Grandma's tomato sauce

The garden is overflowing with ripe tomatoes. We have 30 shady ladies this year. So excited. The cherry tomatoes are great in salad, and the brandywine haven't produced yet. But every day I wake to 10-20 ripe and beautiful shady ladie tomatoes just waiting to be brought in. They are so tasty this year! So, you can only eat so many bologna and tomato or BLT's a day right?!? What do you do with 15 tomatoes a day? You freeze some, you stew and can some, and then you make tomato sauce. This is not your ordinary sauce. This is my husband's grandmother's tomato sauce straight from Italy. This is not a quick fix. This is not a short project. This is an all day experience. There is nothing like this sauce.

I was super busy Thursday through Monday, so everything got behind, including eating tomatoes and giving them out to neighbors and church family. There are a little over 50 tomatoes here. It would be easier to can more, so we don't make this mess over and over, but the more you make it in bulk, the less perfectly delicious it is! So this is an ideal amount for making sauce. With a pairing knife, score an "X" at the bottom of each tomato. Try not to cut into the meat of the tomato itself. You just want to score the skin. Its gonna cut the flesh, but don't try to cut more than the skin.

Have a big pot of water at a rolling boil, and a sink full of ice water ready.

Grab a slotted spoon, and after you drop the tomatoes into the water, count to 50. That's it. Using the slotted spoon, get the tomatoes out of the blanching water, and into the ice bath.

I do small groups of about 6-8 tomatoes at a time. That way, I can drop them in the boiling water, turn and peel the tomatoes in the ice bath, and then remove the next batch from blanching. It is the easiest and fastest process I can come up with.

When you pick a tomato out of the ice bath, the skin will literally just slip off like a gym sock. Slide your hand over it from the bottom to the stem part and then I use my thumb nail to dig a little bit to remove the stem and the "core top".

After the tomatoes are peeled, I use a food possessor and blast them down to juice, pulp, and seeds. Again, I do about 8 tomatoes at a time.

The tomatoes will look pink, but that's just because you've added so much air to the mix. As the little bubbles pop the color will come back to a rich red.

The next place the tomatoes are headed to is the stock pot. We've rid them of their skin, now it's time to rid them of the seeds. Place a mesh strainer on the pot. I use a ladle to push the bulk through. Make sure all the seeds are in the strainer and not in your sauce.

I always have bits of tomato left in the strainer too, so I set the tomato chunks along with the seeds aside. When I've finished possessing and straining all the tomatoes, I run what I've collected through the food processor one more time.

This last batch is now just juice and seeds. I push it through the mesh strainer one more time. All I have left in the strainer is the seeds of 50 tomatoes!

You need 2 carrots, 2-3 large yellow onions, 3-4 bell peppers, and a large head of garlic, minced. If your herb garden is ready you can grab a few sprigs of oregano. cut into manageable chunks so you can chop away.

Even though this cooks down for hours, no one likes chunks in their sauce. Chop and chop until the hard veggies are super fine.

Saute' the veggies in a Tbs of butter and 4 Tbs of olive oil until they are soft. Add to the stock pot of processed tomatoes. Use this time to add a stick of butter and 1/4 cup of olive oil to the mix.

Throw in the oregano. Just leave it whole and on the stem. I forgot to take a picture, but I also added about 1 cup of finely chopped fresh basil. Add between 6-10 bay leaves now too, it all depends on the size of the leaves. I always throw in 2 or 3 celery stalks, whole, to steep in the sauce and add that great celery flavor. You need to do your first salt and peppering now. Just taste the sauce, and add a bit less than you'd think. You can always add salt later, but you can not take it out! Add 2 Tbs Italian seasonings, and stir.

The richness of this sauce comes from simmering 12-24 hours, and from the full bodied red wine added. Today it was about 1 1/2 cups Cabernet Sauvignon. And a glass for the cook in the kitchen. Oh, that's me...thank you very much!

When the sauce has reduced by about a third, its ready. This batch took just under 16 hours. Taste your sauce again, and see if it needs more salt or pepper. It's all about your taste. Remember this is tomato sauce, so when you use it in recipes, you'll be adding salt and pepper to the meal your making using tomato sauce. Remove the oregano stems and the bay leaves. Let the sauce rest and cool to a manageable temperature. While it's cooling, prep jars and utensils for canning. It took a while, but believe me it is worth it. This sauce changes everything you use it in. If you've got an abundance of tomatoes, there is no better way to use them, and it is simple to put up, and stores beautifully. I'll be back soon, to can the sauce. I have a client at work today, so it's chore time at the Fried Okie's suburban homestead! Time to get myself and the kids going. Have a super blessed day. My love and ((((hugs)))to y'all, and happy sauce simmering!

How does your garden grow?

Bloggers, readers, fried okra eaters, how does your garden grow? With starters bought, or seeds you start, spread out or all in a row? In February my sweet Mr perfect roto tilled the entire back yard for me. Each year before this I have had to use a claw. Tearing, ripping, twisting...and that was my hands, just to break up the soil. We went to a nursery this yesr to buy tomatoes and pepper starters. Last year the weather was so strange we didn't have much yeld at all. The rest of the garden was seeded when I put the starters in. As each sweet tiny seedling came up, yhe pair of doves that moved into our tree, swooped down and endulged themselves. My garden was consumed by two pretty little birds in a matter of three days! Back to the store...tons more seeds and BIRD NETTING! Being back at work, I only have mondays for the garden. Its strange to leave everyone. I miss the kids, I miss the hens, I miss my dogs, and I miss the dirt under my nails! I got to take the bird netting off this week and weed around the plants. Such a joy to watch each plant take shape, and watch the leaves change into specific types. Each Spring morning, especially after a good watering, there's so much growth! Noticible changes greet me and my coffee in the warm morning sun.

I Love spring lettuce mixes. Throw romaine and spinach into the row, and whip up some dressing, lunch or side salad in two minutes flat!

This old shed has proven invaluable for us. Pool, lawn, and garden supplies are out of sight. They barely fit, so its a tight squeeze! The shadows you see at the bottom right of the picture is the four rows of corn, and a small row of garlic. The corn is so small it will not photograph well unless I lay down, and I'm all ready for work!!

I love to stand and look across the yard. Our backyard is large. On a pie shaped lot, it wraps around the house. On one side is the dog run. The half of the center is pool and decks. The other half of the center is the patio and out door kitchen. The last section was lawn when we bought the house. We have a big ol plot of useless lawn out front! Who needs TWO lawns? What good is a lawn anyway?!? Well, where a lawn once lay, a sweet little garden now grows!

LET THERE BE TOMATOES!!!!! We love tomatoes. Because of work this year, I skipped beefsteak. Watering beefsteak is so timing specific so they don't split and get that ugly scar on top. This year there are Brandywine, cherry, and Shady Ladies. I'm noticing a few volunteers coming up where the heirlooms were last year, so I'll watch those. I am so excited about the tomatoes this year. They are, all 42 plants, fairing fantastic and growing, blooming, and vibrantly healthy! I'm planning to take a week off when production is over abundant, to put the bulk up. We will be making and canning tomato sauce, paste, stewed, and marinara. I would love to sun dry a few dozen julieanne tomatoes, and put them up with olive oil and garlic. We will have to see what time allows.

The radish, sugar snap peas, bells, hot peppers, & herbs are thriving. The watermelon is slow growing so far. Mr Perfect wanted to see how big a pumpkin he could grow, so he has pumkin sporadic through the yard. Its cute. I think next year I'll do cucumbers, zucchini, and summer squash again, and reduce the tomatoes by a row. Two years in a row, gophers got under the squash, so I thought maybe I could avoid them without their plant of preference. I really missvthe squash though, and so do my chickens. That was their favorite treat.

Do you garden? I know a few friends not in California that are still getting snow!! Poor cold weather states!! Can't plant in a frozen ground!! How desperately sad I'd be!! Can't wait to harvest the first production this year. Bologna and tomato sandwhiches, fried green tomatoes, BLT's.... yay! There's nothing more flavorful than a veggie right off the plant. Its so wonderful knowing its organic, and no pesticides are used here! Garden food for though...If you could grow any plant you wanted, what would it be?

Chicken Piccata

Hello friends!! It's been a year since I posted. I have been going through so many changes in life!! Our pastor had a heart attack four months ago, I was asked to step us as worship director at our church, and decided to come out of retirement and open a natural nail care spa service here in town. Balancing these new activities, the house, four kids, the animals, the garden, baking, and this blog is a new challenge. Well since my hubby is Italian, we do a lot of Italian dinners here. I know the blog is mostly southern food, but Italians know how to EAT!!! I decided to incorporate his family recipes too. The owner of the room I rent at the Spa wanted to make chicken piccata, and I told her how, but this is so much easier to follow, So here's to you Andrea!!

You need to thin the chicken breast out, not really to any specific thickness, but more so it is the same thickness all the way across. this way the chicken cooks evenly. It can get messy, so I put the chicken in a ziplock baggie and pound it with a rolling pin.

a bit of flour, Italian seasoning, few tablespoons of corn starch and salt and pepper for dredging if you are going to fry the chicken first, instead of grilling.

Most of the time I just grill the chicken outside on the BBQ until it is ALMOST done through. This time however, I breaded it and fried it so it would have a crispy crust.

Fry the chicken in olive oil until crust is golden brown. If you are grilling the chicken breast, bring it close to finished, but do NOT over cook it. You will finish it through in the sauce at the end.

In a deep wide frying pan, add 1 cup of your favorite white wine, 1/3 cup lemon juice, 1 cup chicken broth or stock, 1 Tbs of minced garlic, 1 tsp paprika, lemon zest if you used a fresh lemon, and salt and pepper. You will also need a wine glass, so you can serve yourself while you prepare dinner! Remember, if you wouldn't drink the wine because of its quality, DO NOT COOK WITH IT!!! Put the chicken breast in the sauce to cook through and consider what you would like to add. Sometimes I sautee mushrooms in butter lemon, and garlic to put over the top of the chicken, but this time I went with marinated artichoke hearts.

Then, because its Piccata, you need Capers. it just wouldn't be piccata without them!

About 1/3 cup. A lot of people recommend you rinse the capers. I love the briney flavor, so i drain them off, but do not rinse them. They are such perfect little bursts of tart and rich flavor!

The sauce will be thin, add 3 Tablespoons of cornstarch disolved in 1/4 cup water, whisking into the sauce. Make sure to move around each chicken breast to thicken all the sauce. I normally serve this dinner with garlic parmesean polenta, but I was in a hurry, so I boiled some pasta, and opened a jar of marinara I canned last year.

Serve with warm herbed bread or garlic bread, and your favorite white wine (the same one you based your sauce with!!)

Place a chicken breast on the plate, and spoon sauce, capers, and artichokes over the top. Bon Appetit!!

Necessary Kitchen Attire

Howdy all! Has it been a good week for you so far? Here, at the Fried Okie's homestead it has been productive, but not a good week per-say. Oh well, I just keep telling myself when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Cliche as it is, it has helped. September has always been a really rough month for our family, every single year, for the last 9 years. We do not know why, exactly, but its a struggle to keep optimistic. We just face it, breathe deep, give it to God, and put one foot in front of the other. Here's how this week has gone for us. Friday, go to the bank, make deposit, and after a few un-expected bills, gasp at the balance in the account. Oh boy is it gonna be a tough week!! Saturday, find out that my hubby has to work, so I'm on my own for the weekend. Sunday morning, we discovered the spray paint my oldest had borrowed, got into the hands of our 3 year old. He tagged the side of our home in the backyard all the way down the length of our house. Then we discovered he had brought it out front, and I guess our 8 year old, and the two 6 year old neighbor girls, couldn't resist the temptation to become illegal artists. Two doors down there is a bank repo, and the kids decided it needed a deep rusty red zig-zag pattern on the pale blue vinyl siding. Monday, (repaint side of house, and the front deck) my neighbor came over pounding on the door asking if I knew about it. Yes I did but we wee going to clean it, talk to the kids ourselves, and get the whole story before we told anyone. Well, I guess we were too late! Tuesday, an unknown person drives up and take pictures of the tagging on the house....UH-OH!! Wednesday morning I promised to clean up the African Daisies in her back yard. I wanted to propagate some, and her's were growing over the boarder and almost into her pool. I started about 8;00am, and finished at 11:30. For an hour I took trimmings, and dipped them in hormones, and put them out to take root. At 12:30 I got ready to go buy a few supplies for cleaning the paint off of the empty house, and my car has a dead battery. Hop in hubby's truck, again, dead battery. Oh well I guess I game some Goo Gone, and SOS Pads...off to clean the wall. I started that at about 12:30, the kids got home at 2:00, and started "helping", we finished at about 5:00. As i walked home, my youngest had discovered the propagating daisies, and thought he'd help by "pulling the weeds" he said!! We are really getting a lot of teaching opportunities this week. I refuse to be deflated. I just want to do a few fun things this month. Here it is Thursday, and I am caught up on the house work, only one load of laundry to do, I am possibly getting the opportunity to go to a few cake decorating classes with a girlfriend, and I found this fantastic fabric I had and completely forgot my NanE' gave me, I really want to make a skirt with. I have some great ideas to finish decorating the office, cuz I'm tired of the office the way it is now. So I will be sewing. I love to sew. My sweet, perfect for me hubby, built me a sewing room out of the walk in closet in the office. Many a curtain, set of PJ's, pretty blouses, and costumes have come out of this, my favorite second floor room of the house!! Another item that tends to fly out of the sewing room, aprons. I love aprons. I am truly of a mind that one can never have too many aprons. That would be like saying I have too many shoes, or hubby has too many tools or too much money in the bank!!! That is treading too close to blasphemy for my taste!! As I am not the only one who works in the kitchen, I am not the only one who needs an apron. So today, we sew.

Jenna and Kaylee and their personalized aprons.

I sometimes get impatient, and my all of my sewing machines needed cleaning after I made these, so I couldn't embroider with it, so I did it by hand. This is the "J" for my Jenna's apron.

A pretty "K" for my pretty Kaylee

When my hubby gets home from church on Sunday, he likes to grill when he can, but has a tendency to forget to change out of his dress clothes. Well I can fix that, new apron! We fight playfully about who loves who more, so I started letting him win "I love you more", and I started saying "I love you best!" So this apron says "I'm Loved Best!!"

Gotta wear the aprons while making daddy cookies...

I have a blue apron just like the girls matching personalized aprons, but haven't embroidered the "MOMMY"S" on it yet. But here is my newest dress apron. this one is my favorite. I love the floral pattern ruffles on the bottom.

Here is the apron I wear the most. It is sort of my everyday apron. I had a heavy cord garden apron last year, I made and lived in last year, but it was stored under the sink in the outdoor kitchen, and there was a leak we didn't know about, and it had to be thrown away. There would have been no way to get that mold out of it! I was very sad. I loved the big loose pockets, perfect for getting the veggies picked, or gathering eggs,and keeping my hands free. I definitely need to make another one. I am off to stay caught up and maybe squeeze in a fun project. Many blessings to my friends. Remember, no matter how good or rough your day/week/month is, tomorrow is a new day! There's always a blessing to grab on to and lighten your heart. All of you, my sweet friends, are just such a blessing. Warmest wishes from this Fried Okie's Suburban Kitchen; and sewing room; to yours.

meatloaf cupcakes

Mmmmmmm, Savory cupcakes for dinner!! My kids will eat without a fight tonight!!!

Hey gang. Hope everyone is having a great week. It's been less than a week since my last post, I'm on a roll!! So I thought we should make something fun, and super simple for dinner. My hubby HATES meatloaf. He has offered to try these, but as of yet, we still make these only when he is working and not going to be home for dinner. With 4 kids, and our sweet *foster* son last year its hard to prepare a meal each kid will enjoy. With this fun twist, we always have great success. Who wouldn't love cupcakes for dinner?!? Let's get started!

I use 1 1/2 lbs of ground Italian sausage and 1 1/2 lb of ground beef. We have a local butcher I get a lot of our meats from. This sausage is from him, and it is so good.

Add an egg, about a cup of bread crumbs, salt, pepper, parsley, oregano, thyme, basil, celery salt, katsup...no restrictions, whatever you like. Measuring is completely optional. I guess-timate prob 3 -4 tsp of the herbs maybe a tsp of salt & pepper.

No, long before man invented spoons and utensils, God created our hands. It worked for our Great - Grandmas and before, it works for us too. Mix and mix and mix. You will start to feel the bread crumbs absorb the moisture in the mix and soften up. When this happens, it ready for the next step.

Grab a muffin tin, and fill each little cup about 1/3 full of meat mixture. Use about half of the meat, and reserve the rest. Next layer another 1/3 of green beans,shredded zucchini, blanched asparagus, wilted spinach, again your choice. Be creative! Top with the remaining meat mixture to complete the cupcake, sandwiching the green "filling" in the center. Pre-heat the oven to 350* and then bake these for around 30 minutes, until the meatloaf is done.

While the cupcakes are baking, make mashed potatoes. I try to keep them just a bit dryer than I would If they were being served on a plate, like in a chicken fried steak dinner. This way they hold the shape better as the "icing" on our cupcakes. Sometimes I take the time to pipe the potatoes on so it's prettier, but this was a rushed meal, so I skipped that this time.

We need gravy. I always have stock on hand. Any time we make pork or beef ribs we boil them before they hit the BBQ, or if we have turkey or chicken carcass, we boil that, I turn it into stock and can a few quarts each time. Make a rue, and salt and pepper to taste, then let it boil down and thicken.

When cupcakes are finished baking, pull them out, and frost with your mashed potato icing. remember this is their serving of potatoes, so be generous!

Now, poor the hot thick gravy over top, so each frosted cupcake has plenty of syrup.

These literally fly off the platter, so I'm not sure why I arranged them on a serving platter at all. I could have just thrown them at kids, and they would have been devoured in mid-air!! We love to eat these with warm, buttered homemade sourdough bread.

Well, they are cupcakes, so here they are in a cake platter, and they are very easy to make, pack, and travel with, so they would be perfect for a picnic, party, or pot luck as well as a quick dinner for the kids at home. We love these treats for dinner, and I truly hope y'all enjoy them too. I'm am loving this quiet time in the office at 5:00-6:00 am to get a few things rolling on this Blog. There are so many things to bake, fry, grill, and enjoy coming up On Fried Okie's Suburban Kitchen, so hurry back. Until then, all my love and tons of (((hugs))) from this Fried Okie!!