...And Tomatoes

Making tomato sauce is a pain in the ass, but fairly simple. There was some trial and error involved. (when it comes to doing any project I ignore any instructions--oral or written. My life has always been cluttered with my constant reinventing of the wheel.)

I slice an 'X' on the bottom of each tomato, then plop them into boiling water for about a minute. I remove them with a ladle and put them in ice-cold water. The skin becomes loose and partially peels away. The nude tomatoes then go into a blender on the "blend" mode.

We've had this strainer contraption in our house for years, and I just found out it's made to remove the seeds from the sauce. It's got a crank on it and a blade stirs the sauce, moving the seeds away from the strainer holes.

I use plastic, quart containers--accumulated from years of take out orders of Won Ton soup. My wife's a hoarder; I have to beg her to throw out plastic forks, spoons and plates. "These things exist," I explain, "to be thrown out after one use." It hurts me to see her hand washing this stuff.

My canning pot and mason jars are in the garage, which I"ll be attempting soon. I figure my won ton soup quarts in the freezer will keep us in tomato sauce until December, and the mason jars will last us until spring.

Oh, when you take out the sauce, you still have to come with your own recipes. Luckily, we're Italian.