'k. So santa brought a new toy:

Which, when combined with "red", either means borscht, gazpacho, or some tomato-like thing, particularly when one is violently allergic to red peppers.

There had been plans to photograph my wife's cranberry "salad" (which involves cranberries, pineapple tidbits, whipped cream and marshmallows) but on the day there was too much going on. And besides, no hand blender. Which means

HUMANODON SAUCE REDUX

Previously I've done this with heirlooms. It's f'in January so SoCal or not, we're using whatever Chile's got this time of year.

There's a lot of chopping in this recipe, but we'll spare that. The truly fussy bit is the peeling of the tomatoes. I have it down to a routine - core everything, then put one in boiling water.

While that one's boiling you're hosing the previous one down in cold water and peeling it in the sink.

Once that's done you're taking your onion, your carrot, your basil stalks, your garlic and your bay leaf and you're sauteeing it.

The stove in this apartment has two burners that are concentric. That means you've got a little burner to the right on the knob, and a little burner and a big burner to the left on the knob. "Low" on the little burner is truly low. "Low" on the big burner is PLEASE SCORCH MY SHIT WITHOUT DELAY. Notice the blackened bits.

But, we soldier on, adding the tomatoes, a glass of wine, and some parmesan.

Worthy of note: when I make this recipe with heirlooms, you have to hit it with like an entire bottle of wine because there's no moisture in them. Beefsteaks? Yeah, a glass was plenty.

Now we have to wait a little bit. Let's see what's in the mail.

NICE.

How's that stuff coming along?

Ehh, not quite there. We got a couple other boxes...

Hey, cool! it's that $900 thing that cost you $150 to fix instead of $600 which will make it easier to sell your $2000 purchase for $5k or more! Dizzope! How's the spaghetti sauce coming?

Well, we're getting there. Prolly time to whip out the widdamaker:

I was hoping my daughter would be terrified of it, as she is of everything from the Roomba to the coffee grinder. She was not. Apparently genuine stainless steel whirring blades of death do not hold a candle to an RC dustbuster.

Now's probably the time to make up for the oregano I forgot to put in. I grind my own meat straight into the pan; chicken plus oregano plus garlic equals yum:

And we took the pan down a notch 'cuz I need that big boy:

So my wife eats gluten free when she can. Ralph's had gluten-free egg noodles for $2 that claimed to be Italian. Okay, we'll try them. I just had to share this:

That's right, kids - they're selling "gluten free" canned tomatoes in a "BPA free" glass jar. I kinda feel like I'm being trolled.

Delicious as always, but kinda tried and true. Perhaps if I wasn't 2 days out of the ER (and hadn't spent 5 hours running errands) I might have improvised more. As it is, mangia.