Remember the cheesy old movie "Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes"? It's so stupid it's funny. Anyway, I kept hearing the theme song from that flick while preparing our harvest of tomatoes for canning. I came home from Chicago and Jack had lovingly picked them and had them waiting patiently for me.
I lined them up so nicely. Romas and then the bigger ones...(I can't remember their proper names!) I call them killer because of their "killer"..ie fabulous..taste! The Romas got made into spaghetti sauce and the others were canned or eaten. Nothing better than a fresh tomato from the garden with a little salt thrown on! Or maybe a tomato sandwich? However you like them I'll be preparing them. See those cute green peppers in the green bowl? Underneath those cuties were also green beans.
The peppers got made into stuffed peppers or sliced for the freezer for use on another day. A little spag sauce in the middle. How about those green beans? I know you want to know!
The beans made it into jars and soon will line the shelves. I know it's much easier to head to the store and buy produce in cans or frozen. I still do that too but there's something about growing your own and "putting it up" as the saying goes. There must be many other wanabee farmers out there because finding jar lids is like a treasure hunt going store to store. I finally found some at our local hardware store. They were up at the registers and you were only allowed to purchase 2 boxes at a time. We do live in an Amish community but I've never had a problem getting lids until last year. Folks probably figure you'd better grow your own food incase there's another run at the grocery store. Still can't grow toilet paper though! (No more Sears catalogs either! Ha!) So this is my first run of the harvest season. Our produce has done well and we'll give a high five to the Alpaca poop from our neighbors. That stuff is amazing and it doesn't even stink! Canning and freezing will be on my list of "to dos" for the next month. We'll savor the fresh tomatoes while we can. Winter will have us dreaming of them soon! Just so you know I didn't spend all weekend with veggies, here's a pic of a new cake recipe:
It's a bundt cake that's a take off of one of my families favorites...Texas Sheet Cake. Jack said this cake looked like Texas Sheet Cake's little brother! The frosting is the killer here. When I make the sheet cake I always double the frosting so I did the same here after Jack test tasted it and said it needed the same treatment. I'm taking half of it to my son's house tomorrow. We'll see if it gets 2 thumbs up!
