sunset picnics

With Fall approaching, I'm thoroughly enjoying the cooler nights. Friday night seemed like a good night to pack up a picnic and take the dogs to get their wigglies out from being inside all day. I think I would rather eat picnic food for dinner every night over a big meal. Crackers and cheeses and meats and olives, fruits and tomatoes, oh my. Get in my belly.

P.s. This picnic did not go as smoothly as pictured, hah! But it's okay, it was a night to remember nonetheless. 

12 good things

Farewell to summer and welcome fall with some things that are good. 

une tarte

I think it's safe to say that plum season is coming to a close. Well, I guess that depends where you buy your plums. If you're getting them from the grocery store, plum season usually never ends. But if you prefer your plums to have real juicy flavor, then you're probably getting them elsewhere and therefore, your plum season is coming to a close. Farms are selling the last of their picked plums at markets, so if you haven't had your plum fix this summer, go get em'. As a way of saying farewell to plums, I am sharing with you a deliciously simple plum tart recipe. It literally cannot get any simpler than this. And if you don't make it a point to get some plums this weekend and make this, well then, I just don't know what to say. You must not like simplicity or plums or dessert. Also, you're crazy.

My first step was making my crust. I used a basic pie dough recipe for my crust. You can cut the recipe in half since this is a tart you don't need a crust for the top like you would with a pie. I followed a recipe from one of my cook books that I use often, but you can easily look one up online or if you're feeling lazy just buy a pre-made pie crust from the store (I won't tell).

Once you have your dough rolled out (or if its already rolled out for you, ahem), lay it out evenly in a pie dish. Press down around the edges so its nice and snug in the dish. I chose to cut off the excess dough so that I only had a little bit of an overhang to fold over on top. If you're making a traditional tart using a tart pan, you won't have to worry about this. 

Onto the plums. Oh, plums. There are so many varieties of plums. Choose one or mix and match for a combination of sweet and tart flavor. We used about 6 plums. Also, make sure your plums are not overly ripe or it will be a very mushy process slicing them up. Since the fruit has so much natural sweetness and juices, the only thing we added to our plum mixture was about 1/4-1/2 cup of brown sugar. Stir the plums with the sugar so that all of the plum slices are nicely coated in sugar. Fill your laid out dough with plum slices and fold the excess dough over top, overlapping each piece with the last. Lastly, mix an egg yolk with a bit of water and brush over the crust before baking. 

Bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes or until the crust looks done. Bon Appétit! 

12 good things

Some captured photos of all things good. With summer here, there's lots to capture. It was tough picking 12. Sooo... 20 good things? 

it's not zucchini tomato soup

This stuff is so good. It's just one of those things that my mom always made at our house during the summer. I can remember enjoying some during one of our many dinners on the back deck. To me, that's one of the best parts about summer. Nothing beats dinner outside with the setting sun as the cool of the night approaches.  

The recipe is really simple and I'm not even sure what to call this concoction other than... delicious? 

You'll need: 

Tomatoes

Zucchini/Squash

Garlic

Salt & Pepper

Crushed red pepper

Cut up the tomatoes and zucchini into quarter sized pieces. Add some olive oil to a pot and and sauté the tomatoes and zucchini until their juices start to give the mixture a liquid consistency. Add some chopped garlic, salt, pepper and crushed red pepper to your taste. There's no exact measurements when it comes to these ingredients, you can make it as bland or as spicy as you want! Turn the heat on medium-low and let simmer for about 45 minutes or until vegetables are cooked through. I wasn't lying when I said it was really simple. Serve hot or cold. 

a recipe that isn't truly a recipe

The abundant amount of tomatoes doesn't stop with the heirlooms. We have lots of cherry tomatoes sitting on the counter and the supply never seems to run short. These cherry tomatoes are truly something beautiful. Working at the farm, it's our favorite thing to box up because there's just so many different vibrant colors mixed together in a huge container and it's not anything like the ones you see in the grocery store. Reds, yellows, oranges, pinks and purples. We thought these would make a beautiful salsa, and so we decided to experiment a bit. I have no specific amounts of any ingredient to list because we simply just made it up as we went along. All I can say is that it was damn tasty.

I started by putting the tomatoes in the food processor and pulsing until it was almost a puree

Then, using a strainer (one with the smallest holes), I strained most of the excess liquid

I was out of cilantro, so I opted to use lemon basil instead

Add some garlic in the food processor with the basil if you're a garlic lover

Add the chopped basil and garlic combo to the tomatoes

If you're in a really homemade mood...

Cut up some corn tortillas, brush them with olive oil and sprinkle with some sea salt

Bake at 350 degrees until they look brown and crispy 

The End. 

Now go make some deliciously easy salsa and crispy tortilla chips

tomato overload

I work for a farm who takes pride in the produce that they sell to their customers, both retail and wholesale. This means there is often a lot of produce that cannot be sold because of minor imperfections. This also means I end up taking a lot of produce home because I can't bare to see it thrown out. In yesterday's case, when I got home with 25 pounds of tomatoes, I had to figure out one way or another to use them. Sometimes I wish I didn't create so much work for myself on top of already working! But I must say I do enjoy it, especially when you add some Etta James in the mix. After contemplating some ideas, here's what we decided seemed to be the simplest and quickest way to use the 25 pound box of heirloom tomatoes for the short amount of time we had last night.

Fire Roasted Tomatoes

This recipe is really simple.
All you'll need is:
-Tomatoes (you can use any kind, other than cherry tomatoes which probably won't work well)
-Jars and lids for canning
-A large pot for a hot water bath to seal the jars
-Lemon juice to help preserve

Start with gawgeous tomatoes like these

If tomatoes are large, cut in thirds or fourths (halves if they're smaller)

Arrange tomatoes on a sheet pan

Broil on high for 10-15 minutes or until they look charred 

Once tomatoes are cool enough to handle, peel skins off 

Once all of your tomatoes are roasted and peeled, strain any excess juice

Add 2 tbsp of lemon juice to each quart jar (or 1 tbsp for pint jars)

Using a funnel, pour tomatoes into jars leaving a half inch to an inch of space on top

Once the hot water bath is ready*, use a canning rack or canning jar tongs to lower jars into pot

Leave jars in boiling hot water bath for 40-45 minutes

After the jars are finished, use canning jar tongs to remove them and allow them to cool

That's it. The process can be time consuming, but if you plan it right it shouldn't take long. It's mostly just waiting for the tomatoes to roast because you can only put one pan in at a time. We used 25 pounds of large heirloom tomatoes which gave us 4 quart jars of tomatoes. The acidity in the tomatoes as well as the added lemon juice helps to preserve the tomatoes. Now we'll have jarred tomatoes to use for soups or sauce in the winter when the only tomatoes available are tasteless ones from the grocery store, ek. 

*The hot water bath takes quite awhile to bring to a boil, so start this early on to ensure that it is ready.