Fig Fest!

Figs are the final burst of the summer bounty and in my mind, the ultimate form of food porn. I have never seen such a voluptuous and indiscrete fruit as the fig. Soft and tender on the outside and easily bruised, left one day too long on the tree and it is ruined by its own weight or marauding birds. Their delicate nature force customers pay dearly for them at the farmers’ markets or to purvey them in processed forms of dried fruit, preserves and jams, or dried-out cookies. If one can manage to find them, figs are best in fresh form, to better enjoy all their sensuous goodness.

The first fig of the season must always be enjoyed raw, unadorned, and in all its natural glory. But as with the dealing with this easily perishable fruit, nature in all her irony turns all the figs ripe at once, so time is of the essence.  Here are some of my favorite recipes:

Fig Pizza

This has to be Hubby and my favorite pizza. Better yet, it is very easy to make with pre-made dough. We head to our local Little Italy in Downtown San Diego to purchase pre-made dough, either from Assenti's or Mona Lisa's. Allow the dough to rise for a couple of hours then roll out into 2 thin pizzas. Transfer dough to pizza stone and cook in oven for seven minutes at 500 degrees. After seven minutes, pull dough out of oven to add toppings. First, smear goat cheese (not feta!) over the dough, then add sliced figs. Transfer back to oven and bake for ten minutes at 500 degrees. Remove pizza from oven (final time) and sprinkle arugula greens and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar over the figs. Buon appetito!

Fig Jam

A friend recently brought fig jam to an Afternoon Tea I recently hosted and was kind enough to share the recipe she found in the New York Times Magazine. It is so simple yet so unbelievably good! The key, as with all simple recipes, is to use only the best ingredients. (I used figs, fresh squeezed lemon juice, sugar, and 2 sprigs of thyme.) Please keep in mind that this recipe does not preserve the fruit, but rather, will last up to a week in a refrigerator. Hubby was in heaven in eating this recipe with cheese on toast. I offered to teach him how to make the jam, but he demurred, “a wife should always have her secret recipe; so her husband remains in awe of her.”

Healthy Fig and Yogurt Breakfast

Place 4 ounces of non-fat, plain Greek yogurt in breakfast bowl. Drizzle a natural honey over yogurt (to taste). Slice one large fig and add slices to yogurt. Add a tablespoon of slivered almonds for some added crunch. Just a satisfying as a doughnut, but so much healthier!

Figs with Goat Cheese and Prosciutto

Cut fig in half, add a dollop of smooth goat cheese (not feta) to empty pit of fig, then wrap the half fig in a thin piece of prosciutto, covering the cheese. How easy is that?! Now you can surprise your friends and family as a true gourmand!

Enjoy the figs while they last, for the won't last long!

Panzanella or Italian Bread Salad

One of my favorite recipes for end of summer tomatoes is Panzanella. It is so simple yet so good; the key is using only the highest quality ingredients. This is a dish that is both rustic and elegant, healthy yet a solid comfort food.

Ingredients:

4-5 large heirloom tomatoes (cubed) or 1-2 pounds of cherry tomatoes (halved)

One cucumber, seeds removed and sliced thin

One red or sweet onion, sliced thin

Fresh basil, cut in thin strips

Loaf of thick, rustic, crusty bread, slightly stale (cubed into crouton sized bites)

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil – I reduce to 1/8 of cup to reduce calories

1/4 cup red wine vinegar – I reduce to 1/8 of cup to reduce calories

1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Chop all vegetables using the above directions and place in large bowl (preferably one that can be sealed). Liberally salt and pepper the contents to taste. Remember – the salt brings out the flavor of the tomatoes! Add the oil and vinegars and lightly toss to mix. (I fill a quarter cup halfway with olive oil and the rest of the way with red wine vinegar. Do add the whole tablespoon of balsamic vinegar.)

I normally wait until a couple minutes prior to serving to add the rustic bread. It is supposed to be soggy with oil and vinegar, the key is to not let it get too soggy. Use slightly stale, thick rustic bread made from hardier wheat flour. This will hold up better than a soft, white flour baguette.  For a slightly crunchier texture, bread can be toasted in a toaster or under the broiler in the oven. Chop the bread in larger-sized croutons and toss salad again, making sure the oil and vinegars are evenly deposited on the bread. Salad will keep for up to three days – if it lasts that long!

Panzanella sans the bread

Bringing Back Tea Time

In our fast paced world, I often long for traditions that re-center my day and provide a welcome respite from the turmoil of the modern jungle.  I also found that I needed a late afternoon recharge if I wanted to make it to a six or seven pm dinner time. I often identify with the Italian side of my family more so than the other branches, but I found the English had something to contribute and with American Anglophilia on the rise (not to mention my obsession with BBC dramatic programming), I concluded it was time to bring back tea time.

Tea time goes back much further than its English permutations and has many manifestations from a full meal to a simple snack.  My tea time most resembles a “cream tea,” a hold-me-over snack between the midday meal and supper. It usually consisted of a black tea with milk and sugar and scones with clotted cream. I modernized my tea to include a pastry of the week and an oolong or herbal tea. 

Teapot for seeping loose leaf tea, air tight tea container, tea cups, pumpkin bread and electric tea kettle

Like most American girls, I am usually a coffee drinker through and through. Coffee is well and good for morning wake-up, but less desirable for creating calm in the afternoon. I’m not a fan of green or most black teas; I find them too bitter and harsh. But after some trial and error, I found I liked oolong and white teas. (Herbal teas were already in pantry and used as home remedies for common ailments.) Good tea has become easier to find due to the rise of local tea shops and the ability to find rarer items on-line. I am a fan of going to the brick and mortar store since it is a green place to smell and taste test your tea, especially for novice tea drinkers like me. Teavana has an excellent variety and interesting blends of teas from traditional to more modern blends.  (We are currently drinking the Toasted Nut Brulee Oolong Tea.) A word to the wise, although I like Teavana, they will try to upsell you on everything. Come prepared to purchase a set list of items and be strong about refusing the upsell so you don’t break the budget (they are expensive, especially compared to bagged tea found the supermarket).

When it comes to snacks, I love scones, but I don’t like being limited to them for tea time. I’ve opened up the menu to include quick breads, muffins, and biscotti. We keep the portions small so as to not bust the calorie bank! Hubby and I have experimented with a couple of tea time recipes and these are our favorite so far:

Snickerdoodle Biscotti

Pumpkin bread

Lavender scones

Tea time is decompression time. We sit at the table or outside on the patio and discuss our work days, concerns, and plans for the immediate and farther future. This is a time to slow down, re-center, re-charge and use our senses to enjoy a fragrant cup of tea and a sweet treat, a time to bring back a small tradition to bring calm to our frantic modern world.

Summer Culinary Delights

During the hot days of August and September, the tomato harvest becomes a daunting task as Sweet Tomato and I try to use tomatoes into nearly every meal we enjoy.  Here are two easy and really good recipes.  And of course, they use tomatoes.

Tomato Frittata

I make frittatas all of the time.  I generally cook them as a way to use up left overs.  If you get creative, there isn’t much in the left over category that can’t be used in a frittata.  Here is a recipe that relies on the San Marzano Redorta.  The San Marzano Redorta is a wonderful plum heirloom tomato from Italy.  It is large and meaty with little or no internal liquid.  It is great for pizzas and frittatas because as it heats up in the oven, the tomato does not cook out much liquid. This means you can use these tomatoes fresh off the vine without roasting or drying them first.

Mix 6 to 10 eggs in a bowl.  The amount of eggs depends upon how much frittata you want.  If you have some cream, add a tablespoon or two.  If not, don’t worry it is not required.  Add salt and pepper to the eggs and wisk the eggs until combined.  You will need an oven safe skillet.  I use a 12 inch skillet that has a normal metal body. Many recipes tell you to use a non-stick skillet, but I have never felt comfortable putting non-stick skillets in the oven.  I have more cleanup afterward, but other than that, a regular metal skillet works just fine.

Heat olive oil in the skillet.  Add some course chopped garlic and some thin sliced onions.  I use a lot of garlic, probably more than you or most normal people would, so use an amount of garlic you are comfortable with.  The key thing here is not to let it burn.  If you let your garlic burn, throw it out and start over.  Burnt garlic is nasty.  Add the onions.  I use sweet or red onions (whatever I have at the time – I am not picky) and sometimes use green onions if that is all I have.  After the onions have begun to caramelize, add the eggs to the skillet.  This next part gets a little tricky and takes practice.  Stir the eggs over medium heat as if you were making scrambled eggs.  I have this really nifty non-stick spatula that lets me move the eggs around in the skillet so they cook evenly.  If you let the eggs just set there, they will burn on the bottom and be runny on top.  Once you get to a consistency that is just short of true scramble eggs, remove the skillet from the heat.  The eggs should be runny, but just starting to get some solid egg chunks.

Now cover the frittata with sliced San Marzano Redorta tomatoes.  The tomato slices should be about a quarter of an inch thick.  Tomato slices with skin should be put on the frittata skin side down.  I forgot to tell you to heat your oven to 350 degrees, so go do that now.  When the oven is at 350 degrees, put the frittata in for 8 to 10 minutes.  The eggs should be cooked through, but the tomatoes are just beginning to cook.  You can remove the frittata at this point, let it cool and eat it out of the skillet or move it to a platter. 

However, if you want to “kick it up a notch”, set the oven rack just under the broiler and turn your oven to broil.  Sprinkle parmesan over the frittata.  If I am really enterprising, I will roast some panko bread crumbs in a little bit of butter and then sprinkle them on the frittata along with the parmesan.  Place the frittata under the broiler. 

DO NOT WALK AWAY!! 

Broiling the frittata can take 30 seconds to a minute or so.  Leave the oven open and watch the frittata. The parmesan (and bread crumbs) should be browned, but not blackened.  You may have to move/turn the skillet while it is under the broiler to brown the top evenly.  Here is what the end product looks like.

A few other tips.  Salt and pepper the finished frittata to taste.  If you have any left over marinara, ladling some over the frittata is a great addition.  And for those of you who think you have asbestos fingers, use oven mitts when handling the skillet.  It is tough to eat frittata with burnt fingers.

Tomatoes with Grapes, Figs, Asiago Cheese, Sausage and Lettuce

This one is really easy.  Spread some lettuce onto a platter. We use garden lettuce or the store bought packages.  Both seem to work equally as well.  Layer with sliced fresh garden tomatoes.  If you don’t have quality heirloom, fresh, garden tomatoes, this will not be nearly as good. Spread some grapes and figs around the platter.  Add some thinly sliced cooked sausage.  We use sweet Italian sausage generally of the left over variety.  Use a cheese peeler to create some thin slices of Asiago.  Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.  We generally have a few slices of crusty bread as well, and of course some wine.

The tomatoes and figs were picked from our garden that day.  I defy anyone to be able to order a salad like this at any restaurant!

Seafood Pasta with Heirloom Tomatoes Fra Diavolo Sauce

I have been reviewing my extensive collection of cookbooks for recipes that can be used with my burgeoning tomato harvest.  I am almost as obsessed with cookbooks as I am with tomatoes, much to Sweet Tomato’s (my wife of many years) consternation about cookbooks piled all over the house and garage.   I share Rosie Tomato’s desire to finally use some of those recipes rather than day dream about what they might have tasted like (if only I had prepared them).  This recipe comes from “The Heirloom Tomato Cookbook”.  This cookbook was originally published in 2006 to promote the Kendall-Jackson Wine Center in Napa Valley.  Despite being a promotion vehicle for Kendall-Jackson, it is a great cookbook with lots of information about heirloom tomatoes – from history, to selection, techniques and of course tomato recipes.  It is one of my favorites.

This recipe (Seafood Pasta with Heirloom Tomatoes Fra Diavolo Sauce) comes from page 84.  “Fra Diavolo” translates in Italian as “Brother Devil” (brother as in monk).  It gets its name from the red pepper flakes included in the ingredients.  There is a story behind my love of hot (really hot) peppers and condiments that I may get to someday.  Suffice it to say that Sweet Tomato does not have the same degree of tolerance for hot peppers as I do.  When I read one teaspoon of red pepper flakes in a recipe, my eyes fool me and I see two or three (well maybe four or five) teaspoons. As a consequence, whenever I use fresh chilies or red pepper flakes in a recipe, I must check with Sweet Tomato first. She is the boss after all and it is a rule she created so she wouldn’t be forced to fix her own dinner because mine was too hot to eat (for her, not for me).

 The dish consists of the following:

4 tablespoons of olive oil, 6 garlic cloves (crushed), 1.5 pounds of heirloom tomatoes (they recommend plum, but any good tasting red heirloom tomato will do), salt, 4 or 5 teaspoons of red pepper flakes (ok, it only calls for 1 teaspoon if you are a wimp), linguine pasta, 8 ounces small shrimp (I used medium shrimp and a lot more than 8 ounces), 8 ounces of bay scallops and 2 tablespoons of flat-leaf parsley. 

If you can’t figure out how the ingredients go together, then you aren’t much of a cook or you don’t have any imagination.  If you really do want the directions, buy the book, or comment on the blog and I will include the cooking directions.  Below are pictures of the dish.  There were actually two versions, one with one teaspoon of red pepper flakes and one with more than that.  It turned out really good and was great with Zinfandel.

This was the hot one.  If you look closely you can just see the fork beginning to melt.



February Recipe Round-up

February and March are all about focusing on using up the winter greens: Hubby and I will be clearing the vegetable beds of the Savoy cabbage, kale, Swiss Chard and radishes. First recipe is a modified white bean and ciabatta soup courtesy of Sunset Magazine. We found that the original recipe needed some modifications as it was too spicy and the anchovies were too fishy of an addition.

Here are the specific modifications:

Use 5 cloves garlic not 10

Use 1/4 teaspoon of pepper flakes instead of 1/2 teaspoon

Swap anchovies for bacon

Swap kale for Savoy cabbage (Swiss chard can be substituted as well)

Items used from the garden: sage, rosemary, Savoy cabbage

Next up is a Savoy cabbage pasta dish, again with some slightly smaller modifications:

Swap prosciutto for bacon for a richer taste

Swap 1 cup chicken broth for 1/2 cup dry white wine (the recipe was too runny with a cup of liquid and wine provided better flavor)

Items used from the garden: sage, Savoy Cabbage

Lastly, Hubby and I have been working on healthier eating. Besides all the cabbage we have been eating lately, we  have been making healthy smoothies for breakfast. Here is my basic recipe:

Mix in Blender to make 2 servings:

One ripe banana

2 cups milk - I have been using soy milk or rice milk

2 servings packaged protein powder (usually 2 scoop fulls)

1 cup fresh berries, or substitute 1/2 cup fresh juice, or 1/4 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup rolled oats for added fiber (optional)

This batch has peanut butter instead of berries or juice - so delicious!

Items used from garden: frozen pomegranate cubes

If you are interested in our other recipe experiments, please go to my Completed Food Experiments Board on Pinterest.

December Recipe Round Up: Savoy Cabbage

The ingredient of the month is cabbage, specifically savoy cabbage. This kind of cabbage is milder, sweeter, and more tender than the traditional green cabbage you will find in Irish corned beef and Korean kimchi. This has made it a favorite among chefs as a way of showcasing winter greens without overpowering the other dishes. It also lacks the sulfur-like odor that other green cabbages have when they are being cooked. Its outside leaves are a deep blue-green and turn paler green toward the heart-like center. These crinkly leaves are wonderful in hearty soups such as minestrone, in meat wraps as the wrapping material, and it is even mild enough to add uncooked to winter salads. Unlike other green and purple cabbages, it does not keep as long. After week in the refrigerator and it will need to be thrown out.

While I am usually not a big fan of cabbage, I do like the milder Savoy. It is the perfect example of the “eat your vegetables” mantra, containing fiber, vitamins and minerals, and may have cancer-fighting properties although more research is needed. As Michael Pollan says, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” I know he approves of the lovely Savoy cabbage.

For this variation on the Asian peanut slaw, Hubby swapped the peanuts for peanut butter, giving a wonderfully creamy texture to compliment the crunch of the savoy and purple cabbage. This is one of my favorite winter vegetable recipes thus far. We went with the pork as the recipe recommended, but chicken or tofu can be an easy substitute. Forgo the meat, and this is a delicious vegetable side. We will definitely make this again when our purple cabbage is ready to eat!

Hubby loves to substitute using on hand ingredients. This time he swapped the prosciutto for spicy Italian sausage. He cooked down the chicken broth and made more of a savoy cabbage, white bean, and sausage chili as opposed to the soup - very hearty and spicy! For vegetarians, remove the meat and swap the chicken broth for vegetable - the vegetables and herbs are hearty enough to carry the dish. Perfect for a cold, dark winter night!

Recipes:

Asian peanut slaw with pork

Cabbage and white bean soup

Happy New Year! I will be back in 2012 with more tips, (mis)adventures, and recipes. May your holidays continue to be happy and bright!

November Recipe Round-up

I love cool season vegetables. They are relatively easy to grow - just poke a hole in the garden bed, deposit a seed, cover the seed, and water (when the rain doesn't do it for you). Winter vegetables are so very delicious and so very good for you - leafy greens like arugula, Swiss chard, kale, and lettuces, pungent root vegetables such as onions, radishes, parsnips, and garlic to name a few. I have so far shared recipes for Swiss Chard & Cannellini bean soup and Basil-Arugula Pesto. As a new segment in my blog, I begin my monthly recipe round-up as an explanation of how I have been utilizing my home grown produce.

Hubby stuffed our Thanksgiving turkey with an apple, an onion, 1 sprig of sage, and 1 sprig of rosemary (sage and rosemary courtesy of my perennial herb garden). Delicious!

I made excellent use of my extra pomegranates as autumn inspired decor.

A Love Bug, a Pomegranate cocktail made with pomegranate juice, vodka, and ginger ale. The original recipe calls for pomegranate liqueur, but Hubby substituted our fresh squeezed juice for a lighter, fresher taste. For a virgin drink, simply omit the vodka. Add a fresh lime wedge (also from the garden) for a citrus tang.

Kale is a somewhat bitter, leafy green that tastes similar to broccoli with a kick! Hubby helped me make a Kale Puttanesca with canned tomatoes, garlic, and anchovy fillets. It was spicy and pungent, a more traditional Italian peasant meal that makes me hope I am finding my roots. We omitted the capers and the olives because I am not fond of either of them. But this allowed the other ingredients to shine.

Pasta and Kale Puttanesca cooking - once the pasta is done, drain, then add it to the vegetable mixture and stir.

The plating - don't forget the Parmesan cheese!

November Recipe List with Links:

• Swiss Chard and Cannellini Bean Soup
• Basil-Arugula Pesto
• Love Bug (Pomegranate Cocktail)
• Kale Puttanesca

New and Improved!

Hello readers! As you probably already noticed, I have been working to update my gardening blog with an improved layout and adding relevant content. I invite you to peruse my blog and give me feedback. (Please be gentle with me as my HTML skills are pathetic and I depend on the Blogger interface for formatting.)

Monthly Checklist – I will update my garden task list on a monthly basis and cross the tasks off as I complete them. I hope this will help other Southern Californian gardeners determine what to do and when to do it.

My Recipes – I created a list of the recipes that appear in my blog using links to the recipes. These links lead to pages inside and outside my blog. Be on the look out for more recipe sharing next year.

Weather Widget – Curious to see the weather in my Victory Garden? Take a look at my widget on the right had side of the page. Chances are, if it is a lovely day and a weekend, I will be out in the garden!

Gardening Bookshelf – I am now sharing my reviews on gardening books, garden themed novels, and other food related books on this bookshelf thanks to a Goodreads.com widget. I look forward to posting more gardening book reviews in the New Year!

“You might also like:” widget – At the end of each post, this widget recommends similar posts that the reader may be interested in reading. I hope this will help share older content and pique reader interest in similar topics.

My Causes (content and cause will change periodically) – It should come as no surprise that I support Animal Welfare (thanks to Petfinder.com for the widgets), specifically my local chapter of the Humane Society and ASPCA. I want to showcase a very special dog, Bolt, who has been looking for his forever family for over a year. I invite you to check out his profile on Petfinder.com and the San Diego Humane Society website to learn more about him. If you are not in the position of adopting a dog, please email his profile to friends and family that may be interested in adopting him. 

 

I wish all my readers a Happy and Safe Holiday Season!

Best Regards,

Rosie Tomato

Basil and Arugula Pesto

With my sweet basil fading into the autumn and my arugula close to going to seed, I needed a recipe to incorporate and enjoy their deliciously pungent flavors. This is a variation of Mama Tomato's beloved pesto recipe, minus the pine nuts and parmesan cheese (making it vegan).

Ingredients:

1 and 1/2 cups of sweet basil leaves

1 and 1/2 cups of arugula (use young leaves and remove tougher leaf stems)

2/3 cups extra virgin olive oil

6-8 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

Juice of 1/2 lime

1/8 teaspoon of cumin

Pinch of ground red pepper

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Blend all ingredients in food processor. 

Serve on sliced bread or pasta.

We took the finished product to Mama and Papi Tomato's for dinner and it was a spicy addition to hearty minestrone soup. Hubby spread it on his bread (adding parmesan cheese of course) and drizzled it in his soup for an extra kick. Speaking of extra kick, I was worried that the pesto would be too spicy. It was spicy and strong, but wonderfully flavorful. I recommend for garlic and arugula lovers and adventurous foodies!

Arugula is on the right.

Spent basil

Tools of the trade

The final result!

Big Bad Bugs

Just as I thought the garden would descend quietly into winter, I took a look under the leaves, on woody stems, and in the nooks and crannies of the garden and found the dreaded pests! Those obnoxious eaters of garden vegetables, decimators of lovely limbs and beautiful flowers - they are everywhere it would seem! 

First, I noticed caterpillars in the butterfly garden. Now, this in itself is not a big concern. It is a butterfly bed, for crying out loud. So, I should expect (and hope for no less) some caterpillars to overwinter and gestate the designated spot I created for them. The are only holing up in my butterfly bush (how appropriate) and not eating any of my winter vegetables or annual and perennial flowers. This I can grudgingly accept, although I doubt the birds will extend them the same courtesy.

Next I noticed my blue hibiscus, normally so hardy and healthy, dropping yellow and brown leaves into my lavender. I peered deeper into the heart of the plant only to discover ugly, beetle-like, unmoving bugs covering the woody branches and trunk of the shrub. Quel horreur! It looked like these disgusting things were sucking the poor plant dry. Ants also covered the affected branches. I did my due diligence research and found them to be lecanium scale. I removed the damaged branches forcibly with my handy pruners and scraped the evil things off the trunk with a gloved hand. I will need to follow up with an insecticidal oil soap soon to root out any hangers on and prevent a re-infestation. 

Slugs are the bane of every gardener, especially the vegetable gardener. My defense so far has been no defense; I expect a few casualties now and again. It is the price to pay when you attempt (semi) organic gardening. I am debating trying out the beer trick; supposedly if you place a shallow dish of beer in your vegetable beds, the slugs will be attracted to it, then fall into the dish and die an inebriated (and hopefully happy) death. This sounds like an old wives tale to me, but I may have to try it. I am tired of them eating my Swiss chard (pictured), lettuces, cabbage, radishes, and flowers.

My poor roses are infected with orange rust yet again! Time to remove foliage and spray. I can complete a drastic prune as the season turns to winter, but I do not want to lose my gorgeous blooms until the plants go into semi-dormancy. This would not be such a problem if my infuriating neighbor took care of his roses - they keep re-infecting mine! Since the are growing onto my property, I will give them a good whack this weekend - Hah!

On a happier note, Hubby and I are endeavoring to continue cooking with ingredients from the garden. To that end, I have been researching new recipes to utilize what we have on-hand. Below is a cannellini bean soup made with home grown Swiss chard, basil, and sage. Delicious! 

Fresh Tomato Sauce from the Garden

One of my most poignant (and prolific) memories of my childhood is the smell of a delicious red sauce ragu slow roasting on the stove for hours on end. The thick tomato sauce would cook down meatballs of beef and pork, perhaps a sausage or two, and if we were really lucky, ox tails! This traditional Southern Italian meal fed us well (and cheaply too) for generations. In my  mind, home is symbolized by a large pot of ragu bubbling away, filling the house with the wonderful smell of canned tomatoes, ground meat, garlic, basil and oregano.

Fresh tomato sauce is a different kind of beast, requiring a different kind of care. After perfecting the recipe over the past two seasons, I've decided that the best way to showcase fresh tomatoes is with a vegetarian version. I use tomatoes that are "on the edge;" too smushy for eating sliced but too good to throw out. 

Here is what you will need:
2.5 - 3 lbs of "on the edge" fresh tomatoes
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons red pepper flakes or 1 teaspoon red pepper powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 tablespoon dried oregano

In large metal pot, heat 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil on the stove on low heat. While oil is warming, chop tomatoes into quarters, removing the stems and bottoms. Toss tomatoes in pot and turn up heat to medium and cook for approximately five minutes until tomatoes are soft. Add finely chopped garlic during this period. Stir mixture until well mixed. Add red pepper flakes, salt, sugar, dried basil, and dried oregano. Stir again. Take heat down to a simmer and cook for approximately an hour. Fresh tomatoes are full of water, and to get a fuller flavor, the water must be cooked down and out. Check on the sauce every 20 minutes and stir. After an hour on the stove, the sauce will need 30- 45 minutes to cool. Remove from heat and cover with clean dish cloth. After cooling period, puree sauce with a stick blender, food processor, or regular blender. Store in fridge for up to a week or freeze for up to 6 months.

Peggy's Pumpkin Bread

I thought I'd try another component to garden blogging - a recipe share! Since we are in the home stretch of Christmas preparations, I wanted to share the family recipe for my Grandmother's pumpkin bread - my holiday favorite. I thought this recipe was lost forever, and lo, it fell out of an old cookbook as a piece of loose leaf paper. I figured the best way to preserve it is to share it!

In one large bowl (Kitchen Aid mixing bowl works well), mix the following ingredients:

3 cups sugar

3 1/3 cups of flour

1 cup vegetable shortening

4 eggs

2/3 cup of water

2 cups canned pumpkin (Libby's is the best)

1 1/2 teaspoons of salt

2 teaspoons of baking soda

1 teaspoon each of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves

1 cup walnuts (optional)

Mix components together slowly in Kitchen Aid mixer. The batter will be thick and heavy, so make sure the mixer and the bowl are anchored securely. Grease 6 mini-loaf pans or 2 larger loaf pans and cook at 350 for approximately 45 minutes. Check the bread at 30 minutes and test with toothpick at the 45 minute mark. Cook another 10-15 minutes as needed if batter is still gooey. Let cool for about 20 minutes. Refrigerate after cooling. Mini-loaves can be wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen if desired.