Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Processing Tomatoes
The major picking has commenced! Hopefully there will be a long harvest. I am a little worried it has been too humid and I don't want things to rot rather than ripen. It isn't helping that I used a wimpier twine this year and it is breaking down too fast and allowing the tomato vines to fall to the ground after all the work I did to tie them up all season.
At this point in the year, I've been so distracted with the tending, picking and processing that I have forgotten some of the plant variety names, particularly the ones I purchased. (Just under half of the tomato seedlings were store bought this year.) I usually seem to get ones that aren't labeled correctly anyway. So, this year, I'm not sure what some of these tomatoes are. A lot were supposed to be 'Early Girl', but I really don't think they are. I am going to call them Abzorbaloff tomatoes as they seem to really like absorbing several of the tomatoes growing around them and growing into lumpy blobs equal in size to several large individual tomatoes! They still taste fine, but they look weird!
For today's processing, I picked the bowl full you see in the picture, plus another 1.5 bowl fulls. It is a good amount for the pots I have to work with. I use whatever kinds are ripe. I mix them all together. I like to add some plum tomatoes for thickness and cherry tomatoes for sweetness. When I have some 'Lemon Boy' a few of those add a really great flavor to the batch. Every batch is a little different.
They all get washed, cut, dumped into my largest pot (not counting the canning pot) and simmered.
I add tomatoes right to the brim.
As they cook down, I ladle the juice over to another pot, straining it through the food mill. As the pulp softens, I start milling it too. I end up with about 1.5 large pots full of tomato puree, which I simmer to reduce and thicken.
After it cools somewhat, I ladle the puree into bags and haul them to the chest freezer in the basement. I use this puree for so much...stocks, soups, pizza sauce, pasta sauce, chili, bbq sauce, etc. There is tomato splashed all over the kitchen (and I'm wearing some too) but it's worth it!
At this point in the year, I've been so distracted with the tending, picking and processing that I have forgotten some of the plant variety names, particularly the ones I purchased. (Just under half of the tomato seedlings were store bought this year.) I usually seem to get ones that aren't labeled correctly anyway. So, this year, I'm not sure what some of these tomatoes are. A lot were supposed to be 'Early Girl', but I really don't think they are. I am going to call them Abzorbaloff tomatoes as they seem to really like absorbing several of the tomatoes growing around them and growing into lumpy blobs equal in size to several large individual tomatoes! They still taste fine, but they look weird!
For today's processing, I picked the bowl full you see in the picture, plus another 1.5 bowl fulls. It is a good amount for the pots I have to work with. I use whatever kinds are ripe. I mix them all together. I like to add some plum tomatoes for thickness and cherry tomatoes for sweetness. When I have some 'Lemon Boy' a few of those add a really great flavor to the batch. Every batch is a little different.
They all get washed, cut, dumped into my largest pot (not counting the canning pot) and simmered.
I add tomatoes right to the brim.
As they cook down, I ladle the juice over to another pot, straining it through the food mill. As the pulp softens, I start milling it too. I end up with about 1.5 large pots full of tomato puree, which I simmer to reduce and thicken.
After it cools somewhat, I ladle the puree into bags and haul them to the chest freezer in the basement. I use this puree for so much...stocks, soups, pizza sauce, pasta sauce, chili, bbq sauce, etc. There is tomato splashed all over the kitchen (and I'm wearing some too) but it's worth it!
Monday, August 16, 2010
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Birthday Cookies
Earlier this month, I celebrated a birthday and received a lovely box of gifts from Debby. She knows I love the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks and she gave me a box of the cookie mix. I hadn't had one of the mixes before and haven't been to the bakery, so it was fun to try an authentic Barefoot Contessa treat!
The from scratch recipe is in Barefoot Contessa Parties and you can find the recipe online here. For the mix, one simply combines an egg and a stick of butter with the dry ingredients in the box.
Voila! Cookies!
What a nice present of the cookie mix, tea, napkins and notepad for writing down my sugar and caffeine fueled schemes!
The from scratch recipe is in Barefoot Contessa Parties and you can find the recipe online here. For the mix, one simply combines an egg and a stick of butter with the dry ingredients in the box.
Voila! Cookies!
What a nice present of the cookie mix, tea, napkins and notepad for writing down my sugar and caffeine fueled schemes!
Friday, August 13, 2010
Another Painted Door
Thanks to Jeff, the back door is looking as nice as the front with the same red paint.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Salad Variations
I've raved at least a couple of times about Nigella Lawson's Greek Salad from her book Forever Summer. I make variations of it regularly. Lately, I've been skipping the lettuce and primarily using the cukes and tomatoes from the garden. Recently, when I had leftovers from a batch of this salad, the following day I boiled a little pasta and then tossed it into the veggies and dressing. It turned out to be a great idea!
In this instance the approximate recipe was:
In one bowl: 1 medium red onion sliced thinly, drizzled with red wine vinegar, sprinkled with oregano, tossed and allowed to sit for awhile.
In another bowl: A bunch of cherry tomatoes, cut up and sprinkled with sugar and a little kosher salt, tossed and allowed to sit for awhile.
In the serving bowl: 1 medium cuke, sliced. And, a generous grinding of black pepper, crumbling of feta and some halved/quartered Kalamata olives.
After the onions have sat for a bit, add olive oil to them. Then, add the onion mixture and the tomato mixture to the serving bowl and toss everything together.
I like it just like that, but add the pasta (partly cooled) and toss and that's what you see in the picture.
I'll definitely be making this again!
In this instance the approximate recipe was:
In one bowl: 1 medium red onion sliced thinly, drizzled with red wine vinegar, sprinkled with oregano, tossed and allowed to sit for awhile.
In another bowl: A bunch of cherry tomatoes, cut up and sprinkled with sugar and a little kosher salt, tossed and allowed to sit for awhile.
In the serving bowl: 1 medium cuke, sliced. And, a generous grinding of black pepper, crumbling of feta and some halved/quartered Kalamata olives.
After the onions have sat for a bit, add olive oil to them. Then, add the onion mixture and the tomato mixture to the serving bowl and toss everything together.
I like it just like that, but add the pasta (partly cooled) and toss and that's what you see in the picture.
I'll definitely be making this again!
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
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