Music-wise that is. Ruth had this meme on her blog back in June, and I grabbed it then. I finally had time to do it this week so here it is. Very simply – run through a random playlist on your Ipod or other music player and post the result. Ruth put in links to YouTube posts of the songs on her list and I will do the same – if I can find them of course.
I have a music player on my cell phone, but this list comes from my computer. When I think of the huge stereo we used to have it makes me laugh. I have all of our music ripped to the computer and with a really good set of Altec Lansing speakers it puts out a much better sound than the monstosity ever did. These songs are from a Media Player playlist labeled “General” which contains about 250 songs – a varied mix, mainly favorites of mine and set to play shuffled . Here we go.
1. Back to the Island by Leon Russell. I can’t find a live version of this song – this one is okay, but I would rather just see Leon myself. My friend Eileen and I used to listen to him by the hour when we were high school, which shows you he must be really old. Larry and I got to see him in concert a couple years ago and he is still fantastic.
2. These Arms of Mine by Otis Redding. Probably my favorite of his songs – except for all the rest of them of course.
3. Shaky Ground by Glenn Kaiser. Not a great video, but the only one I can find of this song. Cornerstone which Glenn helped found, holds a huge music festival in Illinois every summer – always great music coming out of there.
4. Jackie Wilson Said by Van Morrison. Do I need to say anything about Van Morrison? I don’t think so.
5. Missing You by Alison Kraus and John Waite. In my humble opinion, a much better collaboration than her album with Robert Plant.
6. The Blood Will Never Lose it’s Power by Selah. We’ve seen them in concert several times – love them. Sadly, both Nicole and Todd have lost a child this year – click on their names to visit their family blogs.
7.Up On Cripple Creek by The Band. In 1973, The Band, The Allman Brothers and The Grateful Dead all played at a little thing called “Summer Jam” in Watkins Glen NY. It is believed by many to be the largest gathering in the U.S., with over 600,000 attending. I was one of them. I got fired from my fabulous career as an A&W carhop because I called in sick to go. Another person who was there was Larry, but we didn’t know each other then.
8. Why Do I Love You by Kelly Hunt. Not on YouTube, but you can go to her site here and click on the audio player – it is the 8th tune on the list. I read about her on someone’s blog earlier this year and have been enjoying her music ever since. If it was your blog – thanks!
9. There Is A Reason by Alison Krauss and Union Station. Not surprising she would show up twice – I have lots of her music.
10. Nobody’s Fault But Mine by Nina Simone. I never get tired of listening to her.
I’m not going to burden anyone with a tag for this one, but feel free to grab it if you like. Come back and tell me if you do – I love seeing what other people are listening to.
My Mom and Grandmother did quite a bit of canning and freezing, so I learned a lot from them and after marrying Larry, who grew up in a 4th generation farming family, I learned even more from his Mom and Grandmother. Out here, putting up vegetables is a fact of life this time of year. I do more freezing than canning these days. It is easier for one thing and I prefer the taste of most things frozen and that definitely goes for tomato sauce. I can also do up a smaller batch of tomatoes, because I am not worrying about filling 8 quart jars to run the canner at the fullest and most efficient capacity.
After washing, remove stems and cut into chunks.
Begin filling your pan. Don’t add any water – just lightly mash the first 3 or 4 tomatoes you put in and keep the heat low for about 15 minutes and the tomatoes will give you all the moisture you need to to keep them from sticking. This is an 8 quart pot and I was able to fill it right to the top. I added about 4 teaspoons of salt. Leave the lid on until it comes to a simmer and then remove it so that some of the liquid has a chance to boil away.
Keep stirring every 20 minutes or so and watch that it doesn’t boil too briskly which will give the sauce a sort of bitter flavor. It will cook down – this is after about an hour.
And this is after about 2 hours. All of the tomatoes have a nice soft consistency and in my opinion, it is ready to begin turning into sauce.
You don’t have to do this next step, but it will make running the tomatoes through the food mill easier. Say hello to my little friend – the 
.
You aren’t making sauce at this point – just making it easier, by getting things to a more uniform size. And running one 8 quart pan of tomatoes through a food mill is not a big deal. Running through three 8 quart pans of tomatoes is though and that is when this step will really save you some trouble. Just run the blender through the tomatoes for a minute or two, to break them down a bit.
See? Still chunky, but smaller chunky.
Now say hello to my other friend – Mr. 
You put in the tomatoes and take them for a spin, adding more as the sauce gets extracted. Again – 1 pot of tomatoes = easy. 3 pots of tomatoes = harder. 5 pots of tomatoes = look pitiful and hope Larry unwisely stumbles into the kitchen.
Every so often you empty out the seeds and skin. This goes in the compost around here.
Now that all of the sauce has been rendered out of the ‘maters, you have three choices. You can freeze now – a thinner kind of sauce that will be a good base for soups or stews. You can put it back on the stove and simmer it down more to obtain a thicker sauce. Or you can sorta, kinda cheat, and thicken the sauce with tomato paste. Today I am opting for the 3rd choice. I often leave it thin for soup base, but if I plant to use it for sauce, I always use tomato paste. Cooking it down more on the stove is going to use more gas for one thing. I also am of the opinion that the flavor stays brighter this way. I am going to get more sauce for efforts and it is way easier.
At the end – it looks like this. This is plain sauce with just salt and some pepper – I will decide what flavors to add when I use it this coming winter. I will do up plenty of sauce with onions, peppers, garlic and herbs as the season pregresses, but for this first batch, I kept it simple.
Now, carefully decant into saved yogurt containers, label with the proper vintage and stack in the freezer.
I think 2008 is going to be to very good year.
