Saving up for Winter and the Rabid Tiger Crazy Lady

Tomato Coulis Recipe

It seems like everyone is scurrying around collecting their nuts for winter and storing them away. The weather has shifted and my primordial instincts are kicking in gear. Well, that and the heavy rainfall inspired me to pick a huge pile of tomatoes that were ripe on the vines. We actually had a huge rainstorm with some lightening and thunder all day long. Meanwhile, I made 6 quarts of tomato sauce, which I will freeze for later.

A bit of a deviation from the canning theme, but along the lines of the rain theme . . .

All week I planned my usual Sunday run with excitement: a 16 mile road run to the beach. The run would be 8 miles out and 8 miles back. It also happened to be the day that would replenish the lan
d with almost 4 months worth of withheld rain. I was working on mile 7 when the Big Rain hit and I was instantly soaked. Really, really soaked. Like: "What is that Crazy Lady doing all wet, running like a rabid tiger?"

Rain has never deterred me from a run, and although it was pouring on and off at 7:30 AM I figured I might as well go off and run anyway. I am tough. I haven't gotten that wet from a run in a long time. Years. And it was just minutes that it took for me to become soaked. I had figured that it would be the cumulative rain that would do me in over the course of 16 miles. Nope. It was like a bucket was dumped over me, and all of a sudden I wasn't just struggling with pacing myself (running fast is just more fun). I was also struggling to look like I was supposed to be out in the pouring rain, "Oh, hey driver, I'm cool, yeah look how tough I am. I meant to be out here all soaked." This is Whidbey Island and the Pacific Northwest after all. We go outside in the rain, otherwise we would hibernate. There are just no two ways around it.

Being all wet and tough wasn't as gratifying as I thought it would be. I became more obsessed with keeping my breathing low so as not to touch my belly to my wet, cold and increasingly heavy shirt. Yet, I could not let my soaked clothing keep me from reaching the beach, just one mile away (and 9 miles from home).

Lucky for me, rescue was on the way! I had tried, unsuccessfully I thought, to get my mom to join me on my run. I reached the beach, turned around and completed yet another mile (9 miles into it, 7 to go) when she showed up via car with a fresh t-shirt and water. Perfect timing as it did not pour down rain the rest of the run!

Happy Canning and running! Don't let a little or even a lot of rain stop you from enjoying the outdoors this fall...

My Garden Fresh Tomato Coulis with Spaghetti Noodles

~~~TOMATO COULIS~~~

Summer Recipe: great for canning or to emphasize the flavor of fresh tomatoes in a dish.

Ingredients
lots of fresh & ripe tomatoes, about 4 pounds +/-, chopped
2 onions, chopped
2+ garlic cloves, chopped
1 TBS butter
1 TBS olive oil
several sprigs thyme, one sprig rosemary, 2 bay leaves
salt and pepper

Saute chopped onions and garlic for 5-10 minutes. Then add chopped tomatoes, herbs, and salt and pepper, bring to a boil and cook for 30 minutes at low temp. Remove from heat and process through a food mill, like the one below:

food mill

Recipe adapted from: http://www.easy-french-food.com/homemade-tomato-sauce-recipe.html

Add to spaghetti noodles, polenta, meat, seafood, or anything else that you feel inspired to combine it with. You can also freeze the sauce for later use, with great results.

French Tomato Coulis (Homemade Tomato Sauce from the Garden)

What a great summer we are having for tomatoes!! Oh, and I have found an interesting blog and I am going to try a French coulis recipe from the blog: a lightly cooked and easy to make tomato sauce. You can visit the blog and see the recipe here: http://www.easy-french-food.com/homemade-tomato-sauce-recipe.html

Pan-fried Salmon Burritos

This feeds a family of four. Great ingredients and lots of fresh vegetables!

The Salmon:
1 pound fresh or frozen wild salmon
1 white storage onion
1/4 cup white wine
1 TBS tamari (soy sauce)
2 TBS fresh cilantro

Heat a medium sized pan on medium heat with 1-2 TBS olive oil, add diced onions. Cook for 2 minutes. Add Salmon, skin side up, on top of the onions. cook for 4 minutes covered. Add white wine, cover and cook for 2 more minutes then flip salmon. Add tamari and cook until done. When done take skin off salmon and with a spatula break salmon up and mix with onions and juices. Add fresh cilantro and mix.

I like Lentils with the salmon burritos. Here's how I cook them: cook 1 cup lentils with 3 cups water and 1 chicken bouillon cube for 1 hour. Add 1 TBS tamari before serving.

Fresh ingredients:
1-2 Avocados, mash and add a tsp of fresh lime juice
Romain lettuce, cut very thin
1 tomato, diced
2 TBS cilantro, fresh and diced
1 cup grated sharp cheese
1/2 cup sour cream

Steam 100% corn tortillas in a bamboo steamer. When ready, serve corn tortillas with cheese, salmon saute, and lentils. Put fresh ingredients on the side and enjoy!

Red Stroller Pasta

After a hour of errands in town and an hour of my car's lights on, my car would not start. My daughters and I filled up our red stroller with groceries and walked home. This began my process of creating this rich red pasta sauce. I like to pair the pasta sauce with a quinoa-corn noodle blend. This is an easy and quick recipe!

36 oz tomato sauce
1 medium onion
2 TBS olive oil
4 cloves garlic
10-15 mushrooms
4 TBS red table wine
1# ground turkey or 1# your choice sausage
several pinches of fresh or dried thyme
salt or tamari to taste

Saute onion with olive oil on medium heat. Add sliced mushrooms to onion when onion is softened. Add red wine to mushroom-onion when mushroms are softened. Cook for 1 more minute then add to lightly boiling tomato sauce. Add turkey or sausage meat in small balls (or sliced, in the case of the sausage) to tomato sauce. Start cooking noodles of your choice.

Serve pasta sauce with thyme on the top or side and a green salad. Pour yourself a glass of red wine and enjoy!