~ momma i'm hungry: fabulous end-of-summer sauce 'recipe' ~

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Every morning, I'm busy in the kitchen preparing breakfast,

and in the evenings, I'm right back in there working on supper,

but for some reason, cooking the mid-day meal of dinner always is a challenge for me.

(The kids insist it is 'dinner' not 'lunch', like Laura and Mary say.)

The girls don't want a wrap or a sandwich, with some fruit and veggies on the side,

they want a real meal - a real farm dinner!

We rarely have leftovers these days, either.....

Even though it is counter-intuitive to turn on the oven when it's almost 90 degrees outside,

and we've decided that it's time to turn off the A/C and save some money,

I decided to make a roasted vegetable sauce to have over pasta.

So here's a little 'recipe' - more like a tutorial!  

Into a roasting pan went a bunch of veggies, mostly from my local Farmers' Market:

1 peeled and cubed sweet potato

1/2 onion, cut into medium pieces

1 carrot, sliced into rings

1 large red bell pepper, chopped into medium pieces

1 small eggplant, chopped into large pieces

handful button mushrooms

4 cloves garlic, unpeeled

3 large tomatoes, sliced in half

I put butter pats on top (I was out of olive oil)

gave a crank of sea salt over everything,

and slid it into a 415 degree oven for about 40 minutes,

until everything was soft and juicy.

The garlic cloves pop right out of their peels, which I discarded,

then I put everything, including the pan juices,

into the food processor and gave it a good whirl.

I let the blender run a while, until everything was well-pureed and creamy-looking.

(I had some leftover pasta water to add if I had needed it.)

Then I tossed the hot sauce with some cooked shell pasta,

and served it up to my hungry little chickens!

The sauce was really creamy and sweet from the sweet potatoes,

and a pleasing orange color that's perfect for upcoming fall weather.

I can see replacing my standard tomato sauce for pizza with this.

I'm hoping that it will freeze well, because I'd like to make a bunch more!

The veggies are completely interchangeable:

Summer squash? Sure!

An extra eggplant?  Why not?

Some celery?  If you have it, go ahead!

Butternut squash?  Sounds yummy!

Herbs? Yes!

I think something sweet and creamy 

(sweet potato or winter squash)

and tomatoes 

(maybe canned blended at the end when they're out of season)

are what define it for me,

but there's definitely a lot of other flavors and textures.

Yes - I'm including a picture of dirty dishes in my sink,
and I'm going on the record saying this is the cleanest part of my kitchen at the moment.
It might not be glamorous, but it's real,
and sharing even the slightly embarrassing parts of life can feel really good.

Hope that everyone is enjoying these last days of Summer as much as I am!

~carrie~