Harvest

So I am not a great gardener.
Every year I want to channel my inner Martha Stewart and plant an
amazing garden.


But I don't actually enjoy gardening.
(its dirty and it's hot outside)



This year we made a small attempt to improve our tomato yield
and moved where we plant.
Brad even built a nifty box for our 3 tomato plants and 2 "zuquooney"
(thats what we call it at our house)



I had every intention of watering and weeding....

I remembered every couple of days and sent the girls out to do it.


Well, our half-butt attempt is proving fruitful!
We have tomatoes running out our ears!
Yesterday morning I sent the girls to pick the red ones and this is what they came back with.













I admit I was pretty impressed.



If I gave gardening a real try...
I could start my own farmers market.







But then reality set in...
"What in the hell am I gonna do with all these tomatoes?"

Brad was in Wyoming all weekend,
So I made a big batch of Cowboy Salsa
and took it and the girls to West Haven for a visit with my mom
(who is babysitting for my sister)
We ate the salsa and had a nice visit.

Only to drive home and see the bowl of tomatoes STILL sitting there.
I think they multiplied while I was gone,
I mean I did chop up 7 or 8 for salsa. And the bowl was still FULL.

So I did what any self-respecting FACS teacher would do.
I made 18 cups of tomato sauce to freeze!
I cooked up 2 different kinds.
One was a roasted tomato sauce.
and the other was one I adapted from Giada.

The only down side to my sauce making is that I have this teeny, wimpy food processor. It was taking forever to puree the sauce. Then about half way through, I remembered I have an immersion blender! I can just blend it right in the pot.
I'm a little absent minded lately.

Here is all my effort at sauce making.
Looks pretty cool.








The roasted tomato sauce was my favorite.

I can't wait to use it on homemade pizza.







As for our Zuquooney, I made a chocolate zuquooney cake last night. It was pretty good. The can of frosting I used helped a lot.

Now, I wonder if I will ever get the tomato pulp out from under my fingernails.