I am so stuffed...

Good lawd.

I ate too much...and this is why:

farmer's market loot

rustic bread...we couldn't wait to eat some

So I had a full afternoon to make something, and thought I had enough fresh tomatoes outside to make homemade marinara. Unfortunately squirrels REALLY like tomatoes, and I only had 6 tomatoes to work with. Back to the drawing board...

pomodori

I decided to make "semi-homemade-not-so-marinara-sauce". Luckily I had a jar of sauce lying around (*tip: always keep emergency jar of marinara). Basically 1 jar of Newman's Own (or whatever brand you wish, though I totally recommend N.O.) Marinara Sauce + lots of fresh veggies. Dump entire jar into large pot, then add fresh chopped onion (1/2), chopped whole green bell pepper, tons of minced garlic (used 5 cloves), and peeled/seeded chopped tomatoes. TONS of chopped basil (around a cup or so) goes in once the sauce is done cooking and removed from heat.

I love naturally occuring shapes (this is not a worm!) - inside seed area of bell pepper

Yes, peeling and seeding fresh tomatoes is as fun as it sounds. (*tip - do not blanch tomatoes to peel, it will cause them to be mushy and tasteless). I also added about 3/4 c water, you may need more or less depending on what type of tomatoes you used (yellow tomatoes are not super watery, but red are).

naked tomatoes

Next I simmered this concoction for about 4 hours, stirring every 20 minutes or so. The process:

pre-simmer

2 hours in...bubbly (I really wish I could have bottled the aroma)

final product...with steam. mmmmmm.

Once the sauce is done simmering, all basil goes in (basil flavor is much more intense this way than if it had been simmering the whole time).

organic chicken breasts are little! yay for little breasts!

Next, I started on protein and veggies...Free-range organic chicken, the other 1/2 of the onion - chopped, 4 more cloves of chopped garlic (I really like garlic), 1 zucchini chopped, and fresh green beans. I decided to simply steam the beans. For the chicken, I sliced it into thin strips and cooked it in a cast-iron skillet, along with the onions and garlic. Once the chicken was almost finished cooking, I added the zucchini and basically stir-fried it all while the pasta boiled.

tons of chopped basil and handmade pasta

thar she cooks!

And this, kids, is why I am so full....

deeeeeelicious!

And the best part? Leftovers tomorrow. No cooking for me!

On a completely unrelated note, I am also making an Amish Friendship Bread Starter...this is day 7 (of 10):

Notice the bubbles...hopefully the time-effort will be worth it. This is something from my childhood and I just remember it tasting SOOOO delicious, so I decided I needed to make some and pass it around.

So that was my day, with laundry and other boring stuff thrown in. Why are weekends so short?

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Currents:
Mood = full & content
Listening to = That 70's Show
Weather = the wind, she is a blowing
Desires = sleep

falling leaves + vegetables + calcium

Colorado in the fall

I freaking love fall. Why?

• college football/pro football
  
• long sleeve t-shirts + jeans + sandals
  
• colors + smells = sensory overload
  
• savory foods
• steel-cut oats for breakfast
• rain + snow
• THANKSGIVING!!

New Hampshire in the fall

My boyfriend, Alexander, is from the land of fall : New England. Every year thousands of people make their pilgrimage to the Northeast to view the leaves in his 'hood. I wish we could go this year, but it does not look like we will be able to make it in time. We will, however, be in Chicago and Wisconsin during the leaf change, so it should be interesting to see the foliage in that part of the country.

Corpus Christi year-round...lovely, yes...but no changing leaves

Where I am from there is no such thing as fall, which is probably the reason I love fall so much - I was deprived most of my life! In Corpus Christi the seasons are summer and...some other mix of the others. Leaves don't really change, and the weather is completely unpredictable, either burning hot, raining, or freezing.

Aspens & Evergreens

In Colorado the leaves are pretty interesting: most of the state is covered in Aspens and Evergreens, so the stark difference between the dark evergreens and the yellowing Aspen leaves is truly gorgeous. I can definitely feel fall in the air here this week. The temperatures are starting to drop and it's getting harder to leave the house without a scarf.

I was especially reminded of autumn today when we went to one of the last large farmer's market of the season. In just a few weeks there will be no farmer's markets in this part of the country, and that makes me sad. Today we got plenty of onions, squash, green beans, potatoes, and peppers. We have plenty of tomatoes and fresh herbs left in our garden, so we avoided those stands. In addition to the lovely veggies, we also got some handmade lemon-garlic fettucine, rustic bread, and sampled some great meats and sweets.

Leche

My favorite sample was from the local dairy, and I am wholeheartedly considering getting milk delivery. It's amazingly CHEAPER ($3.29/half gallon) than the organic milk I currently drink (Horizon Organic 1% with added Omega 3 @ $3.99/half gallon) and they also deliver all kinds of other dairy products and farm goods, such as free range organic eggs, all at the SAME price or lower than my local supermarket. But the pecan on the pie is that their non-fat milk tastes like sweet delicious nectar of the gods, not white water.

I digress...so tonight I am going to make a fab meal out of the veggies we got and have. A tomato harvest is on the agenda for later, and I think I shall make a delicious homemade marinara today. Throw that together with the pasta and zucchini, plus some steamed green beans with garlic, good bread, a nice Chianti Classico, and cool weather...perfect combination.

More later, after the harvest...

Namaste