More Tomatoes

The plum tomatos are coming in fast and furious, so every weekend I roast at least one pan because the tomato sauce is sensational with the intensified flavor. I roast them for 2 hours at about 325 degrees, and then slide off the skins.

Fry up some onions and stir in the tomatos, home grown garlic, basil and a bit of red wine and simmer for about 15 minutes. This weekend I fried up some garden eggplant

and made a delicious eggplant parmigana, accompanied by a salad of home grown cukes, onions, yoghurt and cumin.

Yummm. Now off to the airport to Rhode Island again and my midnight schedule :(

Fall Fashions ---- continued

So first I got this DSW ad for these lovely boots - can't locate them on their website though!?#! But Harper's Bazaar arrived today and even though I was momentarially distracted by the pages of soft camel coats, I completely lost it when I got to this page of lovely loden, olive jackets and coats. Now I am really torn.

But then there is also this herring bone coat with the subtly herringbone vest - which was sort of the direction that I was originally going this fall. Well, sort of . I returned the LL Bean jacket - too scratchy and the pink lining was really a shock. Almost ordered a new J. Crew herringbone jacket but have been deterred by the free shipping having ended - and then the sight of all the other color choices I have. I figure I can wait for a bit for a new J Crew shipping offer. People aren't going to snap up 298 jackets in one weekend.

Rainy Sunday

Today it was rainy and didn't get above 75 degrees, which is a cold wave here in August. The dishwasher had died on Saturday, so we got a nice new Kitchen Aid one at Lowes that should be delivered and installed this week.

I also took all my good plum tomatoes, peppers - sweet and jalapenos, and home grown garlic and made 5 pints of lovely salsa to enjoy in the cold winter ahead.
The salsa has now joined its cousins on the staging trolley until I get time to label it.

Then, still having a lot of tomatoes, I drizzled toasted French bread slices with olive oil and piled them with a lovely assortment of chopped tomatoes, more garlic, basil, balsamic vinegar, and sweet onions. Served it with crusted rainbow trout and chopped pecans. mmmmmmmm.

Following up on the Garlic

You might remember that I planted garlic last fall. I was extremely discouraged that during the weeks before I was supposed to harvest them, the temperature soared into the high 90's and we didn't get any rain for a month. By the time I decided to dig them up, I had to hack them out of dried concrete blocks of dirt and they looked sadly small. I put them all in the basement where it is cool to let them dry out and have started using about a week ago. This is what they looked like when I dug them up. And this is what they look like when they are cleaned up. Rather smaller than what I expected, but the little cloves are very good and intense. Not sure I would try this again though. Too much effort for the cost ($28) and work.

Summer Fruit

Shopped at the Amish market today and found beautiful white peaches (my grandfather's favorites) and luscious yellow plums - all local. It's not a hardship to eat local in the summer here. Now I have to can some of the plum tomatoes - I have already roasted a batch for pasta sauce.

My Mug and Her Cousins

Love that Liberty

This morning I had my coffee in my lovely new liberty mug, compliments of ABJ :). Somehow the flowers are suggestive of the fruit in the basket. And admired a selection of the goodies that she has given me - past and present.

Two weeks ago I started making a summer blouse with one of my prints and found that ABJ had replenished a meter of one of my favorites when I opened my birthday goodie box. It looks much better on me than on the dressform, but my attempts to take a picture of myself were too weird to post.

One of my favorite meter gifts was perfect for the lining of the collar.

I have hoarded all my prints for years, but have decided that is really time to use them. Let's see what else I can think of. I have heard that this obsession is genetic :)

Catching up - Last Weekend

Last weekend was very hot - around 100 again. One of my favorite smells is the scent of laundry that has been dried in the sun, so I hung mine out on my little drying rack to bake. Of course, this is shortcake weather. I made a mistake and started following the recipe for pancakes so I added an egg to my shortcake biscuit dough and it turned very moist and tender. Have to try it again soon.

And the bounty of tons of zucchini to deal with. Zucchini bread- gave one to Adam and Margot.

And the ever-popular zucchini pancakes for dinner.