetic and beautiful.
Gosh, thanks, Roe. Such a lovely compliment, especially from someone with your Italian heritage -- all those delicious words, and gestures, and foods...!
It’s a wonderful ritual! I enjoyed seeing the beautiful cutting board and the artfully arranged different colors of tomatoes. I just did that with some different colored baby potatoes on the baking sheet before roasting them much to the amusement of my other half. 😉
Mmm....baby potatoes! I have to admit, any artful arrangement on those tomatoes was purely accidental. Other than shoving them together into stripes, I just took whatever color came out of the bowl next! Thanks for chiming in, Janet.
What a meal of a story. I savored it all. It got me thinking about the garden my mom kept when we kids were all off at our colleges and beyond. Tomatoes, pole beans, cukes, carrots. The novelty for me was okra, which she liked to pickle. In this essay of yours, the dessert for me was the link to Jims' website, and the video about the linen chest. What a treat! You always have good links. People, if you aren't clicking through, start now!
Ah, thanks for that plug, Stew, and for appreciating the J-squared efforts. You'll find a livelier bunch of images on their social pages, but I'm not sure you spend any time on such sites.
Your mother's garden sounds amazing, in no small part due to the addition of okra. I left North Carolina with a great attachment to that much maligned vegetable, and, like your mom, love to pickle it when I have enough!
I have been hankering to can something lately. I haven't done it in years. I'm glad you're still doing it!
For some reason people want to change the phrase chair caning to chair canning. I've caned hundreds of chairs but have never canned one.
Kathy, it's worth noting that I don't "can" this sauce. I freeze it, in quart or pint Ball jars. I've had a casualty here and there, across the years, mostly from overfilling, I think. But, also maybe from jars that were compromised in some way without me noticing. I don't have a pressure canner, which I'd need (according to health officials) for this recipe.
The mix-up between caning and canning is SUPER funny! Please do let the world know if you ever can a chair! :D