A few weeks ago I wrote about freezing tomatoes. While that remains my go-to trick to keeping tomatoes out of my trash, today I tried something new — slow roasting tomatoes.
Not quite a sun-dried tomato, these tender, juicy ruby-colored gems are full of flavor and have endless possibilities. Personally I like eating them right out of the roasting pan.
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There are many people who have greatly affected my journey into healthy living; some of them I have never met like the founders of this amazing co-op and the other leaders in Bountiful Baskets. (more…)
A world without tomatoes is like a string quartet without violins.
-Laurie Colwin, “Home Cooking”
Growing up I hated two things that were good for me, fish and tomatoes. When I took a health class in high school I realized the importance and benefits of incorporating these two beauties into my diet. It took years to change my opinion and palate, but I am slowly coming around. I started by ordering hamburgers and leaving the tomatoes in place instead of discarding them the instant they arrived on my plate. I’m still working on fish. I have trained myself to like lobster, crab and shrimp, but learning to like fish will take a little more time. Whenever I am near an ocean however I feel like it would be an insult if I didn’t give it another try. I ate Mahi Mahi for the first time in Hawaii and really enjoyed it. This past March I had some of the most amazing salmon I have ever tasted while at an awards dinner, for work, in Orlando. It takes baby steps. If I had this tomato soup as a kid, I have a feeling my thoughts about tomatoes would have changed ages ago. It is a far cry from the preservative packed can variety and is almost as easy to prepare.
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Let me set the scene for you. It’s late at night on basket eve. You’re standing in front of an open refrigerator door looking to satisfy your sweet tooth, when you see it, behind the fat free sour cream and carton of leftover Chinese food from Tuesday night. No, it’s not the last piece of chocolate cake. Your husband devoured that earlier in the night. It’s a bowl of deep red tomatoes from last week’s bounty.
You examine them. They’re still edible, but won’t be for long. Plus, you’ll have a refrigerator full of much fresher fruits and vegetables tomorrow. What do you do?
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Did you luck out with a case of asparagus last week? I was lucky enough to share a case with a friend. I’ve got Asparagus coming out my ears…Here is one way that I used some this week.
I started out following Gordon Ramsay’s recipe for a rustic pasta sauce that included anchovies. Well, I didn’t have any anchovies, but I did have sardines. Earlier in the day, I had canned a bunch of asparagus, and had some inch long pieces that didn’t quite fit in my jars. So, I decided to take Gordon’s basic recipe and modify it for what I had on hand in my kitchen.
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Saturday breakfast is hard. With getting up to volunteer at the BB site, bringing the bounty home, and then trying to get everything rinsed and put away, making breakfast on Saturday morning is generally the last thing I want to do. But this time, my husband woke up early to pick up our bounty and the bonus was that I was highly motivated to make something yummy for breakfast! Low and behold, beautiful grape tomatoes, onions, asparagus, and I just happened to have mushrooms and eggs in the fridge. Coupled with the most wonderful Organic honey wheat bread purchased as an add-on this week this was a Saturday morning treat I’m sure I can use to bribe my husband and children to wake up every Saturday morning for basket pickup!
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I am a pepper freak!! I love peppers, I will eat them in anything and everything. But I have to admit, up until a few months ago. I had never heard/used Hatch Chiles before. The first time we got them in our basket was the same week we also had them as an add-on, my friend who is also the site coordinator at our Pride site was going crazy when she saw them!! Regular participants were also so excited to finally have these wonderful peppers up here.
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I wanted to find a way to serve my daughter vegetables in the morning – she sometimes resists eating eggs but I knew she would eat them if I baked them into a scone. This recipe is versatile enough that you could substitute many different types of vegetables or cheeses.
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We love tomatoes! Whether it’s a bowl of pasta with homemade sauce or fried green tomatoes we love them in any and every possible way. Recently I decided to do something a little different. I decided to try my hand at tomato chips. Yep, you read that right, tomato chips. I don’t buy chips because it’s too easy to sit and consume an entire bag before you realize what you are doing but with tomato chips you don’t have to worry about the added fat, cholesterol or preservatives. The super cool thing about these chips is that you can also grind them into powder. My kids say it smells like spaghetti in a jar because of the herbs used. Once ground you can add tomato powder to soups, meats, eggs, anything you want, the possibilities are endless. Customize them to your liking, use different herbs and spices, go nuts!
