Homemade Tomato Sauce for Pasta!

While I was roaming around on the internet recently, I came across a home-made tomato sauce recipe published on a blog site called The God’s Cake. The author is English, I think, and indicated he has recently returned from Korea. His recipe was listed as follows:

“800g Tinned Whole Plum Tomatoes or You(sic) own poached Tomatoes, peeled (around 9 tomatoes with juice, roughly chopped), 3 garlic cloves, 1 glass of red wine, 1 glass of chicken stock, 1 large onion, hand full of fresh thyme, 2 tsp of sugar, salt and pepper to season.

First slice thinly the garlic and the onions and in a large pan with olive oil sauté until golden brown and soft, once done add the glass of wine and simmer for around 5 minutes, then add the sugar and a pinch of salt. Mix together until the sugar starts to thicken. Then add the tomatoes and stir. Simmer the mixture for a further 5 minutes and then stir in the chicken stock followed by a grind of pepper and salt. Bring the sauce to the boil and let it bubble for 5 minutes. Turn down the heat and simmer for 2 hours adding the thyme leaves. After set the sauce aside and let it cool at room temperature to capture all the flavors.”

I decided to give this one a go. I had most everything in stock. I was forced to go with a can of crushed tomatoes (its winter here) but was good to go on everything else.

Ingredients List:

1 15 oz can of crushed tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
10 oz red wine
15 oz can of chicken broth
½ large whole onion, sliced thin
1 tblsp dried thyme
1 tsp sugar (I’m assuming white)
1 tblsp olive oil
Salt and pepper as needed

Cooks Notes: I was not sure how much a ‘glass of wine’ or ‘stock’ actually is as was specified in the original text, so I guessed on this. I also guessed at the correct amount for the olive oil. Fresh thyme is also not available where I live, so I substituted some dried. At the last minute, I added some fresh mushrooms and dried oregano for the halibut. Note: Michael, who made this recipe later informed my that here was referring to about 250 ml or just over a cup!

I had a bit of this sauce with some spaghetti for lunch, just a little to test the taste. It was surprisingly good and I will want to make it again. You can see the video I made here!

Say Yes to an Early Spring Salad!

Sure, it might be winter outside right now, but before you know it spring will be rushing past! That’s why even in January, I’m making seed purchases and getting ready for a fantastic garden salad harvest that will be way before my neighbors even get started!

Making this happen requires just a bit of planning, some seed starting equipment and  a small cold frame or two. (See my video on how to build a simple cold frame on You Tube). First off, you’ll want to get some seed ordered right now! I usually order mine online from one of many good outlets like Burpee Seed or Seeds of Change. My first order of the season will generally be a packet of romaine lettuce, spinach and mustard greens. (I’ll also order a packet or two of radish seed like Cherry Belle to use as markers and for an early snack as they can be ready to harvest in just 30 days).

When the seeds arrive, I’ll take a small folding table, some starter trays and a fluorescent light to begin growing my starter plants. The seed starting trays can be purchased at most garden centers or you can make your own. Just make sure to use a sterile starting medium (like Miracle Grow potting mix) to avoid disease problems like damping off.  From past experience, I will generally start about 30 seeds (a mix of romaine, spinach and mustard greens) in early February. This will generate enough salad plants early in the season to make up for the lag period while waiting for the direct seeded crops in my raised beds. These will be ready for the cold frames by mid-March. Now, since I already have romaine growing from the previous fall - (see my article Cold Frames Now Paying Off) I will just make a little room and set the tray into the cold frame for a couple of weeks or until conditions are favorable to plant in the raised beds.

In no time at all, you’ll have plenty of fresh salad greens for the table. With a little extra planning you can enjoy home grown lettuce for most of the year.

Cold weather visits my town!

Mustard Greens Recipe

Charlie's Steak and Ale in Forsyth Missouri

Late Fall Romaine Lettuce in Mid December!

While it might be cold outside, my mini cold frames are doing great. We’ve had a few nights when the temperatures outside have plunged into the teens! But witness how healthy the romaine lettuce is that was harvested today. The wonderful thing about having a cold frame is the way in which lettuce that was started from seed in early September is now grown but in a kind of suspended animation. Each head is growing very slowly and, even after sitting in the frame for a couple of months, is still as fresh as any I could get from the garden in the spring. I’ll tell you right now that the little bit of work I did back then to get these seeds to grow more than pays for itself as winter approaches. Just having a bit of fresh produce you have grown yourself helps to keep me going until spring gets here!

The Coming Winter Weater for 1009 and 2010

I always love to take a look to see what the Famers Almanac has to say about the coming winter and this year the predictions are a dozy.

The Almanac’s weather prediction feature has always been a major feature and the company which publishes it claims an 80 to 85 percent accuracy rate for its long range forecasts. That’s not bad considering this publication was started in 1818! The method they use to arrive at these forecasts are very secret. They admit only to using top secret mathematical and astronomical formulae that rely on such factors as sunspot activity, the tides and even planetary positions.

According to the 2010 edition this winter (January through March) will see more days of shivery conditions: a winter during which temperatures will average below normal for about three-quarters of the nation.

A large area of numbingly cold temperatures will predominate from roughly east of the Continental Divide to west of the Appalachians. The coldest temperatures will be over the northern Great Lakes and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. But acting almost like the bread of a sandwich, to this swath of unseasonable cold will be two regions with temperatures that will average closer to normal—the West Coast and the East Coast.

Also, near-normal amounts of precipitation are expected over the eastern third of the country, as well as over the Pacific Northwest and Northern Plains, while drier-than-normal conditions are forecast to occur over the Southwest and the Upper Midwest/Great Lakes.

Only the Central and Southern Plains are expected to receive above-average amounts of precipitation. Hey, that’s where I live!

While three-quarters of the country is predicted to see near- or below average precipitation this winter, that doesn’t mean there won’t be any winter storms! On the contrary, significant snowfalls are forecast for parts of every zone. For the Middle Atlantic and Northeast States, for instance, we are predicting a major snowfall in mid-February; possibly even blizzard conditions for New England!

The bottom line seems to be that most of the country, especially the center will see a little more precipitation and slightly colder temperatures than normal.