Busy morning

The sun is still shining.

So I thought being as John didn't need me to help him with the bedroom renovations I would take the opportunity to harvest my wonderful crop of tomato's, this year I thought it would be a good idea to make real tomato sauce for pasta as we eat quite a lot of it, also it is good to put in soups or anything you want a bit of flavour in.

I didn't expect it to taste as good as it did though, yummy. and of course I know what went into it unlike it's shop bought cousin.

                                         So first I sterilized the jars and tops 

                           Then dunked the toms into boiling water to skin them

                            Took out the core's and roughly chopped them and 
                         added them to some fried onion, mixed well for a while
                                     then blitzed them with a hand blender

                           I added fresh chopped basil and garlic plus a little dried
                           oregano, we also like a little paprika in ours, oh yes and
                                              two tubes of tomato puree.

                          Pour into the jars leaving about 1/2 inch space at the top.

                               I use the jam funnel to avoid spilling it everywhere. 

                          pop on the lids nice and tight and put the jars into a large 

                      Jam kettle to boil them for 15 minutes to seal the and pressurize

                                    the jars then leave to cool before labeling.

There was a little left over and it wasn't enough for a full jar so I will put it into tonight's chicken stir fry along with the cabbage that was left over from yesterday (don't tell John ) but nothing gets wasted here.

Now I must go and harvest the rhubarb to put into the freezer for John's crumble's - ( not my favourite )

Then it will be time for a cuppa I reckon.

Our neighbour has just said "ça sent le magnifique" I think she like's the smell and now I have to explain the recipe to her in French...wish me luck

Do you make your own pasta sauce if so let me know how you do yours in the comments :)

Take a Peek

Take a peek at this site, it shows some of the things that can go wrong if you take your eye off the ball or don't do enough research.

http://www.overs.co.uk/infographics.html.

I can't believe it is August already.

I am back and this time refreshed.

I know it has been some time since I blogged and to be honest after so many years of constantly sitting at a computer day in day out for work it is so refreshing to be able to spread my retired wings, it has taken a while to get used to the fact that I am not tied to the computer and I can go out freely any day of the week.
I have for a while seemed to be in a strange limbo not knowing what day it was and not being able to concentrate on things, I guess it is because I no longer have a schedule to keep to and now I have to make another schedule to stick to (obviously I need one)
Things keep popping into my mind like OMG I can go to the weekly local market now.
Bottom line is I can really start to enjoy our life in France unencumbered so if you had enjoyed our blog before, hold onto your seats, I will try to tell you in an honest, exiting and down to earth way how it goes from here.

A Bientot.

Roz & John