Bill's tomato sauce

In the early spring, Bill went to buy a grape tomato plant from the farm supply store. He doesn't actually like eating tomatoes but he knows Kristen and I both love them. He came home with SIX plants as they only sold them in 6-packs.

We could not keep up with the exuberant harvest so he made tomato paste out of the overflow. And it tastes wonderful! In recipes we add additional herbs according to whether we are going for an Italian or Mexican flavor; my absolute favorite is to warm the sauce up in a pan with milk added -- Best. Tomato. Bisque. Ever! He put it in glass jars without processing; it will keep several months in the freezer.

I like to lightly pencil in a sketch before drawing in ink; this time I tried a Caran d'Ache non-photo blue pencil instead of graphite, eliminating the need to erase. I would normally just sketch in a few basic shapes for placement but we were watching an old Murder She Wrote and I got carried away! I still used graphite lines for the text placement area. The next day I added ink lines and text. Then let the ink dry before erasing the text lines and adding watercolor.

To make the sauce, Bill tossed the grape tomatoes with jalapenos in olive oil and roasted them in the oven. Then he sautéed chopped onions and fresh garlic in a large pot before adding the tomato mixture with all the juices. He added oregano, basil, thyme, salt and pepper and brought to a low boil, letting simmer 30 minutes to an hour. If the batch was too sweet, he added a bit of lime juice. (None of this was measured -- that's just the way he cooks.) Finally, he pureed it all with an immersion blender and put in jars.