Tomatoes!

As I've mentioned quite a few times, I volunteer at the Farmer's Market on Wednesdays. Today, my stand had a sale too good for me to pass up: Roma tomatoes at $1/#, with the option of buying a 20# box. Done!

So I bought 20# of Roma tomatoes and figured I'd start my canning-tomato-life tonight. (I know, I know, I move in 3 days, but I couldn't pass that up!)

Using this as my spring-off point, I canned half of my box tonight. It made 3 quarts and 4 pints. I put them all in the canner together, as I don't see that it will be a problem being as they need the same time anyways.

This'll be my smartest canning set-up in this apartment yet. I used Francesca's advice and heated my jars in the oven to sterilize, I used the magnetic telescoping wand from a screwdriver to fetch out my heated lids, and my canner has a basket that I will use to remove my jars!

They have to be in the waterbath for 85 mins, so we'll see how pretty they are when I'm done!

Update: lookit how pretty they are!

Also, this is all of the potatoes that I dug up from all of the potatoes that I planted:

For reference, the largest is about the size of a half dollar. :-P

The Last of the Bounty

So I just picked the remaining tomatoes and peppers that were on the plants and did a quick search of my blogs to find green tomato recipes. Here's a quick list:

Pickled Green Tomatoes

Green Tomato Chutney

Spicy Green Tomato Vinaigrette (can be made into a salsa)

Curried Green Zebras

Mock Apple Pie

Stewed Green Tomatoes with Cheese and Croutons

Fire Roasted Salsa Verde

Salsa Verde

Green Tomato Salsa

Green Tomato Chutney

And two recipes that aren't linkable:

There is a recipe in _Fresh From the Farmers Market_ for Sicilian Green Tomato Sauce that goes like this:

1 pound green tomatoes, chopped very fine
1/2 c olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 t hot red pepper flakes

You mix it all together and let it stand for an hour or two. Then add salt, pepper, fresh basil, and cooked spaghetti, and top with toasted pine nuts. (I use walnuts.) I also recommend parmesan on top. Yumyum. Not sure if you could freeze it... the tomatoes would probably become mush upon thawing, but I think that would be OK. It is a sauce after all.

Green tomato and lemon marmalade.

1 lemon, thinly sliced and seeded
2 1/4 pounds green tomatoes (about 5 large tomatoes), cored and thinly sliced
3 1/4cups sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Pinch of salt.
1. Bring lemon slices to a boil in a pot of water. Drain.

2. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan along with 1/4 cup water, and bring to a simmer, stirring, to dissolve sugar. Cook at a bare simmer until tomatoes and lemon slices are translucent and syrup thickens, 20 to 30 minutes. Cool completely; store in refrigerator.

Yield: 1 3/4 cups.

Food

So last night I made chili, as it was horrible Romance movie night with a friend who can't have cow milk products or wheat. The chili turned out fabulous (of course, pshaw) and was super basic.

(I would love to have remembered to take a picture, but I didn't.)

I soaked Cannelloni beans until they were nice and plump. If I was smart, I would have cooked them now, but I forgot and I had to let the chili cook them as best as it could. I grated a HUGE zucchini that was hiding in my fridge, and used about 2 c. worth in the chili (I froze the rest). After grating the zucchini, I sprinkle salt on it to draw the water out, and then squeeze the excess liquid out of my zucchini. I tossed that straight into the crock pot. Also add in your beans, preferably cooked.

At this point I also boiled some more water and reconstituted three little chili peppers that I had. Once plump, I scraped out the seeds, chopped finely, and tossed in the crock pot.

I also tossed straight in a can of crushed tomatoes. I used about a cup or two of vegetable broth to rinse out the can and get the last little bits of tomato.

While I was getting all that set up, I chopped and fried two little peppers from my garden (yay!) and half of an onion. Once the onions were mostly translucent, I removed most of them from the pan and put them into the crock pot, and kept the rest in there to flavor the ground beef that I fried next. I had enough ground beef that it almost filled my pan, so it took a while for that to brown fully. Once it was done, I threw it in the crock and mixed it all up, trying to gauge how "chili-like" it was. It needed more liquid, so I added more vegetable broth. I also added tomato paste, salt, pepper, cumin and chili powder.

I let it cook for several hours (read: 5) and Mister bought a sheep's milk cheese that was to replace the cheddar I would have normally put on top. All in all, highly successful!

I Love Visitors and Life Update

Mister's sister S visited us for about four days, and we had a blast. Why don't Mister and I ever bother to do things without the requirement of company? We went to the Boston Circus Guild's show (actually twice) on Saturday, the Boston Gay Men's Chorus pride concert of all Beatles songs on Sunday, and the Propeller Theatre Co (from UK)'s production of Comedy of Errors on Tuesday.

Lots of good times, and I re-learned that I LOVE jugglers -- they were my favorite part of the circus (although the bellydancer/housewife skit was fabulous... :-P).

So food-wise here's whats going on: my spiced fig vinegar is finished and fabulous, my chive blossom vinegar will probably be strained tomorrow and is BRIGHT PURPLE!, I have some basil blossom oil infusing, lemon balm in 63% vodka, and I just started two batches of kimchi (one with napa cabbage and this recipe and one with some napa cabbage and spring onions with this recipe). We'll see how it all turns out!

Also, my peas are pretty much all succumbing to something called Fusarium Wilt.

The first signs of fusarium wilt and root-rot disease are the yellowing and wilting of the lower leaves and stunting of the plants. Infection of older plants usually results in the plants producing only a few poorly filled pods. These diseases are not as prevalent on well-drained soils. Double-dug raised beds amended with abundant organic matter can greatly improve soil aeration and drainage. Fusarium wilt can be avoided by growing wilt-resistant varieties.

Uh, yeah. I've nearly given up on the Lincoln Shell peas as only three plants are even green, and I'm trying to see what I wind up getting out of them. After the Lincoln Shells die, I'll replant that pot with the four pepper plants I bought today (bell pepper mix). The beans however, are doing lovely. I cannot wait to have beans!

I also finally popped in the ground the 8 black cherry tomato and 2 cantaloupe (one pixie, one athena) plants that I bought last week at the Farmer's Market. I hadn't gotten around to it as a) it was raining for most of that time and b) I was sick as a dog Wednesday and Thursday (remember the fainting?) and was still not 100% until today. I coughed continuously and took way too much Robitussin during the Beatles concert :-P.

I guess that's about it for now!

Tuesday's Dinner

I made a delicious meal for Tuesday night, and completely forgot to take pictures of it!



This is all that remains of the meal. But, here's the recipe! Note: I made this specifically because it was what I had in the house, and I wanted to have food ready to go in the oven when I got off training at 11 pm (and to ensure that Mister and I not eat out!).

Ingredients:
-- rice
-- canned tomatoes with chilies
-- ricotta
-- chopped onion
-- mozzerella
-- cheddar
-- olive oil

Cook the rice. While the rice is cooking, grease a casserole dish, mix the tomatoes, onion, ricotta and olive oil together, and grate mozz. and cheddar together.

When rice is cooked, mix with the tomato/ricotta/oil sauce, pour in the casserole dish, and cover with cheese. Bake at 400F oven for 35 mins.