Late Summer

School/Work begins for me in a little over a week, so I'm doing my best to cram as much as I can into these final days of summer vacation.  The kids and I are playing in the park a lot, consuming way too many popsicles, and splashing in the water whenever we can.  We're even attending a Wiggles concert tomorrow (Excedrin Migraine is already in the purse), and we're taking the twins to their first Phillies game in two weeks.

Believe me, I count my blessings every day to be able to work in a profession where I have my summers free to spend with the kids.  But that doesn't make it any easier (or make me feel any less guilty) to go back to work.  Charlotte and Gavin really seem to thrive in daycare.  This year they will be in preschool, and I know they will continue to astound me with their ability to learn new things quickly and adapt to any new situation with ease.  (Case in point:  at a playground recently, I observed Gavin walk right up to another little boy and say, "Hi.  I'm Gavin Michael.  Let's play!"  And off they went.)

But again, it doesn't make me feel any less guilty.  I've been thinking a lot lately about how I will never get to see them off on their first days of school, because they are my first days of school as well.  Sure, Michael will be there.  Probably my mom will too.  But I don't think it's the same.

One of the things I do that makes me feel a little better about working is to pack a special lunch for the kids.  A lot of the other kids are get Lunchables or something of the sort, so I go out of my way to pack things in a cute container and arrange the food in a interesting way.  It sounds silly, I'm sure, but I hope that as the kids get older they realize that this is a little gesture of love that they can count on in the middle of their day.  For the past few weeks I've been experimenting with different recipes that will hold up well in their lunchboxes.  Yesterday, I tried my hand at homemade granola bars.  I needed a recipe that didn't use peanut butter since their day care is peanut-free, and this one from another lunch fit the bill.  It was DELICIOUS!  The kids gobbled up three bars each today.  

The bottom photo shows how Melissa at Another Lunch suggests wrapping the bars since they tend to crumble.  It's just a bonus that they look so cute!

Wow, this blog sounds more and more like a food blog lately, huh?  Trust me:  it's not! :)

From Garden to Table

First, let me say this:  Why on earth can't I figure out how to use Blogger?  I have a Master's Degree in Instructional Technology, for Pete's Sake.  I can't ever get things lined up right, my photos are all over the place...annoying.  Any tips?

On to the topic of this post:

I'm definitely not what you'd call "a natural" when it comes to cooking.  I'm learning; I'm actually to the point where many times I don't need to follow a recipe.  But it isn't really something I would say I enjoy.  I think I might, one day....like one day when there aren't three kids screaming at me in the kitchen.  

My mom is an excellent cook, and an excellent gardner.  She was recently away for two weeks, and I was encouraged to take whatever was ripe from her garden.  I am not exaggerating when I tell you she had hundreds of tomatoes ready for the picking in her garden.  So Charlotte, Gavin, and I picked five or six dozen and brought them home.  But there are only so many times we can eat sliced tomatoes and mozzarella for dinner.  (Full disclosure:  I could eat it every night, for every meal.  But the twins remind me that "wedon'tlikePOTATOES!!!!")

So, even though when it comes to tomato sauce I usually only open the lid on the Prego, I decided that I'd try my hand at some homemade sauce.  This is probably old hat to all of you.  I'm sure you've been making your own tomato sauce for like, years.  But this was a major step for me...so much so that I took photos!  Michael was all, "What are you DOING?  Trying out for the next Food Network Star?"  He can be such a hater.  :)

Here's what I was working with:

Some yummy Roma tomatoes, organically grown.  Apparently they make the best sauce.

The next step took the longest, but certainly wasn't difficult:  cutting out the stems and chopping the tomatoes:

Then, I added everything to the pot and let it simmer on medium.  As the tomatoes boiled down, I was left with A LOT of water.  Way more water than I thought.  I took my mom's advice and ladeled the water out as I went.

To separate the seeds and flesh from the tomato juice, I used a contraption of my mom's.  I have no clue what it's called (anybody know?), but she uses it for tomato and apple sauce.  I placed what was left of the tomatoes in the colander and moved the wooden tool around the perimeter of the colander, and voila!  Left with about 4 cups of tomato sauce!  (EDIT:  I am rereading this and laughing at my inability to use precise language about this cooking tool!  Wooden tool?  Embarrassing!)

Seriously...all those tomatoes yield only 4 cups?  How the hell many tomatoes are in a jar of Prego??


I froze some.  For dinner tonight, I sauteed an onion and garlic in about 3 Tbsp of butter.  (You could use olive oil, but I love the way butter rounds out tomato sauce!).  I added the fresh tomato puree and some salt and pepper.  I wish I would have had some fresh parsley...would have been a great addition.  I poured the whole thing over spaghetti and dinner was done.

The boys loved it:

Nathan doing what he does best...

Gavin just thinks I'm nuts, as usual.  

Bon appetit!