What are You Eating from the Garden?

[flowerbug]

...
As much as I love spaghetti, I will never ever do this again!...

yes, we don't cook down the sauce we make and will add tomato paste to it to thicken instead. we also do not grow the meatier kinds of tomatoes that have less juice as we really like the flavor of the ones that do have more juice. so we compromise and amend the sauce if we want it to be thicker. most of the time we are using the canned tomatoes we put up we are using them in dishes which do not need thickening like soups and macaroni and tomatoes which soaks up the juice or goulash or ...

i see no need to prove anything by taking that much time and energy for what you notice as fairly bland, but we also cook even on the bland side at times and don't mind that as we can still taste the good tomato flavor we do like. that doesn't mean we also won't cook other things with spices, celery, onions and garlic.

 

[heirloomgal]

I saw a great hack for this tomato cook down issue; you process the tomatoes a day before you cook them. (I don't peel or core tomatoes so easy for me, just raw tomatoes and a quick buzz in the food processor.) Put the tomatoes in some wide mouth jars or bowls in fridge overnight. The water separates out on it's own, tomato meat stays on top.

 

[Branching Out]

Dinner tonight was mashed potatoes with a store-bought rotisserie chicken with fresh picked green beans on the side-- in mid-November! These beans were started at the end of July, and have been growing under cover close to the house in window boxes, sheltered from most of the rain. What a treat to have succulent snap beans for supper! Some of the last cherry tomatoes are garnishing the plate. Life is good.

 

[Branching Out]

I found a small cluster of raspberries in the garden today. During the summer I might have scarfed these down, but in late autumn I felt the need to savour them one by one. The were exquisite.

 

[Finnie]

Lunch is a tomato sandwich with the last tomato from my neighbor’s garden. Picked weeks ago when it was fully green, and it finally ripened.

 

[ninnymary]

Picked some bok Choi, broccoli, and sugar snap peas.

Finding out that my sugar snap peas do much better in the fall than early spring.

Mary

 

[ducks4you]

Now that I have dehydrated 3 1/2 quarts (gave one quart to middle DD) of tomatoes that ripened on my kitchen table for the last month, not exactly sure how to use them.
DH put some on a sandwich recently and like it.
Eldest DD put them on a frozen pizza and baked it and Hate them on that.
Any thoughts?

 

[Shades-of-Oregon]

@ducks4you those jars look beautiful.
Dried tomatoes to make pasta. Or spinish and carrots.very good. I bought some at a speciality store and the flavor knocked my socks off…

By the way always thinking of you and your new shinny knee. How it going?

 

[ducks4you]

Thanks!! I had several colors of tomatoes, making the jars look festive.
I sent middle DD some links. She makes homemade pizza, and there are recipes to rehydrate and use them on pie where you make them from scratch.
It was fun to push them from below the racks to extract many of them. Some were loose.
ALL of the peppers I dehydrated were skinny and loose.
It will probably be a good month before I clean the 6 racks!!

 

[Finnie]

Now that I have dehydrated 3 1/2 quarts (gave one quart to middle DD) of tomatoes that ripened on my kitchen table for the last month, not exactly sure how to use them.
DH put some on a sandwich recently and like it.
Eldest DD put them on a frozen pizza and baked it and Hate them on that.
Any thoughts?

I made this recipe recently for Oven-Roasted Tomatoes, and they were very good on salads and sandwiches, and also just eating straight. I wonder if you could use your dehydrated tomatoes to make something very similar?

Recipe:
Preheat oven to 400F.
Slice plum tomatoes in half. Gently remove seeds and place on lined baking sheet.
Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Roast 40-45 minutes until beginning to caramelize.

I would think you wouldn’t have to roast them nearly as long since they are already dehydrated. If they are too dry for this recipe, maybe try rehydrating them a little bit?

I really think it was the oil, salt and pepper that made mine so snack-worthy.