Tomato Sauce From Scratch

It's been awhile since I last posted, but I think I have a something worth sharing today. Right now in northern california, tomato's are in just about in season. A few more hot days and there will be more tomato's than we will know what to do with. And since we have tomato's coming at us from neighbors, friends and family, I need ways to use them all without wasting too many.

Over the weekend, I was checking the news on yahoo and came across an easy tomato sauce recipe that I thought was worth trying.

Ingredients: Tomato's, onion, salt, butter.

I started out with all the tomato's that I had in the house. Approximately ten medium size tomato's. We even had different varieties.

Next, I placed the tomato's in boiling water for approximately one minute. Then threw them in a strainer and let the water drain. While the tomato's were cooling, I got my sautee pan ready. I took a whole onion (also from the garden), cut it in half and placed it my pan with some olive oil. Now I used olive oil because I didn't have any butter and wasn't running to the store for that. If using butter, about 5 tablespoons will do.

 Once the tomato's were cool enough to touch, I peeled the skin off them, chopped them up in large pieces and threw them into my pan with the onion and olive oil. Cook uncovered at a temperature so that sauce is lightly simmering. About 45 minutes. Add salt to your preference. Use a wooden spatula to break up the tomato's into smaller pieces into your desired texture. 

After 45 minutes, take out the onion and serve sauce over a bed of pasta. Garnish with parmesan cheese. 

This was really good and flavorful. Husband and 2 year-old approved! 

Original recipe can be found here.

Some Killer Bread

Has anyone else tried Dave's Killer Bread? If not, you should really pick up a loaf next time you are at the grocery store.

There are so many things I like about this bread, I hardly know where to start. But to give you an idea, it's organic, it has 21g whole grains per serving, gmo free and it taste amaze-balls! Really, it tastes so good and has good texture, which is the main reason I buy this bread. All the organic and gmo stuff is just an added bonus for me.

The story behind the bread is also pretty interesting. Apparently, Dave is an ex-con and spent about 15 years in prison before he transformed himself and founded this bread. You can read more about his story on his website here or you can buy a loaf and read his story on the back.

Anyone else love this bread as much as me?

New Mirror

This weekend, I found a new mirror. We recently moved the TV from in our bedroom into the garage so we can workout to P90x. However, the bedroom had been feeling empty with out something on the dresser. It used to look like this.

I knew a mirror would be best here and help open up the room, so I headed to HomeGoods to see what I could find. Without fail, I found what I was looking for. Here is what it looks like now.

The mirror really brightens up the room which, in turn, makes the room feel bigger than it is. A little trick that home stagers and interior designers use to sell homes fast.

Curtains Are Up!

It has been a long time since I had last told you that I ordered fabric and had curtains made. You can read about that here if you don't remember. It took me awhile to get my act together, but the curtains are here and better than I ever thought they would be.

Curtains were sewn by Custom Made By Lilly & Zarpana Design. They are based out of Concord and do fabulous work! I would highly recommend them if you live in the area.

I gave Lilly at Custom Made By Lilly & Zarpana Design full creative design on the curtains. I had originally thought I rod pocket would look best, but she convinced me that using a ring would give a more custom look. She also did a pleat at the top. Both were her idea and I am ever happy with the result.

Sorry the pictures aren't great.....it is really hard to take a picture with a huge window the background. Who knew being a blogger meant that you also need to some kind photographer skills. Guess I will need to work on that. Hope you enjoyed anyways!