About Tricia

I am Tricia. Momma of nine, homeschooler, artist, foodie and maker of all kinds of things. It's a pleasure to share here our family homesteading adventures, the things we make, and what inspires our days. Read more about my family and work here. Thanks for visiting!

Author Archive | Tricia

Thankful preparations

By Tricia on November 20, 2012 in Handmade Holidays and Celebrations, Knits and Crochet

So much to do before Thursday. I woke up too early this morning and could not get the list of things to accomplish out of my head. I love, love, love holidays. Something about special days with family that makes me happy. I always end up with very long lists which stress me out but honestly its the kind of stress that makes me tick.

It seems that this house has not had a good once over in the cleaning department since the wedding. I have been too busy being in love with baby Matthew and teaching my children to really give a darn and it is now showing. (I will be posting the wedding pics on Saturday this week, sorry for the long wait).

When Poppa told me that he had no undershirts I shrugged it off because I knew there was still a pile of shirts folded in the closet but yesterday when he proclaimed (in a nice manner) that he was going to have to buy socks, I decided to snap out of it and get this house back in order.

Today we have stripped all beds and washed all the sheets, towels and shower curtains. All windows are being cleaned and every room is being given special attention. The porch is being scrubbed of chicken poops and the mulch that gets thrown everywhere by our feathered girls, which the chickens have made into a sport, is getting replaced.

There is much to do before Thursday. All the corn we bought at our fall trip to the cornfiled needs to be shucked and put up in the freezer.. Cranberry breads and cranberry merlot jam is waiting to be made. On the sewing list are new napkins for our Thanksgiving table and perhaps some new fall themed skirts for the girls.

All the floors are being swept, scrubbed and mopped. Oh Dear, Is that my veggie scrubber they are using??

The piano needs a good polish. I realized we are out of polish so time to make more. I love homemade polish, it works so nicely. It still needs to be buffed in but the piano is looking happy.

and as we all scuttle about, a baby is cozy in his handknits (er crocheted) technicolored longies.

See you tomorrow. I hope your preparations go as you have planned.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or follow me by email at the top right hand of the screen to have future posts sent to you. Tricia (Crunchy Catholic Momma)

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OTB (Onion, Tomato & Butter) Sauce Recipe

By Tricia on November 16, 2012 in Recipes

I have always enjoyed making tomato sauce from scratch. I can recall the day I went into labor with Ronnie who is now about to turn 11. I was in active labor but had left my huge pot of tomato sauce simmering while I went to see my doctor that morning. I returned to finish canning up my sauce with some pretty strong contractions only two or three minutes apart and refused to leave until I had canned up the last jar. I took two jars with me to give to my doctor. I don’t think he was used to women showing up for labor holding jars of tomato sauce.

A few times a year I will get into a sauce making frenzy of peeling tomatoes, chopping onions and garlic and herbs and spices. Throwing in my best dark wine and and standing by the stove which requires a good part of the day followed by me wiping up the remaining sauce in the pot with a long stick of french bread so as not to waste any : )

Then one day about two years ago I was surfing food blogs and came across this sauce. This luscious sauce only has three ingredients, onion, tomato and butter. It has become my new favorite and honestly I think I love it enough to replace my own and it pratically makes itself. It is actually quite famous in the food blogging world and rightly so. Those bloggers are not easily impressed so you might want to take notice.

I can’t even say why chopping an onion in half and throwing it into a pot of canned whole tomatoes with a few tablespoons of butter makes this so darned good but it does. It just does.

My only changes to the recipe is that I chop up the onion and leave it in the sauce because we like the texture but you could totally do away with that step. I should also throw in that it makes a great margheritta pizza sauce.

and this is my secret weapon for chopping up lots of onions. The kids thought I should show you what I look like with them on. Um, not a chance : )

So to resume, this sauce rocks and it is super duper easy and sooo cheap to make. I make enough to last a few months and pop the jars into the freezer since you should not can sauces that have butter in them.

OTB Sauce

28 oz can of whole tomatoes. (Please spend another dollar and buy organic, this recipe is so cheap that you can afford it.)
5 tbsp butter
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and chopped in half
salt to taste

Put all your ingredients into a sauce pot and cook on low to medium for about 30 to 45 minutes until the tomatoes break up (I mush them with my spoon to help out). Thats it, get out the french bread and wipe the pot clean after you put up your sauce.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or follow me by email at the top right hand of the screen to have future posts sent to you. Tricia (Crunchy Catholic Momma)

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