Tomato Sauce Love

I love tomato sauce. Most tomato sauces are simple, wholesome and delicious. Tomatoes are one of the few fruits/veggies that retain most of their vitamins and goodness through the canning process. That being said it is still delicious and a treat to occasionally make tomato sauce from scratch. This recipe was inspired by the Chunky Tomato Sauce recipe in Nourishing Traditions.


This recipe makes a double batch which will last two meals in our house. I would say it makes about 6-7 servings.

Ingredients
Tomatoes (I used 7)
Garlic (I used 3 large cloves)
Sea Salt 1 tsp
Pepper 3/4 tsp
4tbl balsamic vinegar
2tsp dried basil
optional, onion or other veggies


Dice.


Mince.


Add.


Throw in everything else and simmer for as long as you like. I went about 30-40 minutes.

The sauce takes a darker color from the balsamic vinegar.


You can serve as is or thin the mixture out a bit. I did this with my immersion blender.


Dinner.


Have a wonderful nourishing start to the week!


P.S. I'm linking up here and here and here.

This Weekend

Beds were made.


Delicious snacks were had.


Kitty yawns were plentiful.



Plants were watered.


Cool drinks were consumed.


Potato plants sprouted.


Breakfast oats were soaked.


Copper was put up to defend bean plants from nasty slugs.


And a movie was enjoyed by good friends (so much laughter).

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I hope yours was wonderful too.

Friday Inspiration

Usually my inspiration posts consist of photographs from glossy magazines or professional photographers. This week I thought I would share some inspiration from my own nest.

This laundry basket. I picked it up recently from the thrift store for 5$. I have survived with one laundry basket for years now. Last summer when hanging up clothes on the line I wished I had another basket as my other one is usually filled with clean laundry. It is going to be very handy to have another one in the chore line up.


This cactus. It is the first cactus I've ever owned, and my beau bought it for me for me which makes it even more special. It is planted in a beautiful vintage milk glass planter.


My bean plants are sprouting. Amazing and inspiring.


Broccoli plants are sprouting also.


My new fresh towels have been inspiring me lately. They are so soft and snuggly. Home.


This part of my front porch. Sometimes I hate how old and creaky the house is where we live. Moments like this I adore it. This was built by someones hands.


My new favorite mug from Anthropologie that I got last weekend during a fun outing with my best friend. Good memories and amazing friendship.


This week I have picked up and held this piece several times. It was made by my great aunt Dora when she was a little girl. She is in her 90's now. I remember the day I brought it home. Years ago she was downsizing her home to move to a smaller place and was going to throw it out. My heart broke at the the thought of this little guy going in the garbage. I wonder if she knows if I have it. I really need to visit her more.



Have a wonderful weekend.

A Lovely Stew

Last night we dined on homemade stew and corn muffins. It was delicious. It feels so good to make a meal that is nourishing and man pleasing. Do you ever feel proud when you make something delicious from scratch? Maybe proud isn't the right word, but it does certainly feel good.

Here's my man pleasing stew recipe. I started making this a few years ago when we first moved out. It is a wonderful crock pot recipe, however I have even made it in a dutch oven over an open fire. I am not a red meat person by any means so I always add extra potatoes and carrots to fill my bowl.

A Lovely Stew (with some measurements and some estimating)

stewing beef, the best stuff you can find
chicken stock, I used half of a carton of what I had left. Any stock would do nicely in this recipe, especially some homemade stuff.
handful of potatoes, quartered
2 tomatoes chopped roughly
carrots, sliced
1.5 cups of beer
1 pepper minced (you could also throw in an onion)
spices, thyme, dill, sage and parsley
celtic sea salt and pepper

I leave this on about 1o hours on low in my crock pot.

I start with the crock.


Then throw in the pepper. Everything cooks down so much I don't worry about making it pretty.


Now take some beautiful potatoes.


And quarter them.


And throw it all in the crock. Chop up some carrots too. Not sure where my carrot photo got to.


Dice up some tomatoes. They add a lot of goodness and depth to the soup.


Now for the spices. This is my wonderful dill that I dried in my dehydrator recently. I took pictures of the process to post but I have been using my beau's camera lately instead of our older one and I can't seem to get it to work with dill. It refuses to take pictures of dill. Odd, yes, and it is likely something I am doing wrong. So this is the blurry dill.


Beautiful organic Watkins spices.


Now throw some broth into the mix. I used about half a container.


Grab your stewing beef. Ethical beef makes for happy cows!



In goes the beer!


You could also sub red wine for the beer and that would be amazing.

Stir it all together and pop the lid on!


Now wait, awhile..

Mmm..


I scooped some of the carrots, tomatoes and peppers out and pureed them to add a bit more depth to the broth. I think this is why the soup does have almost an orang-y tinge.


Wholesome goodness.

Would you like a corn muffin to go with yours?


Perhaps 3?


Have a wonderful Thursday.

Loves!

Quilting Inspiration

Another Wednesday is upon us!

Can you believe it is June? My heart flutters at the thought of it. Come July I will be on vacation.. for 2 months! I can just imagine all of the relaxing and reading I will be doing. I also have some small travel plans and want to get some things done around the house.

I've started compiling a list of things I want to get accomplished. Some of these things are,

• Learn to knit. I have needles. And yarn. And a how-to book with photographs. I will do this!
• Can tons of jams and soups - enough to last us the winter.
  
• Make a quilt. Just for me. Often whenever I hit my sewing machine it's for a gift for someone else. I have big plans to make a large quilt for us for the summer months that wont be as heavy as our duvet. I'm planning on making it white, using inexpensive white broadcloth and splurging on a beautiful fabric for some of the smaller details. I'm thinking an Amy Butler fabric as I did get a nice gift card for my birthday to a more expensive specialty fabric shop that does carry Amy Butler fabrics.
  

Here is a bit of inspiration - I love the idea of a modern quilt. Keep in mind mine will mainly be white with some pops of color.

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I know I haven't found the inspiration photo yet, but I am off to a good start. I'm thinking about doing a 9 patch pattern, but I'm still on the fence about it. I'm planning on going to my local thrift store to buy an inexpensive pattern book. I think this is one project I should learn more about before beginning.

Loves!