Halfway

Good morning, my friends. There's not much to tell you today. I spent a good part of the day in tomato purgatory. By the time I was finished, I had five quarts of pasta sauce and 3 pints of salsa. There are also partial jars of each stashed in the refrigerator. I'll fill those today.

My friend, Karen, asked what I put in my pasta sauce "for taste." It's a recipe I've been using for as long as I've been making pasta sauce. The recipe I've been using is for Chunky Basil Pasta Sauce, from this  book:

I always double the recipe. And after many years of making this sauce, I started roasting the tomatoes before turning them into sauce. It's much faster than the usual method of scoring, blanching, and skinning. You can see how that works at this post right here.

As for the salsa, I'm using this recipe from this book:

It was mid-afternoon when I finished for the day. There was time for sewing, but I really just wanted to sit down and put my feet up. I was already tired anticipating today's efforts. Knowing I'll be finished by the end of today gives me a little infusion of energy, but I'm not ready to start on that yet.

Dinner was easy last night. Mike grilled a chicken breast, and we had a chicken Caesar salad. Sadie kept an eye on us from her geriatric kitty pole. (She's not the geriatric. Smitty is. She wanted you to know that.)

Smitty was enjoying the evening from the comfort of his catio.

Even though I didn't make it to the sewing room, I spent some extra time on the Sashiko piece. It's very nearly finished. As I've been working on it, I've realized I want to add a little something at the bottom. When I finish today's stitching, I'll trace a few more lines as a guide for the remainder. Here's your peek.

Okay, so today will look a lot like yesterday. I'll get back to work making more sauce and salsa, and I'll use up the last of the tomatoes. Possibly I'll be more energetic today when I've finished them off. For now, it's time for some breakfast and slow-stitching. And then, my friends, tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes.