My favorite tomato sauce

I picked up a huge box of bruised roma tomatoes at the Raleigh farmer's market this weekend and spent most of Sunday morning making tomato sauce.

I'm not sure where I picked up my technique. Almost all of the advice I see on line says to boil the tomatoes, remove the skins, scoop out the seeds...why would you do that? That's what a food mill is for.

I sliced the tomatoes into flat pieces, lay them out on a baking sheet, season them with salt, marjoram, basil, thyme and oregano then drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. I fill the pan up, and put it in the oven - 450 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes.

While they cook I prepare the next pan.

Once they come out of the oven they go directly into the food mill which is over my stock pot. The food mill does the work of removing the skins and seeds.

The stock pot simmers over low heat. I probably did about 12 trays worth. I reduced the sauce by at least a quarter, and all I added to it was a poor of marsalla wine.

The sauce is red, beautiful - tastes so fresh, and clings to pasta like crazy.

Hope to see more of this; mobile slaughterhouses

The Seattle Times has a story today regarding a topic I've been following for awhile; mobile slaughterhouses.

My beef farmer has to transport his cattle to a USDA 'inspected' facility to be able to sell his grass fed, all natural beef to me. Ask him how happy he is about this sometime. From what he's told me about it, it really sounds like a hassle, and if the USDA inspector can't be there for some reason, the whole trip has to be rescheduled.

Using something like this, the slaughterhouse would come to his farm.

More tainted ground beef

I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here...err, I mean that tainted ground beef is making the rounds again.

The most recent one looks like salmonella. Which is, sad to say, the good news. Could have been more e. coli like they saw in Colorado this past June.

Regarding the first story, I saw a quote in Fox New's report:

"The beef was repackaged and sold under different retail brand names, so customers are being urged to check with their local store to determine if they bought any of the beef."

Repackaged. Resold under different names. Let the 3 card monte game begin. Follow the queen, here we go....

Who do you call to complain?

If I have a problem with my beef, I call my beef farmer Roger (or his wife Brenda). Of course, I don't have problems with Roger's beef, because they don't treat their animals like commodities.