the best tomato sauce recipe - EVER!

So when you have a garden that is producing an abundance of tomatoes like mine, what else would you possibly do other than make sauce? We have been making bruschetta constantly, giving tomatoes away, and still I woke up to about 4 lbs of tomatoes on my counter today! I decided it was the day to try making sauce. Plus, I have about 4 eggplants that need a good Italian dish to accompany!

In the past few days I have been doing my research on how to make the best sauce. The basic sauce requires aLOT of time... Blanching the tomatoes in boiling water then putting them in an ice bath... Then peeling them. And that's just the prep. I then read about roasting tomatoes and making sauce that way. Winner! And let me tell you, you won't even need pasta. It's so good you can just eat it by the spoonfuls! Serious.

Here is how I made my sauce. I didn't use any recipe, and just used what I had on hand. You'll need a roasting pan or sheet and a food processor. I would think a blender would work just as well.

Ingredients:
Approx 4 pounds of tomatoes. I used better boy, Roma, and cherry tomatoes.
Two Vidalia onions, quartered.
4 cloves of garlic.
Handful of basil, oregano, and thyme. (all fresh from my garden)
Salt, pepper, and extra virgin olive oil.

I started by washing my tomatoes, then cutting them up and throwing then on the roasting pan.

Add the quartered onions and garlic. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and drizzle the top with a bit of olive oil.

I just added the whole cherry tomatoes to the mix and then added the fresh herbs. I used basil, oregano, and thyme because that is what i have growing out back.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for 45 minutes. Lots of liquid will cook out so make sure to use a sheet with an edge.  Here is how it will look after being roasted -

I let this mixture cool for about ten minutes, then put it all into a food processor and blended.

That's it!
All that mushy goodness is blended down to a thick heavenly sauce that will be incredible on anything! And the taste is absolutely incredible as well as the smell throughout my home.

My ingredients made enough sauce for about 4 suppers, so I will be freezing more than half.

Baked eggplant parmesan was fantastic with this sauce... as well as my broiled tomato cheese bread - that will be up next!

garden goodness all summer long...

i never imagined the amount of vegetables we would get from our garden. we have been overwhelmed all summer long with juicy red tomatoes of all varieties... especially beautiful roma's that make any meal a hit. our eggplants have been ripening and have made the most delicious dinner, and to accompany that meal, i made a homemade tomato sauce that i will share with you shortly. our flowers are also making our yard look extra lovely... last summer we planted a tiny little pink swirl round hibiscus bush. this summer, it has tripled its size and it absolutely stunning. the blooms are nearly the size of a watermelon.

i love this picture of sweet emme lounging in the grass... she could do this all day long.

here is a picture of the straw bale garden on the day we planted everything, and another pic i just took this week.

carrots still popping up! you have really never tasted a carrot as good as a fresh one...

and here are the photos from a few of my harvest days -

I. LOVE. GARDENING!

harvest time!!!!

the best part about gardening is finally getting to eat your hand grown grub!!!! my day always consists of checking out new growth first thing in the morning. currently, this is what we have harvested!

loads of sugar snap peas. i foresee a delicious stir fry in my future!

 bean pickin'

getting loads of these banana peppers. we have sweet and hot growing, and both producing lots!

i never imagined how great the straw bale method of gardening would work. along with all my pots and an additional raised bed, we are sure to be in for countless dinners of home grown goodness.

two months in and this is how the straw bale garden looks:

pretty awesome, huh! 

and the rest of our goods -

 oliver smelling the carrots ;)

 eggplant

 our raised bed garden

"There can be no other occupation like gardening in which, if you were to creep up behind someone at their work, you would find them smiling."  ~Mirabel Osler

straw bale garden = SUCCESS!

seriously. i never imagined my garden would take as well as it has. everything is massive and any space available is long gone. we had a bout of heavy storms recently and i feared my tomato plants would drown, but they ALL pulled through! just yesterday while watering, david and i counted 27 better boy tomatoes, and the largest is the size of a plum! even the upside down tomato plant is coming around and has three tomatoes already! we have countless romas, lots of super sweet 100's, squash, zucchini, and cucumbers are popping up all over the place, snap peas are ready for their first picking, banana peppers that are almost 5 inches long... it's all just amazing! 
just so everyone knows - straw bale gardening seriously, SERIOUSLY works. here are some pics of the garden progress starting with my hydrangea that has surprised us all -

the color of a hydrangea bloom all depends on the soil where its planted. the acidity is what changes the color, so some people have green blooms, or pink, purple, or the beautiful deep blue... i guess my soil is on steroids... our hydrangea, which is GINORMOUS, has every color bloom you could get! and im amazed!!! and completely in love. i think i take a new picture every single day :) and i have also cut lots of blooms and have them drying in mason jars around my house.

 these are garden beans and i started the seeds in a huge pot. every seed took, so i left four in the pot and moved the others to the raised bed garden. all are blooming!

 and these are the snap peas also started by seed in a large pot, and also moved to the raised bed garden. all are producing lovely little pods!

 all the sprouted carrot seeds taking very nicely! i really hope these turn out.

 banana pepper

 tomatoes

super sweet 100 tomatoes

more herbs (thyme, oregano and more basil)

we have a major overload of basil... so we made lots of fresh pesto and froze it.

hope everyone's garden is full of joy!

one month!

i never imagined how much my garden would grow in just one short month. everything we planted is already producing! Here is some pictures of day one compared to one month in - 

romaine lettuce is almost ready to cut!
here is a photo of the red lettuce, broccoli, and romaine lettuce on planting day, compared to one month in -

 both tomato plants are doing great - we have three roma tomatoes and about 4 better boys! 

cucumbers are forming!

zucchini blooms 

crooked neck sqaush starting to form under the blooms!

to show a bit of a comparison... here is a picture of the cucumber and zucchini plants... day one-

and now - 

we are getting large and AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS strawberries... 

the raised bed is doing amazing. the eggplant has doubled in size, and all the seeds are growing!

we have more basil growing in large pot, and also added a supersweet 100 tomato plant.

i'm LOVING my garden! 

i am leaving town next week for my sisters wedding shower and i know i will miss my daily routine of checking everything out, but it will all be waiting for me when i get back. 

lots of great things have been going on here in good ole' South Carolina. 

1 - the weather has been PERFECTION. i put my brand new bathing suit on today and sat outside for an hour reading.... got some major burnt shoulders! (preparing this skin for the beach)

2 - david and I are on LEVEL THREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE of 30 day shred. let me tell you... this 30 days (minus only about 3 missed days) has been crazy. the workouts are unbelievable and you really think your body cannot make another lift or move, but each day you really do get better. its amazing and we can both tell a BIG difference. can't believe we are almost finished with the program and can't wait to measure!!!

3 - i am training for a 5K!!!! and super super super pumped about it. 

4 - SISTERS WEDDING AND BEACH TRIP NEXT MONTH!!!!!!

life is good :)

straw bale garden - week 3

so we are going into the third week of our garden extravaganza... and everything (almost everything) is doing so great. all the seeds that i planted are shooting up to the sky and have already been transplanted into the raised garden bed. the carrot seeds are sprouting through the soil. strawberries are being picked and devoured before we can get them inside. peppers are starting to form on the stalks. all amazing.... except for one thing - the upside down tomato plant with cilantro on top. i am assuming the cilantro was choking the tomato and taking all the nutrients considering it tripled its size, but the tomato plant has shrunk and the leaves are yellow. total failure, and very sad about it. so today i pulled the cilantro (which was not easy considering it had all become one rooted mess) - divided it into three separate plants and planted them elsewhere. i re-potted the tomato, yellow leaves and all, and added new soil. lets hope it works... if not, off to shop for another cherry tomato plant!

here are some pics of week three! (no pictures of the upside down tomato... too depressing)

two of the three cilantro plants were potted here surrounding the chives and parsley.

the other was planted here -

these are sugar snap peas and garden beans that i started from seed. they quickly grew and now have a new home in the raised bed garden.

the squash, zucchini, and cucumbers are getting massive.

tomatoes are thriving! this is the better boy, and the roma behind it is also doing great.

broccoli, red lettuce, and romaine lettuce.

the beginning of a red pepper!

all the pots.

 more garden beans in a pot.

carrot seeds are sprouting all of the pot... i'm really hoping these work!