How does your garden grow?

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I'm getting the bug to start repotting, growing, and adding more houseplants to my home.  I used to have a ton and started weeding them out when my kids were babies.  The sunroom that housed them has since been turned into a playroom.  I once sold a car to a woman who owned a nursery and at the end of the season she had me bring a truck over and take whatever would fit in the back. I still remember driving away, my mom and I both in awe of all of our new plants, so excited to get them home.  Now that my kids are a little older they bring home little plants and herbs of their own from fieldtrips.  They take care of them and like to watch the process of little buds sprouting. There pride in taking care of their own has me itching to start adding some more.  This is a little inspiration to get me going again.  Do you have a green thumb? I can't wait to find mine again.

xoxo,

Amy

Garden Fresh Goodness

My husband called from work last week to tell me he was bringing home some tomatoes. Some garden fresh goodness. This was code for "go to the store and buy a couple pounds of bacon"...which of course I did. The mister's motto is "if you're gonna be a bear be a grizzly". He came home with a boxful. They were ripe and I knew we would never eat that many blt's. I thought I would try my hand at homeade tomato sauce. I looked at a couple recipes and then did what I do best. Throw crap together. He came home with a few zuchini squash as well...I added them too.

It turned out pretty darn good so I thought I would share. Remember, there is no right or wrong, substitute stuff, make it your own, taste often. Here's how it went down in my kitchen.

grocery:

Sauce:
10-12 super ripe tomatoes stolen from your neighbors garden (peeled) and roughly chopped
2 large onions (chopped)
2-3 large yellow zuchini squash (chopped)
5 cloves garlic (minced)
1/4 cup olive oil -or more
5 bay leaves
fresh basil
1/4 cup red cooking wine
a tablespoonish of white sugar
salt and pepper to taste
2 cans of tomato paste
2 packages of spaghetti seasoning

Prep: Chop the onions, squash, and garlic cloves.  Peel the skin off the tomatoes and roughly chop them.

add 1/4 cup olive oil to a pan and once it's heated add the onions, squash and garlic. Cook the onions, squash and garlic down about 20 minutes, or until they are soft and opaque. This is where I had to switch from a large skillet to a large pot. Start adding the tomatos. Mine were huge chunks, which is fine they cook down. Add the tomato paste, the season packets, the wine, the bay leaves, a little salt and pepper, the sugar and simmer on low for a couple hours, or even just 30 minutes if that's all you have, stirring occasionaly. If you don't like a chunky sauce, put it in the blender and then let it cool.  I blended mine so my kids would eat it.  I left mine in the fridge for a day before I made the meatballs. If you like meatballs, these were pretty tasty too.

PS. Garnish with the fresh basil...or add it to the sauce at the end. I LOVE basil and could definitely over do it.

Meatballs:
1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground sausage
1 egg
1/4 cup ish of breadcrumbs (or crushed crackers)
1/4 cup of good cheese. I used shredded romano (it's what I had)...but you could use parm or mozzarella
a tbsp of minced garlic
1/8 to 1/4 cup of milk
salt and pepper
1 spaghetti seasoning packet
oil for pan.

mix everything but the oil together until you get a good meatball consistency, then make meatballs. Heat the oil and brown the outside. Add your meatballs to the warmed up sauce in a crockpot and cook 1/2 the day. We also added some our favorite italian sausage, browned and left to cook all the way through in the sauce. It was heavenly.

Linking up to the wonderful parties on my "i like to party page" and here.