to-mAy-to, to-ma-to

Homemade Tomato Sauce

24 oz. can of diced tomatoes

1 TBS olive oil

2-3 cloves of fresh garlic (chopped)

3 freah basil leaves (chopped)

1 teaspoon chopped fresh oreganos leaves (from my garden!!!)

1 Tablespoon sugar

Mirepoix (mixture of chopped white onion, carrots, and celery), 2/3 of the container from Trader Joe's, if chopped yourself, about 3/4 C of each vegetable

Salt and Pepper to taste

Start with the olive oil and Mirepoix. Let saute on medium heat until vegetables soft and cooked down a little. Then add the chopped garlic, let saute a few more minutes.

Next add the tomatoes, basil, oregano and sugar and let cook down for about 30 minutes on a very low simmer. Salt and pepper to taste.

Let cool a few minutes and put in blender. Blend until just blended and either use immediately or place in a glass container and refridgerate until needed. Can also be placed in the freezer and thawed in the refridgerator when needed. For a meat sauce, brown some sausage or groud meet and add to the sauce.

I cannot wait to have mine with the fresh made garlic and basil linguine pasta I got from the farmers market!

lilacs

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L O V E

L I L A C S

grow garden grow...

This Spring having a place to put a mini organic garden on my patio was very exciting for me! Around March at this first taste of warmth I started by purchasing seeds, soil, planter, some plants and a few flowers. The first set of pictures is what my garden looked like after 3-4 weeks after the seeds had started to sprout.

Lettuce, Basil, Cilantro, Italian Parsley, Chives, and Arugula Seedlings

Cherry Tomatos

Sage, Oregano and Rosemary

Strawberries

After the seedlings started to slow their growth as they reached maximum capacity in their first planters I decided it was ready to transplant them to their larger planter. This group of pictures is a few more weeks into the planting process.

Herb seedlings

Lettuce

From left to right after transplantation is: Basil, Chives, Parsley, Rosemary, Cilantro, Oregano, Sage

Tomatos

Strawberries

More pictures to come on the recent changes in the garden.

PS I have enjoyed 4 strawberries already from the plants and they are very juicy, red, and sweet.

seattle bound

So I am very exited, yesterday booked my flight to Seattle. I cannot wait to see Kristin, Frank and Miss Haley Ann. Last I saw her she was 2 months old

and now she will be almost 6 months! Another friend Sarah from U of A recently had a baby boy, Brayden, and I have yet to meet him. I cannot wait to see them as well. I have never been to Seattle and am looking forward very much to exploring Pikes Place Market, the space neddle, the original Starbucks, and Seattle Grace Hospital (oh wait that one just exisits in Grey's Anatomy world) just to name a few!

baby boy, we love you!

Pati's baby shower was a great success! Fun seemed to be had by all, yummy food was inhaled and Pati got just about all she needs for when Isaiah arrives! All the hard work and preperations was well worth all the complements on everything and how happy and thankful Pati was!

The food table!

Gumball guessing game. The winner came within 2 gumballs of the actual count!

Spot for people to write their advice to the mom-to-be!

Homemade flag garland using baby patterened scrapbook paper.

Onie's backyard were the party went down.

Natalie and Cerina helping get ready! Thanks guys!

The mom-to-be enjoying her lunch!

Soosan, Natalie, Pati, Steph, Karen, Stephanie, and little Sarah enjoying food.

Darling Dane! What a ham!

Soosan guessing how big Pati's belly is with yarn.

Presents!

Thanks to all who were able to come, to those who sent gifts, and to those who worked so the rest of us could be there!

baby shower preperations

To prepare for my friend Pati's baby shower I started months before the planned event day. I started with "scrapbooked" save the date, which I made and posted at work (since mostly work people were invited) and emailed a picture I took of the save the date to the people not invited from work. I did this about 2 months before the event. Here is the save the date below.

Next I started on the invitation which included more details than the save the date. On the "scrapbooked" invitation I added a pocket where I put reminder cards with directions to the party. I posted this one month before the party and sent out a e-vite (electronic invitation) the same time.

I came up with a game to play gift Bingo. While Pati opened her gifts people marked corresponding Bingo spaces for the gift opened. This was a big hit, people got very into what she was opening and were very involved in the process. I wish I had said only one box marked per gift because I think it would have kept the game going a little longer. I had prizes for all the games too! We also played the guess the mom's belly size using sting. The winner came within 1 cm away!

While out and about over the two months of planning I picked up drinks, paper goods, decorations, prizes as to not leave it all to the last minute. It really helped to keep things simple the last 2 days before the shower so I could focus on all the fresh food for the day of!

The dessert preperations I started early as well. For the favors I wanted to make decorated sugar cookies. I found a sugar cookie recipie from another blog I came across and made it and froze the dough 2 weeks ahead. A week before the shower I transfered it to the refridgerator and then the next day rolled it out, cut the cookies using onesie, pram and rubber duckie cookie cutters, and then baked immediately. After cooling, I placed back in freezer ziplock bag and placed the cookies back in the freezer. A few days before the shower I took the cookies out of the freezer to start the decorating process.

I also made cupcakes in batches and placed in the freezer and then frosted them the day before the shower and left them room temperature.

I also made carmel, chopped almond and chocolate drizzle covered pretzel rods. These were made just under a week away from the shower and after the carmel hardened and chocolate dried, they were placed in a ziplock bag to keep fresh til the shower.

The day before I made a very easy carmel brownie recipie from Cooking Light Magazine.

All the food, but ESPECIALLY the sweets were enjoyed by all, I'm so thankful I started early.

spring break

Although I am no longer in school to have a traditional "Spring Break", I fled to the beach at La Jolla shores with the other Spring breakers the last week in March during a much invited warm spell. At the beach I bared my pale body in last years swim suit (wearing SPF 70 I may add), listened to my iPod, read a book, and people watched. I had a very enjoyable time! After about an hour of soaking up as much sun as one with my history should for the day, I left the beach and headed to downtown La Jolla where I window shopped and walked around. Here are some pictures from this beautiful San Diego day in March.

P.S. Little Bee is a very great book. It usually takes me awhile to read books but this one didn't take long at all as I was always excited to pick it up and read what was going to happen next. The book is about a Nigerian refugee who flees to Britian. The story is about where she goes when she gets there and the people she meets. I would recommend it to anyone.