Sunday, August 17, 2008

miscellaneous

It was one of those weekends when you do a lot of different things.

My husband finished taking out the stump to the huge evergreen in our backyard. Lots of hard work. Our RV finished the job for him. He couldn't quite tip it, so he tied it to the RV and had it do the last of the pulling. Now what do we do with the space. I am thinking a raised herb garden but I am not sure. Anyone have any ideas?


The local farmers market had an Heirloom Tomato Festival. There were a dozen different Heirlooms available for tasting. UMMMMMMMMMMMMM.
They also had a small recipe book with taste tasting of those recipes.These below were my favorites. I am going to try and get seeds. My husband bought me three different types of seeds when he went to California in June. I can't wait to start them next year. The Master Gardeners were very kind and gave me some hints.


Our two wonderful friends, Linda and Tim, came over on Sunday. Tim and Charles put up an awning. Linda and I weeded the pond garden. I had let the weeding go too long and was a bit overwhelmed. Linda is a dynamo in all she does and I couldn't have done it without her. She and Tim are dear friends. Swimming and Scrabble followed the yard work. We had a nice dinner. We grilled steaks and vegetable from the garden. We had tomato caprese. The tomatoes and basil were also from the garden. Linda brought deviled eggs and desert. A good time was had by all. Friends and family make all the difference in your life.I was very worried about the society garlic. It has come back over the last couple of years and I thought it was a perennial, but the Hacienda Shiloh owner told me it was not. It must have seeded and come back. We had the foilage this year, but were not getting the flowers. But here they are, back again. Better late than never. They are a really pretty flower, but they have a strong garlic taste and smell. You can use them in salads.
..and finally--the dogs had their usual good time outside while we worked.

Riley watched over the yard.


Bailey and Flynn played "who can stare the longest" and had a great time running around.
Hasn't the granddog gotten bigger. She is up to 25 lbs. She is the fastest dog I have ever seen and she can jump so high, straight up. My daughter leaned over the fence and picked a tomato in the garden today, looked up and there was Bailey in front of her. She had jumped the fence.


Everyone have a good week.


9 comments:

Unknown said...

I like your idea of a raised herb garden. If you do that, i'd love to hear about how you construct it. I might end up wanting one too. Also, I have a ton of tomatoes from my garden, Any favorite easy suggestions for recipes?

Unknown said...

Do you really need another garden mah? I mean really? That'll be like garden number 14.

Love you.

Jen said...

That's the way to do it--bribe help with food!
You could plant a small ornamental tree in that spot and some flowers around it. Unless you really want the work of a garden.

gerry said...

My favorite tomato recipe: Patti Tomatoes. I dont know where the name came from. My mother in law always served it at our annual 4th of July crab feast.

8 medium tomatoes, peeled and quartered
1 cup tarragon wine vinegar
3/4 cup olive oil
1/4 tsp. dry mustard
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 medium onion, chopped
1 garlic clove
2 T sugar
2 T parsley, chopped

I just mix and marinate overnight.
It is delicious and makes a nice presentation. It can be multiplied for a large crowd.

I had a Green Tomato Pie at the festival.

1-9" unbaked pie crust
1 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella(divided)
3-4 medium tomatoes, thinly sliced
1/2 cup vidalia onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup caesar salad dressing
1 T fresh basil chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 400. Bake pie crust 10 to 12 minutes until golden. Cool the crust on a wire rack. Reduce oven temperature to 350. Sprinkle 1/2 mozzarella on bottom of pie crust. Tope with tomatoes then vidalia slices. Combine caesar with remaining mozzarella, basil, salt and pepper and spoon over tomatoes and onions. Bake 40 - 45 minutes until bubbly and golden brown.

My old standby is Tomato Caprese. Just fresh sliced tomatoes and sliced fresh mozzarella, draped with basil and sprinkled with salt and pepper and olive oil and vinegar.

If you can, I have a good recipe for a tomato relish. Margaret has a great recipe for gazbacho if you contact her.

gerry said...

Jen, thanks for the idea. I think my daughter thinks that is a better idea with the dogs.

Minerva said...

Funny you should mention the gazpacho...Guess what I blogged about tonight?

Jessica said...

I love farmers markets. It's one of my favorite things to do on Saturday mornings. And your tomatoe fesitval looks great.

Unknown said...

Thank-you so much for the recipes. They all sound wonderful. I will definitely
be giving them a try.

Ben said...

It's hard to beat a great, ripe tomato. We had BLTs tonight - excellent.