Tomato paste

I got three (three!) Cases of seconds tomatoes from the farmer in charge of our csa. I have been branching out from my usual crushed tomatoes since I have so many tomatoes this year. :-)

I made salsa (with plans for another double batch), crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, and now tomato paste.

I have to admit, it was benjamin's idea. And I am so glad he thought of it! I cooked a 8 quart pot of tomatoes down to about three or four cups. It was chris' idea to put the paste in ice cube trays and freeze them. Also, I had three half cup jars, so I put those three in a water bath. Now I have a bunch of tomato paste cubes just waiting to be put into a soup or chili or sloppy joes or... whatever!

Random kid pics

Here are some random pics I found on my phone:

One is the kids watching the Eagles at wegmans over lunch.

One is the kids at Barnes and Noble reading books.

There is John in the shed when he climbed on someone's bike. And John in his helmet with a tricycle.

There's Ellie reading the American Girl catalogue.

And eight kids in my van watching a movie while me and my friend Donna took turns getting haircuts.

Fall garden

garden

I am so sorry I have not updated my garden this summer.

Today we worked on cleaning it up a bit. Chris even burned the leftovers right there in the garden. Last week I finished pulling out the tomato plants and chris mowed the grass.

Some things that are left in the garden still: our kale forest, other kale forest, swiss chard, beets, spinach, horsradish, and a whole host of peppers. Chris has plans to cover them and keep getting peppers until december... see previous post about how we have peter piper beat. :-)

Enjoy the pics!

Simple soup

I love making soup for dinner in the fall. This one came together really quickly because I had frozen chicken broth and frozen cooked beans.

I really like the way tomatoes and kale pair together in a soup, and so does Sam. Just the other day he was actually asking for kale and tomato soup. We are enjoying the last of summer's bounty of tomatoes, and we have a forest of kale in the garden.

In this soup: chicken broth, two big tomatoes, eight or so stems of lactinato kale, 1/2 a zucchini, three potatoes, about 3 cups pinto beans. So far I have only seasoned with salt. I will add some garlic and onions and I'm not sure for herbs. I froze basil and parsley from my garden this year in oil and I am really happy with how it turned out!

I better go finish dinner! I still want to whip up a batch of GF biscuits. Have a favorite recipe to share?

Simple lunch

Some yummy warm stewed apples with cornbread for lunch. Simple and delicious! very nice for this fall day.

It was the first time this year it has really felt like fall. Last night there was a frost advisory and Chris and I tucked or pepper plants in safe and warm. Of course I don't think it frosted last night, but better safe than sorry! Hopefully this weekend, we will get some plastic to cover them. Chris is hoping they last into december. We shall see.

YOU should see the amount of peppers we have already picked! We've got peter piper beat, that's all I have to say.

Happy fall!

Oatmeal. Peanut butter. Banana. Chocolate.