Posts Tagged ‘garden herbs’

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Mission Accomplished vs. Mission Impossible


2009
10.15

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Posted in On My Mind | No Comments »

In the “Of Course, I Always Want More” department, I didn’t get to everything on my weekend TTD list (see last post).  I must say, I didn’t do too badly.  Here’s a quick recap…..

1.  All the summer clothes have been put to rest in the attic.   The closet is ready, the fall/winter clothes didn’t make it in there.

clothes pile

2.  Didn’t get to the Chicken with Basil Cream Sauce recipe, but did make a Chicken Soup with Fresh Herbs and Tomatoes instead.  Yum!  The weather was certainly conducive to a bowl of hot soup.

3.   I did get my garage workshop pretty well set up.  Looks great and I think it will function well.  Will post some pics soon.  I don’t know about you but I LOVE a functional workspace to play in – is that an oxymoron?

4.  Harvested and packaged some seeds in envelopes.  Am drying some tomato seeds.  Gave my neighbor some basil seeds to plant in a sunny windowsill -  there’s something nice about sharing things from the garden.

seedsaving5.  No stones from the beach.  Simply ran out of time and energy simultaneously.

6.  Roasted tomatoes and some other vegetables.  Sure smelled good in the house.  Among the veggies I roasted were a few tomatillos.  I’ve never grown them before, and the pickins’ were few.  Next year I’ll start them inside to extend the growing season.  I have a dynamite avocado-tomatillo dip that I will share shortly.

tomatoes.basil.silpat

7.  Did the pot roast – subbed buttered noodles for the smashed potatoes, and added some maple syrup to the squqash puree – one of my favs.

8.  Got all my orders up to date and sent out some surveys as well.  I do need to get some new products uploaded to the website, but just couldn’t get there.  Hard to believe it’s mid October already and I’m  seeing  “holidays”  just about every where I go.  Too much, too soon.   Gotta put a move on that.

9.  Not even a minute devoted to this one.

10.  Did spend a little time in my office/studio.  I feel like I need to get my other work done first, cause I could lose myself in there.  So easy to get into a project.  I have visions of a day when I can just grab a cup of coffee and work, uninterrupted, on projects all day – I can dream, can’t I?

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The Final Hurrah of the Tomato Crop 2008


2008
10.16

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Posted in The Kitchen Garden | No Comments »

They’ve been good to me, the tomatoes this year.  Kept me amply supplied with their luscious juiciness.  I’m going to miss them!  Two days ago I picked the last of the crop.  I saved a few that were slightly underripe to enjoy in a day of so.  The rest were ripened to perfection for the most part, so I rinsed them and set them out to dry while I gathered an array of fresh herbs from my kitchen garden to complement them.

Every year about this time, I prepare what I’ve dubbed “Tomato Fusion”, fusing the flavor of vine-ripened garden tomatoes with a variety of fresh herbs.  Simply done, and yet so versatile and delicious.  I’ve use the finished product in soups and stews, as a pizza or pasta topping, with scrambled eggs for breakfast, and more. I’ve used it fresh, and frozen it in ziploc bags for wintertime use, when I’m really craving that fresh tomato taste.

Here’s what I do:  Select herbs enough to cover the bottom of a roasting pan.  Here I’ve gathered basil, thyme, lemon verbena, parsley and even a few nasturtium blossoms.

I tear the herbs into pieces and line the roaster with them.

I cut the tomatoes in half if they are plum tomatoes, and like-size pieces if they’re not.  Placing them face down on the herbs, I pack them close together as they shrink during cooking.  I then take pieces of peeled, fresh garlic and position them in between the tomato pieces.  Season with sea or kosher salt and about 1/4 tsp. of crushed red pepper.  Sometimes (as shown below) I add sliced onion and/or peppers. (Admittedly, I prefer the pure herb-tomato-garlic combo best.)

I then drizzle olive oil over the tomatoes.  The tomato mixture is roasted in a 375 degree oven for 1 hour or more, depending on the size of the tomatoes.  (they will soften and caramelize slightly) When cool, I slip off the skins.  Discard the skins and herbs, then scoop up the pure tomato essence to use or store.

In my eyes, nothing beats biting into a lush, ripe, fresh tomato – but this is a terrific way to utilize a bumper crop and enjoy the wonderful flavor of  one of summertime’s true delights.