Excellent!

I am not an intuitive cook. It doesn't come easy. If I don't have a recipe, something to work from, forget about it.

I got this book, a vegetarian cookbook geared toward teens, which is perfect for me. Easy peasy recipes which I can build on. I got a recipe for marinara sauce (which is a fancy way of saying spaghetti sauce) and made a big pot of it. Started with canned tomatoes, fresh garlic, mushrooms, peppers and onions. Also oregano and basil from my garden, oh, and bay leaf.

It was awful. Somewhere along the way I put in too much something, seasonings, which is so like me. Ruined it. I didn't want to throw it out, so I brainstormed, how can I save this? How can I thin out the too heavy seasonings? Not water, don't think, that's just going to make it watery and too seasony. Then I thought TOMATOES. Put in more tomatoes. And it worked. I put in a pound of grape tomatoes and it was almost ready. Not quite, though.

So this a.m. I bought a big tomato and added that. I was feeling really good about it, almost there, almost there, and then I smelled something ALMOST BURNING. At the edge of burning. You know? I ran like hell into the kitchen and saved it. It was too thick and starting to stick on the bottom. So thought about it, added three cups water and now it's perfect. PERFECT! Maybe just a tat hot, but that's okay. Gives it a little character. The too hotness is because some of the tomatoes I put in -- the canned ones? -- they had chili peppers in them.

Just now went in to stir the sauce. Tasted it and it's perfect. I had added a couple teaspoons of sugar to it and it cut the too hotness. So good. I'm going to make eggplant parmesan tonight, except with regular cheese, 'cause they didn't have parmesan at the store I went to yesterday. At the cheaper places, you know, you get the more commonplace cheeses.

Okay, done bragging. Next thing to try is going to be homemade tortillas. Yummy.