My blogging partner is a deceitful saboteur!

So this was the simple pasta sauce Anne put forward — you take 28 ounces of tomatoes, five tablespoons of butter, one onion cut in half and salt and then follow these directions:

Plop everything into a saucepan. Place over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Cook, uncovered, at a very slow but steady simmer, adjusting the heat if you need to, for about 45 minutes, or until droplets of fat float free from the tomato. Stir occasionally, mashing any large pieces of tomato with the back of a spoon against the side of the saucepan. Taste and salt as needed. Fish out and throw away the onion before tossing the sauce with pasta.

So when I was done, I had a lot of tomato juice and stewed chunks of tomato. I asked Anne if that was the intent, and she said, "It's supposed to be sauce."

And then, almost as an aside, she noted that she uses a hand blender.

Oh, just happened to leave that out, did you?

Right. Setting me up to fail, so her sauce would be better than mine. Figures.

She also said women would fall at my feet if I made this sauce. Well, I made it, and there are no women on my kitchen floor. None!

Jeez. It's getting so you can't trust anyone anymore.

The sauce, though — even when made with incomplete directions — is very, very good.