Red and green

Around here Fall brings much colder temps. I dont like it. I have been doing garden clean up for a couple weeks now and in amidst this came the last batch of vine ripened tomatoes.


My friend, gnightgirl, has been raving about her slow roasted tomatoes. How they are so fantastic and that she uses them all winter long in chili, pasta sauce, and pizzas(just to name a few).

Okay. Well I need to try that, too. So, along with my last harvest of san marzano tomatoes, I get out all that I will need.

Once you have washed your tomatoes, you slice them in half. Straight down thru the stem.


Then, you coat them in olive oil and whatever herbs you desire. I used basil and oregano.

After that, find a baking sheet and place them cut side down. I actually sprayed mine first with some cooking spray.


Place in a 250 degree oven for 6-8 hours.

This would mean that mine would be done at:

In the meantime, my basil that I have been drying is all set to be stored. See how it looks kinda brown and crispy....thats good.


My trusty kitchen helper has offered to help. But first, he had to get his stool.

And drag it into the kitchen.

We put the dried basil into the food processor.

And grind it up. You can grind it as coarse or as fine as you prefer. G? He would have preferred very fine, I think...for as much as he liked to push the button on the processor.


Then, after you have it all ground up, you transfer it to an airtight container.


Voila!


Between this small tray and what I had drying downstairs we ended up with about 6 cups to use over the winter.

Back to the tomatoes, tho. When they are all done they will look like this. (At the end of the cooking time you can remove the tomato skins if you want to. I found that to be a bit time consuming, so I just left mine on.)


Now, you can pull them out of the oven whenever you prefer really. You dont have to let them roast the whole time. It really just depends on how you like them. I didnt want mine super dry and leathery, so I took mine out early. In fact, my tomatoes were pretty small since it was the end of the season and all...so from start to finish I think it only took them about 5 hours to get to where I wanted them to be.

He likes them, too!

As far as storage....well, this was my first time making these. I was worried that since my tomatoes were still a bit moist that when I went to freeze them that they would all stick together in a big clump. S suggested I flash freeze them. I had already been allowing them to cool on sheets of wax paper. So, I simply put my tray of tomatoes in the freezer for a few hours. At that point they were fully frozen and I took them off the wax paper and put them into a freezer bag.

Now, just like gnightgirl, I can have yummy, roasted tomatoes all winter long. And this will make her happy cuz then I wont have to ask her to share.

B is for Basil

And Basket.


And a basket with basil.


With the temps hovering in the high 30's at night, I thought it best to harvest all of my basil before I lost it due to a freeze. Ideally, you want to harvest your basil before it begins blooming. It is said that once the basil blooms it changes the flavor somewhat. Being the great rule follower that I am, I generally push that a bit. And if I see some blooms and Im not ready to use my basil then I just pinch the blooms off and that gives me a few more days.

So, after I hauled all that basil inside, I then decided to take it back out to the patio so I could cut of all the roots.

But, before I could do that G wanted to pick out some basil plants for grammy.


A little discussion over just which ones are going to go in the bag.


This one, while upside down, must have made the cut.

Grammy listening very intently to my instruction on how to make the pesto.

After I gave grammy her basil and she made her way home that meant that I had to get to work. Sigh. The weighing of the basil begins.


This is what one pound of basil looks like.


This is what one boy doing his homework and five pounds of basil looks like.


I decided to dry all this basil since I have some pesto stored in the freezer already.

Most of the basil I tied into little bundles of about 2 stems or so.

I did read tho, that you could tear the leaves off the stem, and put them in a dish and dry them out that way. Making sure to toss them around a bit every day to help them dry out. I thought I would give that a try this time as well and see which process I preferred.


After doing that, I grabbed my trusty stool and headed downstairs.

Then I hung all my little bundles up.

It normally takes about a week to dry them out fully. And they will begin to brown and look not very pretty. But thats okay. Once they are thoroughly dry all you have to do is strip all the leaves off the stems and smash them up a bit. Store them in an airtight container and you can have freshly dried basil all winter long. It makes a very nice addition to pasta sauces, pizza sauces, and many kinds of soups.

Garden Update

We have had some pretty mild temps here lately, but it has been super dry. Overall the garden seems to be slowing down, however, it definitely has some plants that are still hard at work.

What used to be the lovely bed of pumpkins is now quite empty.

The pumpkins started going downhill quite a few weeks ago, due mainly to powdery mildew, I believe, but also I think some insects made their way in as well.

Sadly, what began as about 15 pumpkins initially, dwindled down to these 6. They are very pretty little guys, but time will tell if they got mature enough to actually cook with them.

You can see several of these sweet, little melons still laying around.

And there are even lots of little flowers popping up to make me think that things are still trying to make it.

But, when you look at the overall picture, the plants just dont seem to have it in them any longer.

The basil beckons me with its lovely aroma every time I walk past. I think thats its way of reminding me that I need to make it into pesto before it goes to seed. Its on my list of things to do this week. I have already made one batch. But clearly, I have enough to make much more.

The green beans have really slowed down.

I did get a handful this afternoon.

And this row of beans was one that we planted a month or so ago when we noticed that our initial batch of beans was beginning to taper off.

When I looked today they had some very pretty beans waiting for me.


Quite a few it looks like. I hope we get a good harvest off of them before the first frost arrives.

And wow. I have really enjoyed these peppers. They are very prolific plants and the peppers are very sweet and crispy. And really? I chose them based solely on their name. "Lipstick Peppers". How can you not like that name?

My pickling cucumbers look really bad.

But still seem to want to share their love with me. I have been very, very happy with this variety, "Diamant".

And, of course, not to be forgotten, are my tomatoes. The San Marzanos have proven to be a great sauce tomato. Very meaty and not too many seeds. BUT, Im just not sure that I want to deal with the BER(blossom end rot) every year.


I leave you with this great little cherry tomato called, Isis Candy.

And is it ever sweet. The little guy just loves to pop these in his mouth as we are out harvesting. This will for sure be in my garden next season.

The big 13!

Sigh. Im not ready to talk about the fact that my little girl has just turned 13.


So lets start with a little peek at the garden. Ill steal S's shoes. He will never know.


These are my zucchini plants. They are huge.


This is me looking up while sitting under my plants. Thats just how huge they are. And you all know that Im really tall.


And look. See how big the leaves are?


Cantaloupe.


Pumpkin.


Watermelon.


Heres my harvest from this afternoon.

Okay. Back into the house. I have dinner to make. K requested sweet corn ravioli for her birthday dinner. And its a darn good thing that I love her as much as I do. This is one meal that takes forever to make. Its quite labor intensive. But, hey. You only turn 13 once.

My veggies are all diced up and ready to go. (red pepper, onion, and corn)


A couple of cheeses.(ricotta and cream cheese)


Fresh basil from the garden.


Now you combine all the veggies(but only half the basil) and saute them in a pan that has been heating up with butter in it.


Next you add some cream(1/4 c) to the pan and let it cook down a bit.


Then you add both of the cheeses and some salt and pepper. Mix till its all incorporated.


Here, you should see me actually filling the ravioli. BUT, well, my pal couldnt make it(damn geography) to help me stuff and seal...so you missed this step in the photo line up. But what you do is take a won ton wrapper, put about 1 1/2 tsp of the filling in the center, rub some beaten egg yolk on the edges of the wrapper, top it with another wrapper, and then use a round cookie cutter to cut it out and help seal the edges.

Then this will be what they look like prior to cooking. I have some flour on the bottom of the pan to keep them from sticking.


Then pop a few of them at a time in a pot of boiling water till they begin to float.(about 2 min or so)


Then they will look like this.


In the meantime you will be melting butter( a few tablespoons) in a pan along with the rest of your basil. Once that browns a little, you will add some cream to the pan(1 1/4c) and a little salt and pepper. This will begin to cook down and thicken as you are boiling the rest of your ravioli.


Get out a dish to place all the ravioli on. I heart sunflowers.



I prefer to do mine in layers so they dont all stick together. So, a little sauce on the bottom then ravioli, then sauce...then ravioli...you get the idea.


Then youre all set to go to the table!


Wait. You cant forget the sweet tea.


After all that good food its present time.


Clearly, shes trying to get us to understand exactly what it is shes talking about.


Lovely note cards.


And a pretty poster. J is very excited.


Peace.


Then we had cake.

And when G was all done with his cake he had just a little spot of hungry left. So, he asked for a green bean.

Happy Birthday, K. Mama loves ya.