Hitting the sauce...HARD

The herbs and veggies are in full swing, so it was time to make and freeze homemade spaghetti sauce for the year. We wound up with approximately 12 quarts to go into the freezer. Whenever I make sauce, even with my best efforts to clean as I go, I end up with a disastrous kitchen. This time was worse than usual--it has become hard to lean over Squidgie to reach the counters and sink to scrub, peal, dice, chop, and wash. However, the extra work for the fresh home-grown herbs is definitely worth the taste, not to mention dried herbs are terribly expensive at the grocery.

My darling Mom came out to help take care of Liesl, and even made me a double batch of meatballs for Tom to keep in the freezer. For dinner tonight, we had 4-cheese ravioli with the fresh sauce, and Tom had fresh meatballs. It was delicious! The rest will be put in the freezer for quick, tasty, healthy meals for the rest of the winter. This will be especially helpful when Squidgie is born. The house smells heavenly today!

With any Italian meal comes the requisite baby-eating-tomato-sauce photos. Cleaning up the kid and the high chair (and a 40-foot radius around the high chair) is always a source for discussion. Tom wants to bring out the power washer; I usually suggest renting a convertible and going through the nearest car wash. We opt for a bath instead...and getting her upstairs and into it without covering our stairs, furniture, walls, bedspreads, and clothes with tomato sauce is the next problem to be solved. But at least she had a good healthy meal.