Playing In Mi Cocina

DH thought I was trying to decorate the kitchen. I'm just trying to find places to dry out peppers. I really don't know how to tie a ristra, but everything I've read online about air drying peppers suggests keeping the peppers from touching one another. The Jalapenos I'm not sure about either because their skin may be too thick. I did slice slits in the jalapenos so I'm hopeful they will dry out like the other peppers. I could freeze them, but honestly, freezer space is a challenge. I love how much color this experiment is adding to my kitchen!

I made another batch of marinara sauce yesterday, and this batch actually came out red, not orange! After reading about a new friend's slow cooker technique to making sauce, I thought since its crazy hot outside, I would give this a try rather than using my stove top. I had several Romas that were on the smaller side that I didn't want to peel either. I simply washed the tomatoes, sliced them into chunks and loaded up my slow cooker. I added a few onions, garlic and Italian seasonings and set it to low.

Around lunchtime, after speaking with DH, I decided to add his turkey sausages into the sauce. I cooked them on the stove top for 5 minutes each side, and then threw them into the slow cooker with the sauce.

By supper time, the Sleepyhouse smelled AA-MAZZ-ING!! I removed the sausages and pureed the sauce. It was a bit too watery even though I did not add any. I suppose the water from the tomatoes couldn't escape as steam from the slow cooker. We ate it anyway with pasta, but the rest of the batch, I moved to a stove top pot to cook down. An hour later, it was perfect!!

This is my new way to make marinara. I don't know why all of my previous marinara attempts with Roma tomatoes have always ended up more orange than red, but the slow cooker method left this batch definitely red not orange.