Toma(y)to, toma(h)to

I had to figure out what to with my basil. I happened to have two big cans of organic crushed tomatoes, so I decided to do a test run of a tomato sauce and freeze it for later. I searched all over the Internet and my Joy of Cooking cookbook for inspiration and came up with a recipe.

1 yellow onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 c. olive oil

4 TBSP fresh basil, julienned

1 carrot, grated

2 28oz cans crushed tomatoes

1 tsp salt, then to taste

Sweat onion and garlic in olive oil until onion translucent. Add carrot and basil and cook until softened. Add tomatoes and salt, simmer gently for 30 minutes. A lot of recipes use sugar to sweeten the acidity of the tomatoes. I like the idea of using the natural sweetness of carrots. I froze two small containers of the sauce and used the little bit that was leftover for my bread sticks. The sauce was great with them. We'll see how it is with pasta.

I've harvested about 3 cups of Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes from my container garden. I've already made salsa along with my jalepenos, but I may chop them up and make another batch of basic tomato sauce. I plan on making pesto from the remaining basil.

Cleaning Sense

I'm not far along on the evological scale in terms of "freshness". No, not body odor sorts, but living organically. True organic living. Living life interlaced with nature, not on top of it. That is my ultimate nirvana; having all I need or want from what the earth provided for me. I don't think that will ever happen for a few reasons. It's human nature to be curious, constantly moving forward in this dynamic, ever-changing, world. In a blanket sort of way, ya know?

So the question became how can I get back to nature - what can I do? I have the big dreams of living on the farm, looking off the back porch at sunset watching grass-fed Angus cows grazing against amber rays. I can take more responsibility for my footprints in the present: changing cleansers, composting, and canning to name a few.

Sara Snow intrigued me from the first time I saw her on Jon & Kate Plus 8 (a guilty pleasure during the first month of maternity leave, but haven't been able to stomach them since I figured them out). I caught the show a few minutes in and she was in the kitchen with Kate, wearing a vintage style housedress. The kind of printed material I would love to use for a homemade vintage apron. When she told Kate not to worry about cleaning off the dirt from the button mushrooms and Kate was obviously grossed out, I had a good chuckle. A little dirt never hurt anybody! I knew I had to know more.

Snow has been living a green life since she was a child. Her parents were part of the natural foods movement. She is the host of Get Fresh with Sara Snow on Discovery Health which I still haven't seen because I've been watching nonstop CNN for election news. I promise to get to it!

On that episode of J&K+8, she was teaching Kate about a natural household cleaner. The recipe was extremely basic and Kate seemed to be impressed with its results. After some internet research about the reliability of vinegar as a cleanser I decided to give it a try.

All you need:

1 spray bottle
1 part white, distilled vinegar
1 part water

Mark bottle to identify contents.

I've been using it for about two months. The vinegar smell is overwhelming at first but dissipates rather quickly. No residue is left behind. Although I haven't officially performed a scientific bacteria swab count, I am confident that the counters are as clean as when I use a commercial brand cleanser. Who knew vinegar was so versatile? Give one of those a try. You will be one step closer to a greener life.