Grilled Tomato Sauce From Steven Raichlen Like soup, tomato sauce is one of the dishes you're least likely to think of grilling. But there is a powerful reason to try this sauce. Beyond the mere novelty factor, grilling imparts a gutsy smoke flavor to the sauce and heightens the natural sweetness of the vegetables. Don't take just my word for it. For thousands of years, Mexicans have grilled tomatoes, onions and peppers to make rich-tasting salsas. I have adapted the technique to make an exceptionally flavorful tomato sauce. Serve the sauce over grilled polenta, with any simple grilled fish, or with just about any cooked pasta. Makes about 3 1/2 cups. 5 lucious, ripe red tomatoes 2 - 2 1/4 pounds total, cut in half crosswise, and stem ends removed 1 medium size white onion, peeled and cut into quarters 1 rib celery 4 cloves garlic, peeled and skewered on a wooden toothpick or small bamboo skewer 3 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil 1 tsp. oregano 1/2 tsp. hot pepper flakes 1 bay leaf 6 fresh basil leaves coarse salt (Kosher or Sea salt) freshly ground black pepper 1/4 to 3/4 cup chicken stock, vegetable stock or water Cook the tomatoes, onions, celery and garlic in greased and preheated grill (George Foreman grill) until nicely browned. You may need to cook the vegetables in more than one batch. Transfer the grilled vegetables and let cool. Finely chop the onions, celery and garlic by hand or in a food processor. If using a food processor, run machine in spurts. Heat olive oil in large non-reactive sauce pan over medium heat. Add the chopped onion, celery and garlic, oregano, hot pepper flakes and bay leaf and cook until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Coarsely puree tomatoes and juices with the basil in a food processor. Add the tomato mixture to the sauce pan, with the vegetables. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then let sauce simmer gently until thick and richly flavored 8-10 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper to taste. The sauce should be thick but pourable. If it is too thick, add a little stock or water. Remove and discard the bay leaf. The sauce can be refrigerated, covered up to 4 days. Or frozen for up to 2 months. Let the sauce come to room temperature then reheat it in a non-reactive sauce pan over medium heat, stirring often.

Yes, I'm responding to my own post, in case anyone else has this question. I talked to my local vermicomposting guru, and she did not recommend using cornstarch-based cups (PLA) in your home compost, because they require a very hot compost in order to break down. She says that even most outdoor compost bins don't achieve the heat needed to breakdown PLA. So - if you are able to, send them to a commercial composting facility.

I'm cool! Wow! I love that! As for your bin: A bin without a false bottom is fine as well really. I only want mine back because now I feel the bin is too deep but it really is a personal preference. As for upsetting the worms: I must upset mine a lot*grin* I've dumped my bin out to count how many worms I had(when I only had 21 worms). I've dumped it out to remove the flase floor(once I had bought my 1/2 lb). I just pulled almost eveything out again to install that screen including scraping food up out of the bin worms and all(and you should see the babies I have in there now!!!). I also dig around and check everything out once a week and take pictures(I've dug around the bin twice this week and I'll be feeding again tomorrow). Would my worms be happier if I didn't peek at them so much? Probably but I really don't worry about it...after all they are just worms and I am giving them a place to live and food to eat:) Thanks for your post! It's great to know someone thinks I'm cool! My own grade four kid just rolls her eyes at me and my husband thinks my "hobby" is strange:) Cass:)

Sam - What sacrilege!!! LOL Having 2 roses of the same type. LOL Yeah, having more than one type would be beautiful in landscaping, but I gotta have as many different types of roses as possible. I just gotta. :) Jim - seems like my soil DOES have all the microbrial good stuff in it. Apparently for potted soils, the place I use, just adds sand to the garden soil, and calls it potting soil (which is what I use). See below: The BigYellowBag® made its first appearance in Southwestern Ontario. Since then, it has been making its way across Canada and the United States! When it comes to getting our ‘stock’ of soil, we don’t just go with the closest or cheapest suppliers. We search out the best quality soil and stock it, sometimes for years in advance, to make certain we can consistently offer the highest quality of soil to our customers. Different types of soil have different levels of nutrients. One will have more phosphorus, another more nitrogen, and so on. Using third-party laboratories and professional agronomists, we test the soils we’re purchasing from our suppliers to determine the quality of these levels. Once we know the properties of the soils, we blend them to create a perfect balance that offers the best level of nutrients, minerals and soil texture to stimulate plant growth. After we’ve mixed the soil, we screen it several times, making sure that there aren’t any stones or clumps in the blend. Then we get it tested again to make sure that our Black Garden Soil’s nutritional properties fall within optimal ranges. We all know the saying “you are what you eat,” and we want to make sure your garden or lawn is getting the best ‘food’ possible from our Black Garden Soil. Quality Active Soil Does Make A Difference! Soil is home to many living things and has an important job to do for the environment. It’s full of organisms, mineral and organic matter and provides moisture, air and nutrients. A good quality soil is a vibrant mix loaded with microscopic life containing good bacteria and beneficial funghi; which help the soil cycle nutrients, decompose, help hold the soil together and improve soil structure. BigYellowBag& Black Garden Soil is comprised of a combination of black loam, peat loam, very-well-decomposed manure and a touch of mineral soil. These ingredients encourage microbial activity, which aid in plant growth. This soil is specially blended to enrich and balance the local soil conditions found in each BigYellowBag® area. Approximately one cubic yard in size, the bags can yield enough soil for the average home’s use. ------------------- So I conclude that my soil should be just like garden soil. I guess. So I'm going to continue using worm compost, but I'm going to use Straw's magic recipe. I'm quite excited about the change of using gypsum, etc. I'll let you all know if it's made a difference. Thanks for all of your fantastic advice. Carol