10 Simple Steps for Making Pasta Sauce

As someone who eats pasta all the time. I thought I would take a stab at jarring tomato sauce with Jersey tomatoes. Having successfully jarred peaches, I found that with a food mill, sauce making is much easier. The food mill essentially peels the skin off the fruit, removing much of the tedious labor. I am so happy I was able to bottle up Jersey tomatoes at their peak flavor.

Reference links:

How to make small batch summer sauce

How to sterilize canning jars via the oven

How to sterilize canning jars by boiling

Items checklist:

10 Summer Sauce Steps:

  1. Clear work area, tools and sterilize jars and lids
  2. Set aside the sterilized items on top of clean tea towels
  3. Rise your tomatoes and get rid of any dirt and slice into quarters
  4. In a large pot bring the sliced tomatoes to boil, add some salt to encourage the softening process
  5. Once the skin of the tomatoes are softened, remove heat and run the tomatoes through a food mill
  6. Transfer the strained sauce to a large pot and cook for 2 to 3 hours for your desired sauce consistency
  7. Add your sauce into the jars and seal with lids and caps
  8. On the stove bring the jars to a boil and continue a rolling boil for 30 mins
  9. Remove jars and let it cool, ensure that the seal doesn’t pop or repeat the sealing process
  10. Once cooled and properly sealed store your jar is cool, clean dark area i.e. pantry
Plum and Cherry tomatoes from RH Farms
Tomatoes skin softerning process
Reducing the sauce to desired consistency
Sauce before the sealing process
Final product, yay

Mangia!

Hiking: Cold Spring, NY

Blue Hill Full Loop

I’ve gone hiking less than a handful of times in the past 5 years. I would describe myself as someone who likes the outdoors, thanks to summer sleepaway camp. I guess other indoor activities were on my agenda like brunch, bars, movies, shopping, and museums. If I am really honest the fact that I would be out late on the weekends didn’t make hiking any more appealing. Alas, the times we are in has encouraged me to join step challenges, which in turn got me back into me hiking. I use AllTrials app, which provides the driving directions to the hiking trials as well as a real-time trial guide. It was really simply and I love the fact that each trial is rated in terms of difficulty and includes user comments. In the beginning of lockdown I gave myself the goal of hitting 10K steps a day. Hiking knocks my step challenge goal out of the park. I track all my activities with the Garmin vívoactive HR watch and all my activities feed to the Garmin Connect app on my iPhone. It’s motivating to visually digest my weekly activity levels. As we transition into a new season, I know that hiking will be a lasting activity. (Dare I say, PSL is here).

We choose the Blue Hill full loop. It requires work, but the view at the top is beautiful and the way down is surprisingly flat allowing for moments to recover and eat.

Having been hiking in Cold Spring, NY via Metro-North Rail before, I knew this was a good option because the town is so adorable. I opted to drive, which would give me the ability to not only hike, but to walk around the town and browse the shops. #suporrtsmallbusinesses

I am happy to report that the shops in the downtown area were all opened and people are wearing masks.

Happy September.

South Street Seaport

Taking a stroll down to South Street Seaport via Chinatown…..

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Below the Brooklyn Bridge the Fulton Market has gotten a face lift with a centered Garden Summer Bar brought to you by Chase Sapphire where guests can drink outdoors in the designated square and enjoy live music performances. Steps away is iPic theaters a super luxury style cinema equipped with plush seating, cocktails and in-theater service. You can’t miss the beautiful facade of the South Seaport Museum replicating the image of Federal Merchants homes of early New York.

What I enjoyed about the area was not only did it have shopping and tons of food trucks on all sides, but there are free benches, ping pong tables and corn hole games for all ages. I am sooo excited that 10 Corso Como is coming to NYC.  This shop originated in Milan in 1991 and it is the epitome of eclectic. If you want to make a statement or own a statement piece, check this place out. If you not in the mood for retail therapy can still conquer #SundayFunday at the Fulton Stall Market for all your produce, don’t forget your tote bag.

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