Pussycats and Pasta Sauce

So that title describes my day. When I started out this morning, I had more tomatoes than I could use. (Note to self: Remember this next year, because it happens this way every year. Come mid-August, the tomatoes will ripen.)

I'm picking them every day now. They are ripening so fast that I pick anything that is beginning to turn and then let them ripen the rest of the way in the house. I have them sorted with the most ripe and ready for processing at the bottom of the image. The most green are at the top. And I didn't use all of them, so I'll be repeating this process in a few days.

This morning I needed to get on with making some pasta sauce, which is a time-intensive process, and I needed to take Gracie to the vet. Poor appointment timing on my part because her appointment fell right in the middle of the day. There wasn't enough time before or after that to go through the whole blanching, peeling, chopping, mixing, boiling, and processing routine. I decided to do the blanching, peeling and chopping part in the morning before her appointment.

I was so happy when I cut into these Super Marzanoes. Look at that...all meat and no seeds. I rarely, if ever, see this variety in nurseries. Mine are grown from seeds I purchase from Territorial Seed, an Oregon company. 

They are a relatively large tomato...about the size and shape of a large poblano pepper. They have been the slowest to ripen, but they are beginning to come on in abundance now.

So I got them all ready to go, and then just put them in a stainless steel bowl in the refrigerator until I could come back. It always makes me feel like The Slasher when I survey my chopped up tomatoes.

When I got home, I mixed in the rest of the ingredients and then boiled like crazy. It took them about an hour and a half to cook down to the right consistency.

This is a simple marinara sauce with some red wine, garlic, basil and parsley. The basil and parsley are also from my garden. The wine is not from my grapes or my vineyard, because, um, we don't have a vineyard.

After that, I ladled, lidded, and processed. My yield today was 3-1/2 quarts.

This is the best thing that comes from growing tomatoes. So yummy. It's what I hope for every time I start my seeds in February...a nice harvest, and enough home-made pasta sauce to get us through the winter and spring. I'm hoping to end up with about eight quarts before we leave on our trip. The rest of the tomatoes won't be ready for a couple of days. Tomorrow, I'll tackle the peaches and make some peach chutney.

As for Gracie, she just needed her immunizations. And since we're briefly crossing into Canada on our trip next month, both kitties needed documentation that they were current in their rabies vaccines. She did fine, but the kitties are never happy about being boxed up and driven down the road. Somehow they survive.

Tonight is my guild meeting, and the reveal of my Blooming Sunflower quilt for the "Initially Yours" challenge. And I need to get a move on if I'm going to get there on time. 

What did you do today?