Fall 2020 Blooms

 It's mid-October and I still have blooms in my garden!

It won't be long before a frost puts my plants to 

sleep for the winter.  

Enjoy this beauty!

Roasted Tomato Pepper Soup

 Now that we have summer's harvest of tomatoes and peppers, we are making lots of roasted soup!  Here's what Tony does.

First he slices his ingredients:

Then he layers them in a shallow sheet pan:

sliced Roma tomatoes

sliced red bell peppers

sliced carrots

chopped jalapenos, seeds removed

10 garlic cloves, cut in half

sliced onions

fresh or frozen corn

Coat all the veggies with a nice amount of extra virgin olive oil.

Season generously with salt and fresh ground black pepper.

Ready for the oven!

Roast in a 325-350 degree oven for about 90 minutes.

If you do more than one pan in a convection oven, you need to rotate the pans every 20 minutes and move the veggies to make sure nothing is burning on the top.

Roast them until all the veggies are soft and 

most of the liquid is gone.

Process them in a blender with chicken stock to the thickness you like.  We blended fresh Basil into the soup 

for a fresh element and it was really nice!

When you heat it you can add some cream 

for a smoother texture.

This soup freezes beautifully in containers.

It will be a lovely reminder of summer during our 

cold winter months!

Yellow Tomato Sauce

 We planted one grape tomato vine this year.  To our surprise the tomatoes ripened yellow, not red.  This happened to us once before and we made delicious savory sauce with these tomatoes. Since we have a plethora of them, we will be freezing lots of this sauce before winter comes.

Here's what Tony does:

Slice the tomatoes in halves or quarters, depending on the size.

Lightly brown a LOT of minced garlic in olive oil in a 

heavy-bottomed saucepan.

Add the tomatoes, chopped fresh basil and oregano, salt and pepper to taste.  Let simmer on medium low heat for about 30-40 minutes.

This freezes beautifully in plastic quart containers.  If you want a creamier consistency, use an immersion blender to pulverize the skins.

I have used this for lasagna, and as a pizza sauce.  It has a lovely smooth taste.

Pesto

 It's pesto time!!

Our basil and parsley are

bursting in the garden!

Here's Tony's favorite recipe:

In a food processor blend:

8-10 cloves peeled garlic

2 cups fresh Basil leaves (packed)

1 cup fresh Parsley leaves (packed)

1 cup grated Romano cheese

2/3 cup walnuts

1/2 cup olive oil (plus more)

Once it's pureed in the processor I add enough olive oil so that it's creamy and smooth, but not too runny. It freezes better if it's

on the dry side.

Then I make a "log" of pesto on a long

sheet of wax paper,

and roll it up like a deli sandwich.

Finally I wrap the wax paper log in plastic wrap.

This keeps very well in my deep freeze.

When I need some pesto, I peel back the plastic wrap and cut through

the wax paper, then re-wrap easily.

Our favorite pesto dishes are pasta and pizza. I've also used pesto in meatballs and in sauce for fish.

Buon appetito!

I Beat the Heat with Roasted Veggies and Pizza on the Grill!

 It's been so hot that I haven't wanted to heat up the oven.

So I decided to make some roasted vegetables and a 

thin-crust pizza on my grill!

I used a big, heavy cast iron pan to layer some veggies.  I cut up green cabbage, snap peas, carrots, broccoli, and bell peppers.  We love cauliflower too, but didn't have any in the fridge.

I coated them with canola oil (you could use some olive oil) and then a nice sprinkling of coarse salt and pepper. Then on to the grill they went!

I pre-heated the grill to 400 degrees and stirred the veggies every 6-8 minutes.  They were done in about 20 minutes.

I made a quick pizza dough in my small food processor 

(1 1/2 cups flour, salt, yeast, water).  I let it rise once,

rolled it thin, added cheese and toppings.

I used the same heavy, cast iron pan.

After the veggies were done, I put it on the hot grill 

for about 13 minutes.

The crust browned beautifully on the hot pan.

This was a great dinner without heating up the kitchen!

Let me know what you're grilling!