Linda Mar beach in Pacifica, homemade ketchup and Concord grapes

Pacifica beach

As a final hurrah for our summer vacation we wanted one more visit to a beach.  The initial plan was to  go to Stinson, since we had failed to make it there earlier in the summer.  But we failed again and ended up at Linda Mar in Pacifica instead.  

This is a great place for surfers-we watched a surf class for about an hour.

As a bonus, this is the home of the World's Best Taco Bell as declared by Lucky Peach.  We had seen this last year but had just eaten so passed it by.  You can't even tell that that it is a Taco Bell since it is built in driftwood style (that is it in the photo below).  It truly is the best-there are floor to ceiling windows looking onto the ocean and outdoor seating.  There is a walk-up window for those with sandy feet....

It started as quite a misty morning but cleared up for a few minutes at a time.  But meanwhile the ocean sounded delightful the entire time.

 All the photos stitched together into a panorama...the wave looks funny!

As a bonus we stopped in Half Moon Bay and got our Halloween pumpkins

Homemade ketchup, roasted veg, Concord Grape season

The little guy (whose doesn't like vegetables) looked at the gardens in the tomatoes in the garden and declared them done.  I asked if he wanted to try them and he said, no, he doesn't like tomatoes, but he loves ketchup.  So we made ketchup!

First you drop the tomatoes into boiling water for a minute.  Then drop them into ice water before peeling off the skin.

After deseeding and draining we blended and then boiled up the tomatoes with salt and sugar.

When it is all boiled down, ketchup!

The other day I made roasted root vegetable soup with fennel root, onions, rutabagas, yams, turnips, parsnips and carrots!  It took all afternoon to cook down but it is feeding us for days.

And it is Concord grape season!  

Splurt the insides out of the skins before cooking.

After boiling for 5 minutes I used the hand blender to loosen the seeds.  Then put them through the sieve to separate out the seeds.  

Remix the skins with the insides and freeze up to make into grape pie for Thanksgiving!