tomayto, tomahto

and yes, that's how you spell it...don't worry, I googled it.

Although I am behind on posting about Gavin, family vacation, and the start of preschool, all I really want to talk about tonight is tomatoes. Everything else seems like too much work. Or maybe I am just hungry?

We have been enjoying a huge bumper crop of late summer tomatoes from our garden. I was careful this year not to overwhelm myself by planting too many varieties of things that produced more than we could eat or store for the winter. And with a new baby and the garden feeling a bit more like an extra chore than a hobby this year, I'm thankful I kept it simple. But nonetheless, the kids still come in from "harvesting" in the back-yard with armloads of tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, and greens nearly every day that need to be eaten.

We have been canning jars of pickled peppers (John's new passion), making big batches of fresh salsa weekly (John's food addiction), storing away homemade marinara sauce in the pantry, and freezing ziplocks full of creamy tomato soup for the cold months ahead. The kids really love to help with all the preparations and it's been fun to have the whole family involved with and enjoying the garden this year. And its cheap family entertainment that keeps us all hanging out together in the kitchen, so the stored food is just a bonus to me.

Here are two of my favorite tomato recipes I've found this year that are oh-so-delicious and way too good not to share.

Creamy Tomato Soup: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/michael-chiarello/homemade-tomato-soup-recipe/index.html
(don't let the stock photo sway you from making this...it turns out so much creamier and melt-in-your-mouth good than the picture implies. Is that even a picture of tomato soup or is it a meat marinade?)

Roasted Roma Tomato Sauce: http://kitchengrrrls.blogspot.com/2011/09/homemade-roma-tomato-marinara-sauce.html
I promise you will like it or I will eat your leftovers. Roasting the tomatoes before making the sauce=brilliance. Why didn't I think of that?

Now go get cooking!!

Pickin' Potatoes

This morning while I was outside pulling weeds and checking on my garden, I decided on a whim that it was time to harvest the potatoes. I follow a strict gardening science when it comes to growing potatoes and it goes something like this: plant seed potatoes in early spring, water regularly, and then pull up mature potatoes in late summer when you cannot stand one more day of looking at the massive, drooping, yellow vines that sprout above the ground and signify growth below. The potatoes are my favorite vegetable to harvest because, since they grow deep under the soil, its impossible to know how big of a crop you have until you start digging down into the dirt to uncover all the goods. It's sort of like searching for buried treasure, especially for the kids, who became happily covered in mud while they "helped" me dig up potatoes with their shovels. And we ended up with a good size crop this year, much more than I was expecting. I'm telling you, if you're new to gardening and are looking for an easy thing to grow, plant some potatoes. They require nothing but high-quality, deep soil, a little patience, and the ability to overlook those ugly vines as they grow.
So I guess its potato soup for dinner then???

Our biggest and smallest pick this year, with a lemon for size reference.

I hope you like zucchini bread...

As per the usual this time of year, our garden is producing a plethora of larger than life zucchini faster than we can eat them. And I only planted one seedling this season, because I learned last year that planting 4 only makes sense if you are trying to supply the local grocery store. Eli is my little gardening buddy and his favorite part is picking the veggies when they're ready... and sometimes when they aren't but he just can't help himself. I love to watch him pop the warm cherry tomatoes straight into his mouth and see the juices dripping off his chin. 

And now I have to scour the Internet for 100 recipes involving zucchini. Zucchini pancakes anyone?

Better Than CiCi's

One of my weird talents that I pride myself on is being able to create meals out of random leftovers and whip up new culinary creations. Sometimes they turn out great, and sometimes they make our stomachs hurt. I have not bought any meat at the grocery store in about a month now, and not for any reason other than by the time I get to the meat department it is the end of my shopping, my cart is overflowing and I am just done. So a lot of our dinners lately have been full-out vegetarian creations. Sorry John.

This afternoon, having nothing planned for dinner, I decided to make my favorite "we're out of groceries meal"--home-made pizza.

*side-note: another weird quirk of mine is buying produce that I've never bought in hopes that I can learn how to cook and eat it* I happened to have a raw artichoke sitting in the fridge from my last produce adventure and decided to buckle down and figure out how to cook it. An entire 45 minutes later (btw canned artichokes taste just as good thank you very much) I had one cooked artichoke, and a counter full of veggies I had just picked from our garden. I dug deep into the freezer for our last 2 pieces of split chicken breasts, defrosted them and roasted them with a bit of olive oil and salt in the oven for 45 minutes. Then I whipped up my pizza dough and started piling on the toppings. It turned out so yummy that I thought I would share the recipe with any pizza lovers out there. The whole meal cost about $4.

Roasted Chicken Basil & Artichoke Pizza

Ingredients:

-pizza crust (store bought or homemade, but I recommend homemade, its easy)

-olive oil

- mozzarella cheese

-fresh Parmesan cheese

-2 Roma tomatoes chopped

-1 yellow onion chopped

-10 basil leaves, torn

-1 cup artichoke hearts chopped

-1 cup roasted chicken, shredded (easy to omit if you don't feel like it)

-garlic salt

Directions:

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Dust pizza stone or pan with corn meal (this is key to a crispy crust). Drizzle with olive oil. Top with veggies, chicken and basil, then cover with cheeses. Sprinkle with garlic salt. Bake 15-20 minutes until crust is golden brown. Enjoy!

Going Green

As you will remember here , I promised to keep you informed as to the progress of the garden my sisters and I started this year. And I'm sure you have just been on pins and needles waiting for an update. Well my friends, our little garden is thriving. Thanks to days and days of rain and the perfect sunny spot, the plants are gigantic. In fact, we may have been a little over zealous with how much we thought we could cram in there. So far we've harvested mass amounts of lettuce and in a few short weeks will have enough tomatoes to plug up the oil leak in the gulf. Here is our garden now. It contains strawberries, Roma and cherry tomatoes, green and yellow zucchini, cucumbers, potatoes, green beans, broccoli, carrots, onions, garlic, jalapeno peppers, bell peppers, romaine and butter lettuce. It literally smells like you're shoving your face into a salad out there. So yummy!

Green Thumb Wannabe

Growing up my mom always kept a beautiful garden with blooming flowers and plants galore. She dabbled a bit in planting some fruits and vegetables and I have fond memories of picking strawberries from our little patch just outside the kitchen window. I also remember being swarmed by bees every time I did this, perhaps a pivotal moment in my lifelong aversion to bugs, insects, and creepy crawlies of any sort. But anyways.....

I have always wanted to grow a huge edible garden and now that we finally have a yard that gets full sunlight and prime east/west exposure I am super excited. 2 of my sister-in-laws Bethany and Rebecca offered to help share the cost and labor of starting and maintaining our little plot. So, I did what I always do when I need to educated myself on something specific and hit up our local library for some reading material.

We decided on a raised bed garden design because these are supposed to maintain the best drainage and growing conditions for vegetables while cutting down on weeding and bug infestation. So with my handy hubby as the foreman and his brothers Chris and Luke as the worker bees, they spent a Sunday afternoon constructing us a planter box that is 10 ft long, 4 ft wide, and 2 ft high. It is beautiful. Since this is our trial year of planting, we decided to start with one box and perhaps add another next year should we be successful.

I've started some of the slower growing warm season vegetables such as tomatoes and peppers inside from seeds and the sprouts are doing lovely so far. Next week our 3 cubic yards of organic soil and compost mix will be delivered so we can fill the box and get the cool season seeds planted outside. Stay tuned for garden updates throughout the next couple of months. I am hopeful for a good crop and that my brown thumb starts to turn a little greener as I figure out what the heck I'm doing.

Strawberry Pickin'

Today we picked our first crop of fresh strawberries from the front porch garden. Eli happily volunteered to be the official taste-tester. They were delicious! Nothing says summer like homegrown sweet, juicy strawberries.