Homemade Tomato Sauce (Salsa de Tomate)

Hello?! Anyone still out there??? I have been absent from the blogosphere for way too long, and for that I apologize. At first I was missing because we were in the process of moving to my suegro's house and we were waiting for our internet service to be installed. What I had hoped would only be a two week wait, at most, turned into a long, drawn-out five weeks and I was suffering from major social media withdrawals. (FOMO?!) Most of my time during those five weeks was spent packing up things at our old place while also clearing out the rooms we'd be moving to at my father-in-law's, painting, and making minor repairs before we "officially" moved in. The week our internet was finally installed, my in-laws (Alf's brother & sister) both came to visit from the US so that week was spent with the family. The week after my in-laws left we finished moving all of our stuff into my suegro's house. Now all we had to do was settle into our "new" place and I'd finally have some time to sit at my computer to work, blog, and get back to doing what I love most... sharing recipes.


Secret Recipe Club: Pumpkin Crumb Cake

It's the first Monday of a new month which means it's time once again for The Secret Recipe Club. This month my assignment is Making Memories with Your Kids, written by Erin, a single mom of two who loves to bake and craft. Erin's blog is a fun family-friendly mix of recipes and crafts for making wonderful memories with kids of all ages.


With so many festive recipes to choose from a few that caught my eye were Bread & Butter Pickles, Bacon Double Cheeseburger Dip, and Twinkie Pie. I ended up choosing Erin's Pumpkin Crumb Coffee Cake because I had some leftover Calabaza en Tacha (Mexican candied pumpkin) sitting in my fridge just waiting to be used. I had seen similar recipes on Pinterest where you simply combine cake mix with pumpkin puree, but the crumb topping is what ultimately won me over. Not only is this cake super easy to whip up, it's also incredibly delicious... like a cross between a pumpkin bread and old-fashioned pumpkin pie. My family and I are completely smitten with this recipe!