About Me

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Concord, California, United States
I am a sometimes-writer, everyday mama, creative failure and experimental cook. I am interested in living a beautiful life, spending time with my family and making things that I can feel proud of. When I'm by myself I'm usually outside. Don't bother calling because chances are that I didn't bring my cell phone because I couldn't find it. If you see me walking, it's because I lost my keys and if you see me with only one child... I'm probably in big trouble.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

I heart jars

I started my day with about a million ripe tomatoes.  Now, I love tomatoes, but I can only eat so many.  I've been reading all about canning and picked up a bunch of jars at the grocery store.  After jarring my tomatoes I felt positively inspired.  Yesterday I made my family a loaf of focaccia bread to go with their dinner.  I decided to use the leftover bread to make breadcrumbs.  We are having friends over for dinner on Friday night and I'm looking forward to using my focaccia bread crumbs then!  Also, I have been reading a lot about infusing olive oil with other flavors, specifically lavender.  So, I used one of my new jars to make a batch of lavender EVOO.  I can't wait to drizzle it over roasted red potatoes with a bit of fresh rosemary.  YUM!

Check it out!  I feel so proud.  And just think, in only a few short weeks pie season will begin.





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  1. MathewGAugust 20, 2012 at 9:04 AM

    Speaking of tomatoes... I don't have much room to store anything in my kitchen, as you well know. I didn't want this to stop me from saving some tomatoes for winter, so I decided to freeze them. Here's what I did:

    I cored them, and then blanched them for about 60-120 seconds, depending on the size of the tomato. When they came out of the boiling water they went into a bowl of ice water. After cooling, I skined them, cut each one in half and gave it a firm but gentle squeeze to get rid of some of the seeds, and then cut it in half again and put the tomato flesh in a bowl. I did this unitl I had, oh, about a gallon of tomatoes. To this bowl I added a few tablespoons of olive oil and a roughly cut onion. I put this in the oven, 350 degrees for between 90 and 120 minutes - probably closer to 90 minutes. Once it came out of the oven, it had reduced by almost two-thirds since all that excess water cooked off. I left the pan on the stove until it cooled and then scooped the tomatoes into a ziploc bag and froze it. Now I have delicious oven-roasted tomatoes to use for sauces or chili this winter. Granted, I've only done this three times so far but if I had a much larger tomato crop I'd do it a lot more.

    Despite intending to save these for winter, I did use one bag for soup last weekend - I took it out of the freezer, let it thaw just a little bit and then cut the bag right off and chopped the partially frozen block of tomatoes and dropped them in the soup. Chopping them mostly frozen allowed me to avoid the juicy drippy mess that tomatoes usually bring to a cutting board.

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  2. icancarryallthebagsandthebabiestooAugust 20, 2012 at 7:45 PM

    Mathew!!!!!!!! You just saved my life. I am going to do this. I have so many tomatoes and I don't feel entirely confident with the canning process.

    In other news, I can not wait to see you. I'm counting down the days. November can't get here soon enough.

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