There's really only one reason I always hope for extra tomatoes in my garden. Okay, make that two. One is salsa. Two is homemade tomato sauce. I don't usually have much of a bumper crop, so I've only tried the tomato sauce thing once or twice before. This year, between my garden and our CSA, I did have an overabundance of tomatoes, and I was on a mission. You see, I wanted to make homemade tomato sauce that I could use in lasagna and spaghetti and other Italian dishes, but I wanted it to be simple. The recipes I had tried before involved boiling the tomatoes in hot water, followed by a cold water bath so you could remove the skins, and then removal of the seeds...just to then put it all back on the stove to cook for an extended period of time, only to end up with water, soupy sauce, unless I added extra tomato paste. Whew. After some thought and some research, I began to wonder about using my Crock Pot and immersion blender to make tomato sauce, without peeling and de-seeding. I figured if I blended it up, I wouldn't care if the tomato skins were in there, and I don't notice any off-flavor from the seeds. The results of the experiment were delicious, and the method was unbeatably simple!

I'd really like to say that this salad represents a fall Michigan harvest, but I used avocado, so I can't. Instead, it represents what I had in my possession as far as produce goes and wanting to make a salad for company at the last minute. However, it does have apples and toasted pumpkin seeds and maple dressing -- so I'm going to call it Fall Harvest Salad anyways. Whatever name you want to give it, you will be calling it delicious.  I was a little skeptical of my own creation on this day, but I pleasantly surprised myself -- and some of our family! The salad part is really easy:

Sometimes you just need some easy and delicious comfort food. I had made something similar to this before, but I needed to use some particular ingredients. I had grilled some chicken the night before and had a lot leftover. I also had tomatoes and jalapeños from the CSA that I had to use. Looking for easy, I decided on a skillet dish served over rice for a "naked burrito" type dinner that was simple yet tasty. It's not quite one-pot cooking, because I did make rice separately...but still, easy cleanup!