Tag Archives: canning tomato sauce

Simple Sunday

Posted in bread, California, cancer, cooking, home stuff, Walking by

We had a nice Sunday walk and only one other person showed up at the end. My arthritis has definitely kicked in and I feel pretty stiff to start. After one round I loosen up some but my feet have been hurting again recently. I’m not sure why it comes and goes but?

I’ve just finished making some baked tofu. The tofu was dated so I figured I better use it right away. I started a sourdough cran-raisin cinnamon loaf. I think it might bulk ferment by this afternoon since it’s warm in my kitchen. If so I’ll bake it then otherwise I’ll refrigerate it till tomorrow.

Yesterday, I canned 6 pints of tomato sauce and I’ll get another batch ready to go tomorrow. Usually I do it in 2 days. On day one I put the tomatoes in boiling water and then through the food mill. Day two, cook down and then can.

It’s the kitchen zone this week so I might start that later. I do need to use the steam mop at least today. Other than that, I ran Bender(robot vacuum) yesterday. He does a good job.

Today, I’m not going to the gym. I might go to town with my daughter. She wants to get some paint at Ace. The nursery is close by so we could stop in there too. I need to get some pots to repot some house plants.

I hope we get some news tomorrow on the PET scan. It is frustrating, to say the least.

Simple Sunday

Posted in California, cancer, cooking, home stuff, simple foods by

We have some smoke in the air due to the Chico fire. That’s the one where the guy pushed a burning car into a gully. He has been arrested so there’s that. But our temperatures are cool and today’s high is only in the mid 80’s.

We had a nice walk. A few other people showed up but we were leaving by then. The other day B found a dollar bill by where we parked and that was fun. He’s going to buy a lottery ticket with it. 🙂

Yesterday was very busy around here. My son came to do some things in the barn. He’s over Covid and feeling good. He helped B take the last load to the dump and also they did cardboard. I think he’s quite concerned about his Dad and wants to help here where he can. His birthday is August 7, so he’ll come over after work. We’ll have some kind of dinner and then cake.

After getting home from the pool, I started the pressure canner for black beans. I got 5 pints done. Then I had to process the tomatoes from the other day so I water bathed them and got 4 pints. So, it was a busy kitchen day.

Today, I’m trying out the Instant Pot for French Onion soup. It’s a simple recipe so we’ll see how it tastes. I didn’t have any sherry(it called for cream sherry??) so I just did the vegetable broth. I’ll make some croutons from leftover sourdough and I have some gruyere cheese.

Other than that, not much.

Simple Sunday

Posted in Blood test, California, cooking, Uncategorized, Walking by

Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes!!!! B used the food mill while I dropped the tomatoes in boiling water to break the skin. It’s a bit of work really but with him doing all the turning of the food mill it saves my arm.

Those greenish tomatoes are ripe just a different variety. So we did 2 boxes like this one and ended up with 6 qts of tomato sauce.

We had a nice start to the day with a walk in the park. Sunday is usually my favorite day as there are always fewer people. Today it was just “truck guy’. He’s nice and doesn’t bother us at all. After the walk, we started the tomatoes.

Then I headed into Auburn to go to the gym. That too was pretty empty. Maybe it’s the last vacation surge before school starts.

The production line!!!

We’re halfway thru the new season of the Witcher and it’s really good although anything with Henry Cavill is good.

I haven’t decided how this week’s schedule is going to go. I have my fasting labs on Tuesday, so I can’t swim that day( I can’t get there in time) and usually I keep Monday as a home day but I’ll see how I feel.

I’m making some vegetarian stuffed peppers for dinner and they’re in the crockpot right now. I use brown rice, onions, carrots, mushrooms, sunflower seeds , and pecans. I also add grated cheese. Sometimes I use an egg as a binder but not today. I’ll pull out a chicken from the freezer to cook later this week too.

The new co-op opened in Auburn and everyone is pretty excited. Briarpatch has been in Grass Valley since 1978 or so. This is a big store( they took over where the old K mart was) and has a deli and all kinds of things. I’m excited to shop there. Barclay is a member but we’ll have to see if I can use that or do we need to upgrade to a family membership. I will price check compared to Winco but still it’s in Auburn and I want to support that. Years ago around the same time, Auburn tried to do a co op but it didn’t have much support. It closed after 5 years or so.

Thankful Thursday

Posted in bread, California, canning tomato salsa, Gratitude, swimming, Uncategorized by
  • The competition pool was amazing and the water was perfect. The only downside was it’s deep(7ft) almost all the way around with quite a space between the top of the pool and the water. I jumped in and didn’t like doing that. To get out though, I went under the lap lanes and over to where there are stairs. Tomorrow I’ll get in that way I think. They have us using this pool only this week.
  • I shopped at Winco and am so grateful their prices are below Safeway or Bel Air. I haven’t shopped in Safeway for months now.
  • Our weather continues to be beautiful with highs in the 80s.
  • Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes,…I made my first batch of tomato sauce yesterday. I ended up with 7 pints of beautiful sauce. The hardest part is putting the tomatoes thru the food mill.
  • I had an hour alone this morning as my daughter was at the college and B went to Costco. Hurray for a few moments of alone time.
  • I found a sandwich bread recipe that I think works. The only thing is I did the last rise last night so it overinflated this morning. But I punched it down and still had an ok rise after that and it baked up ok. Good flavor. So I will try again but start the dough in the late afternoon instead of the morning. The recipe has 3 rises but the first one is 8-12 hours so that will be the overnight one. Then in the morning, there are 2 more rises at 2-3 hours each. I’ll link the recipe after I get it done without overinflating the dough.

Simple Sunday

Posted in California, camping, cooking, Flylady, Lake tahoe, simple foods, Uncategorized by

Our day started with a lovely walk with no one else until our last round. This past week every day we walked there were way too many people for me. I don’t mean just one or two but probably 8-10 people and that’s at 6am. Oh well, today was nice and the temperature cool.

We only have a week till we head up to Tahoe and I’m sure looking forward to it. We don’t have any plans to do anything yet but we’ll do a lot of hiking, beach time, walking, and just camp stuff. I’m working on our menu and know we’ll do a few meals on the Weber. I’ll also use the Staub for a few meals too.

This morning I’ve done some meal prep for the week. I’m marinating the tofu for the “Superiority Tofu burger , this is from a restaurant in Greenwich Village NY. It’s marinated overnight in a pickle brine and then fried. Then I’m soaking some black beans for a recipe my daughter found of’One pot Rice and Beans”, I made up two w.w wraps with cheese, spinach, tomato and, a slice of ham.( no ham on the veggie one). And finally, I made our favorite chard soup. ( there are 2 jars of this in the fridge).

I think I may still grill the chicken up and then we could have that in a few dishes like tacos, or bean bowls.

Yesterday I made another batch of tomato sauce. I cooked it down for about 2 hours and it had a lovely consistency.

I prefer not to use the quart jars as it takes more water in the canner to cover them but I wanted the larger size this time. I think I have close to 12 jars of sauce right now down.

I’ve been having fun with a few house projects. One is simply using one of my vintage tablecloths to make a curtain to cover the one opening under the counter. Who knows if we’ll ever be able to afford a kitchen remodel so trying to make it more functional and yet less cluttered is important to me. Behind this curtain are all my cooking oils and vinegars.

Then I’ve been enjoying knitting some dishcloths. I really like the repetitiveness of knitting. It’s probably a right brain/left brain thing.

This week is low key with only my regular gym and swim days. Barclay is going to take the truck to Costco to fill up with gas and then get a few items in Costco. If I need to get anything, I’ll go into Winco which is across the street from the pool.

Flylady is the LR zone and the entryways. I bought this really lovely Tartan print runner from Target and love the fall colors of it.

The napkins are a nice linen blend which is always my favorite.

Simple Sunday

Posted in California, camping, cooking, Flylady, Uncategorized by

Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes!! No, it’s not that bad yet. We are getting a great crop of tomatoes this year as opposed to last. This morning I made 4 more pints of tomato sauce from the Ball canning book. I used citric acid instead of lemon juice. The next batch of tomatoes is ripening in the box. I’m guessing at least 5 more days. This reduced for about an hour.

At the farm, I picked up 2 zucchini to shred and freeze some and make zucchini bread with leftovers. I also picked up some more cucumbers to make a dill refrigerator pickle and I also want to make some tzatziki for falafels and pita bread. This week I’ll do some white beans maybe as a dip, salads, tofu something, and probably some BBQ chicken. Anniversary day (Tuesday) we probably will get an early dinner or late lunch depending on where we go. Hard to believe it’s 52 years. Honestly, it doesn’t seem like that but there it is. It’s been a pretty wonderful life.

I have been thinking of trying to sell my wedding dress on eBay to hopefully a museum. When I sold the very old Quaker dresses I had it was to a museum in PA that bought them and that was so right. My dress was handmade in Poland ( probably before she immigrated to NYC)and was my great grandmother’s. My mother repaired the lace panels and added a starchy fabric to the bottom so it would hold its shape better. It’s not doing me any good in a box under my bed. So I guess this year would be a good time to deal with it. My daughter, who is non-binary, certainly wouldn’t ever use it.

We’ve got 2 weeks before we go up to Tahoe so that’s exciting. It’s our favorite spot so that’s something to look forward to. September is still busy in Tahoe but most of the true tourists have left.

This week the Flylady zone is the bedroom and master closet. Since we only have one closet in this house, I guess that’s the master one!!!:) I’ll probably add the LR zone too as that’s easy and I’ll have the time.

Still smokey and jam making!

Posted in cooking, simple foods, Uncategorized by

Well, we had one day where the smoke cleared but it’s been back ALL week. It’s so hazy and the air quality is poor. My husband was up at Lake Tahoe and said you couldn’t hardly see the lake. Terrible.

I’ve been busy with jam making and putting up the start of tomatoes.

I went and picked up my flat of blackberries on Monday and Tuesday made  8 half pints of Blackberry sauce. I don’t like to add a lot of sugar so it never really gels which is fine by me. I like the sauce on pancakes and toast.

Then I made up some quick tomato sauce from the tomatoes I had from the garden.

IMG_1479.jpg Not enough for the winter but a start. I will call around to find some seconds soon.

This morning I took out the rest of the blackberries that I froze and made 6 more little jars.

IMG_1483.jpg

These will be for gifts at Christmas. I like these small jars and they are hard to find so when I saw them the other day I picked up another case.

I want to can some cucumbers but haven’t found the Pickle Crisp that is recommended for canning pickles. Any home canners out there with advice on is this necessary??

Today was a gym day and TADA……my first back on the recumbent bike since my foot rest began over 9 weeks ago. Of course, the fracture had happened way before that but I was too stubborn to stop walking.  Still, I was pleased and I see how it is tomorrow.

Everyone is off somewhere today but B will be home by 4pm or so.

I’m going over to the koffee klatch to see who shows up. I haven’t been in a while.

Tonight I think I’m making some sandwiches for dinner but we’ll see.