TOTAL ECLIPSE... sort of

As you'll see from the map below, we fell in the 90% range for an eclipse.

Photo courtesty of www.astroadventures.net

Adrian kept a semi-vigilant watch with me. She's 9 and loves anything having to do with outdoors. Abby at only 5 didn't get the significance of what she was seeing. She thought the eclipse was some place we were going to. 

We missed the 90% mark by a couple of minutes. The sky took on a grayish tone as if a storm were moving in. The temperature dropped from 96* F to 86* F.  Then it was gone. After Bob and Abby gave up, having 'missed' the 'total', Adrian and I continued to view the passing on and off until the end. 

While not the most 'exciting' thing I've ever watched, knowing that something like that was happening held a 'wow' factor I couldn't ignore. I was happy the temperature dropped so we could view the eclipse without melting. Mother Earth knows what she's doing. 

Were you able to view the eclipse in person? Or were you one of the millions watching from the comfort of an air conditioned room viewing on your television screen. Either is fine. But I'd love to hear from you and what you thought of the experience.

Blessings

Kelly

WEEKEND TRAVELS - Pizza Sauce

While this is supposed to be a Weekend Travels post, most of our traveling these days is out to the garden. 

As I told you last week, I was putting Adrian in charge of washing all of those tomatoes she and Abby picked. This batch became half of a batch of pizza sauce. Making sauce has changed a lot from when I was learning how to can.

After the tomatoes were washed, I dropped them in scald water to slip the skins then into a sink of cold water to stop the cooking and help further release the skins. I peeled/ cored each one, cut them up then dropped them into the food processor where they were turned into a thin puree.

When I was a girl we would have put the puree into a pot on the stove and spent several hours stirring the sauce to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pan as we cooked it to the desired consistency. I've learned a good shortcut... My crock pot is my friend LOL

I poured the puree into my 6 qt (?) oval crock pot covered with a lint free towel (NO lid!) and set it to low. From there, I just let it cook down all day. Just before bedtime, I stirred in a packet of McCormick Spaghetti Sauce mix then let it continue to cook down throughout the night. The next morning I had perfect Pizza Sauce consistency. I could have continued to cook another 6 hours or so for tomato paste. As the tomatoes continue to ripen (I have nearly half of a 5 gal bucket waiting), I might make the next batch into paste and put into 1/2-sized jelly jars.

So far I've put up three pints of diced tomatoes from last year's haul and these lovely seven pints of Pizza Sauce:

Now all I have to do is rearrange some things on shelves downstairs and make room. Wish me luck!