Oven Dried Tomatoes = Success!

BEFORE:


AFTER 3-4 hours in the oven at 200 degrees:

I put them in a jar covered by olive oil. According to the recipe, these will last 1-2 weeks. I have already have added these to a pesto pasta dish and they were super tasty! Great way to use up the 1000 tiny tomatoes. I would hate for the them to go to waste.

Kris

More Bounty!!!

I am guessing that you, loyal reader, are tired of seeing our stupid vegetables, but I can't help it! We went outside to get the few tomatoes we saw were ready and ended up with THIS!!! I can't believe how picturesque veggies are...the colors & the shapes. And the fact that, until this year, Mark & I have managed to kill basically everthing we have ever grown. I even killed Chia Herbs one time (lack of water & cold temps.)

I froze the tomatoes & peppers, will use the Eggplants tonight maybe and continue to stockpile the cherry tomatoes to make "oven dried tomatoes" this weekend.

Squirrel, Squirrel, Squirrel!

Kris

How Great Thou Art!

I am so proud to be the caretaker/owner of this beautiful piece of art by the talented and lovely, Laura Mavridoglou. It is entitled "Skyphos" and is a big guy - 4ft x 4ft. I Googled the name and it refers to a category of ancient Greek pottery - A two handled deep wine cup sometimes with a low flanged base. This seems even more appropriate for a painting for Mark & I...ya know...since we are alchoholics :) And I love that Laura brought the Greek heritage of her new family...makes it even more personal.

We are planning to display the painting in our bedroom - either over the bed or on the large wall on the Blaney side of the house. The colors complement the other design choices we have made and bring in the groovy green color that Mark wants to be the color of a reading chair in the corner. Perfect!!!

Thank you to Laura for parting with one of your "babies"...you can visit any time and we can drink some wine from a Skyphos.

Kris

TOMATOES!!!!!

The tomato harvest is in full swing. We usually get 2-3 tomatoes per day on average. These are so beautiful...and HUGE!! I have been blanching, peeling & freezing like crazy!! I am so glad that this winter we will be having sauce made from fresh tomatoes instead of canned stuff. We will be able to avoid all of the extra salt, preservatives & sugar added to the canned stuff. Yeah!!

Kris

CSA & Tomatillo Enchilada Sauce

This week, as you can see, we got TONS of great stuff from our CSA...not sure if they felt bad for missing last week or if the tomatoes finally just exploded (like ours.) This we got: Cherry tomatoes, large heirloom tomatoes, Pattypan squash, squash blossoms, potatoes, basil, yellow squash, Green Pepper, Garlic, Onion, 2 ears of corn, and eggs.

We also saw another farm at the market that had local Tomatillos!! WOO HOO!!! The ones in the grocery store always look so sad...but these look great! Last year, I made a batch of Salsa Verde for our chicken enchiladas verde and it was a hit. So I made a bunch to freeze for this year.

Basically, just boil the tomatillos with a ancho chile until they turn from bright green to army green (doesn't take long.) Then throw them in the food processor with a 1/2 an onion, garlic clove and about 1 cup chicken broth. Blend until all broken down.

Then transfer back to the saucepan to boil until reduced a bit.

Then I poured it into four containers to use with the enchiladas.

YUMMY!! I will make more zucchini bread with the pattypan and I already froze a bunch of tomatoes from our garden for sauce in the winter. We are quite the little squirrels this year :) No more rice & pasta for us!!!

Kris