Recently I finally took a go at making my own pizza sauce. I love dough so much I'd always focused on that element, especially when I had friends that made great sauce!

Here's a basic recipe that's fantastic. With tweaks as you like, you can design a unique signature. I have a few twists in mind to try for the future.

1/2 onion (I used white; a red or Walla walla would result in something totally different but likely good)
4 garlic cloves (I like garlic -- cut if you are timid)
2 Tbsp olive oil

Saute these together; you'll get a different flavor if you just sweat them versus going into caramelization. I did the latter as I like a sweeter sauce.

Now dump that into a blender with:

1 16 oz can tomato *sauce*
1 6 oz can tomato *paste*
2 teaspoons sugar (less if you like a more acidic sauce)
1 generous teaspoon dried basil
1 generous teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt

Pulse one or two times to give a nice chunky texture. More if you want something smoother.

Simmer together for an hour.

Yum.

Today's adventures in food preservation were nearly thwarted. No sign of pickling cucumbers at EZ Orchard, with no plans for more. Same story at the Farmer's Market. A call to LifeSource: bupkis. Panic threatened to set in; I'd braved a trip to BiMart (my first, and likely my last) on a tip from a friend as that was the place to get canning supplies and I needed more jars, a jar lifter and lid grabber. Would it be all for naught?

Safeway on Center St. had just shy of four pounds of adorable little nubby cucumbers, firm and perfectly sized to become bread and butter pickles. After successfully making tomato soup, childhood memories of those yummy sweet/sour pickles kept coming back to me, complete with remembrances of popping the top on a fresh jar and dumping them into the Tupperware Picker Plucker.

Blind faith in the magic of kitchen alchemy sustained me as I cleaned, sliced and combined two things I quite dislike: cucumbers and onions. Using the very nifty (and sharp) Ultimate Mandoline, without the safety holder, of course, i found that long nails make great finger guards. On more than one occasion I lost 1/8-1/4 inch of nail that, otherwise, would have been finger flesh. Four pounds of cukes became cute little slices in no time. Mixing with salt and then packing away under ice for a few hours, the magic began.

Likewise, the end result didn't seem possible given the ingredients going into the brine. But after a boil, the familiar scent filled the house. FILLED the house. Packed away in jars, boiled for a brief time, and now sitting on the counter to cool are seven little pints of sweet slices of heaven. Tasting one as I packed the jars, I can begin to taste it; time is certainly required, but the beginnings are there.