It's hard to believe that this is the last official holiday weekend of summer. On the one hand, it has been such a long, hot, dry summer. But it's still hard to believe that it's September already! I'll be happy to see fall come, and the temperatures have been cooler these last couple of days. When I got back from my run (later than usual, because I slept in so deliciously!), my weather page said it was 68F outside. Lovely!
One of the things I love about living on this Plateau is that the seasons are fairly evenly divided, and I'm happy to see each one as it comes. In Buffalo, I thought I would die by the time the snow ended (snow season was October to April, with cold spells continuing well into June), and spring was nearly non-existent. Summer flew by in a flash, and was accompanied by guilt pangs whenever I chose to be inside, rather than outdoors, soaking up the weather. And autumn, though beautiful there (as it is here), was always the occasion for depression, because my body knew that the long, long winter was just around the corner.
Today I worked in the garden for a spell, and then I got a double batch of spaghetti sauce on to cook for hours. I use the recipe from Joy of Cooking (my all-time favorite cookbook -- it has nearly everything in it), but love this direction: "Cook until sauce starts to thicken, about 10 minutes." HA. I mean, really. I don't know what kind of tomatoes they used, but I use Romas, which are supposed to be the best for sauce; and my sauce doesn't start to thicken significantly for hours. I used 5 lbs of tomatoes, and have over a gallon of sauce on the stove now (it will be less, once it reduces and thickens). I'll freeze it in quart zipper bags, laid flat on a cookie sheet, and then stack it in my freezer. It will be so very good on those busy winter evenings when I don't really have time to make something from scratch, but can heat up some of that sauce and eat it over pasta. Yum! The flavor gets very intense and lovely, cooking for hours as I do it.
This time I had the good sense to cook it in my soup pot, rather than a single batch in my large frying pan (full to overflowing). Mmmmm -- it smells so good right now! I've probably got enough tomatoes in the garden for another double batch, even with all I'm eating on sandwiches and in salads. My hands were all wrinkly from washing and chopping tomatoes and herbs (though I'll admit I let my food processor do most of the chopping, once I had things chunked up). At least I got the garden dirt out from under my fingernails!
Want to come over for dinner? Bring more salad greens, and I'll make garlic bread, too. A nice Sangiovese di Romagna would be lovely with this. My sermon's done, so we can just finish off the whole bottle!
I would be there in a heartbeat, Ann, if I could. It looks so yummy. I cooked the meat yesterday for sauce today although I'll admit that I doctor up Ragu these days more often than not. Instead of cooking tonight, my son and his family invited me to their home to watch the boys swim tonight and to have BBQ. Yaaaay!
Posted by: Fran aka Redondowriter | September 03, 2007 at 06:20 PM
Oh, that looks sooooo good...
Posted by: Kate | September 04, 2007 at 12:08 PM