fresh tomatoes

The other day, my mom and my sister-in-law came to visit, which was wonderful. I love hugs, shopping time, and spending the day with people who love and understand me. Miss them already.

When they came, they brought me a bunch of material things:

1. African violet food. It's still here - I'll bring it to you when I see you at the baby shower, Mom!
2. Such cute little baby clothes!
3. Freshly picked roses and other lovely flowers for my bedside bouquet. Why bedside? Because that's the only room where the kitties are not allowed to be. And they would destroy a bouquet if it was out in the open and I wasn't looking.
4. Chocolate chip cookies. Hooray!!
5. Two large baskets of tomatoes and cucumbers from my brother and sister-in-law's garden! Hooray, hooray!

And then we spent the day shopping and thrifting. Two of my favorite things. :o)

When they went home after dinner, there were the tomatoes again, looking at me. How in the world can I eat that many tomatoes?

Salad? Yes, I like salad.

Um...mozzarella and tomato salad?

Cucumber tomato salad?

Tomato...SAUCE!!!

This, I have never attempted before. So I googled a recipe, and Smitten Kitchen's recipe came up first. She makes so many delicious-looking things, and it really was high time that I actually tried one of her recipes.

Now, I scored and blanched and peeled and seeded and chopped and mirepoix-ed just as suggested (minus the celery and onion and with the addition of another garlic clove). I simmered and squished and stirred.

And an hour later, there was sauce! Yay!

We ate it over spaghetti, with shredded parmesan (thanks, Mom!) and chicken. Delicious!

However, this was possibly the most time-consuming and tedious job ever, next to making grape pie. I would have to be highly motivated to do it again... we'll see!