Lisa's Log: February 11, 2016

Since this post is really all about nothing, I didn't know what to title it, so I just put today's date in there. So in the future, whenever you see a date instead of a title, you'll know not to read what's in there cuz it will be boring. I am only posting today because it's been awhile, and some of you may be wondering what I've been up to. So here is my boring life. Well, not boring to me, but probably boring to you.

Here is Bossy sitting in my clean laundry:

Every time I get clothes fresh out of the dryer, I take them to my bed so I can fold them. But if Bossy's around, she will climb into it and make herself comfortable because she knows they are warm. I try to grab as many items as I can before she starts to growl and try to bite my hand off as I try to grab the smaller items out of it.

So possessive!

So I have to walk away until after she's had her nap in my clean laundry.

I know lots of people wouldn't put up with having a cat nestling in their clean laundry, but we spoil our cats; what more can I say?

This next part is for Ma. If you are not interested in quilting, you might wanna fast forward.

I finally finished my quilt top, so now I am waiting until I can get to the store to buy the batting and some fabric for the back panel. Still not sure if I like it very much. I think there's "too much going on" in it, ......almost boggles my eyes. But that's okay. It's a learning experience. And as long as it keeps us warm at night, I guess I'll be happy with it. So while I'm waiting for my next trip to JoAnn's and my neighborhood quilt store, I went ahead and got started on my next project:

I am making a crib sized quilt with Halloween fabrics. It'll just be a throw quilt to have for decoration. I am using this pattern that I found in one of my quilt books:

I know there's a big glare there, but I think you can see it good enough. It's an "envelope" pattern.

I know it doesn't look like much right now, but I'll show it to ya when it's all done.

BTW, today is Ma's birthday. Happy Birthday, Ma!

Okay, my next obsession was to finally do something with all those tomatoes in my freezer that we yanked out of our garden last fall. I had three gallon-sized bags left full of whole frozen tomatoes. I had been using them in soups, but decided to test my culinary skills for something new. I wanted to try making my own spaghetti sauce. So after consulting with my Google friend, I tried simmering one whole bag of tomatoes on the stovetop. It took several hours, but they finally simmered down to enough for one jar of spaghetti sauce.

For the other two bags, I tried an idea I saw on another website where you just throw them all into a crockpot.

Of course I skinned them first. This is what a pile of tomatoes looks like after you take the insides out:

I had to show you because I thought you might be excited to see a pile of tomato skins. But I gotta tell ya, if you get excited over a pile of tomato skins, you got worse problems than I do.

I didn't bother taking the seeds out cuz that would be way too much work. And the seeds don't really bother me anyway.

Okay, back to the toms. After they thawed a bit I smashed them up with my meat chopper thingy:

This was really easy to do after the toms were half thawed. Then I set the crockpot on high and kept the lid off so the water would evaporate out. Holy cow, there's a lot of water in tomatoes!!!

Last night when I went to bed, there was still more water than tomato pulp, and I was beginning to wonder if this method was a good idea. But I didn't wanna give up just yet. I set the crockpot on Low, went to bed, and hoped for the best. This morning when I got up, a lot of the water was gone. And by the time I was done eating lunch, it looked about ready. Or ready enough. It took about 24 hours to simmer it down to a thick sauce!! So I don't know if I prefer the crockpot method or the stove top method. With the crockpot method, you don't have to babysit it. The stovetop method is a lot faster, but you have to be around to check on it every now and then.

Can you smell it? .....aaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!

I didn't add any spices to it cuz I figured I would add onions and other flavors to it when I actually use it on my spaghetti. That way the flavors will be fresher anyway. Can't wait to try it!

SO! I took some of the stewed tomatoes out and pureed it in my Vitamix to make tomato sauce, which also took care of the seed problem. And then I made some pizza sauce out of it, using my own concoction of pizza spices.

Now my house smells like a pizza joint.

Mmmmmmmm.................

Then I took the rest of what was in the crockpot and stuffed it in a jar and then put my goodies out on the back porch to cool off, so I can put them in the freezer later.

So, out of two gallon-sized bags of tomatoes, I can get one jar of "spaghetti sauce", and two pizzas worth of pizza sauce. You only see one jar of pizza sauce here cuz (of course) I'm going to make pizza for dinner tonight!

Don't let the peanut butter lid throw you off. I know I should seal them in a water bath in sealing jars, but I didn't feel like going through all that work for just three jars. If I put them in the freezer, they don't need to be sealed.

So now you know what I've been up to.

I still have this dark cloud hanging over my head:

During the first week, they did call in some groups, but they didn't reach my service # yet. Every night after supper I dutifully call that dreaded phone number to find out if they "need my services" the next day. I know my turn is coming up.........

Here is what our winter looks like this year: