Our favorite tomato soup recipe turned out extra-pretty this week with the
addition of yellow heirloom tomatoes.
It's a simple recipe: just saute diced onion and garlic in butter. Then add
diced tomatoes and a bit of beef broth, then salt, pepper, thyme, and
parsley to taste. Simmer for a few minutes and it's the perfect side to go
with grilled cheese sandwiches or any Italian meal!
Posted November 4th, 2009.
Have you ever tasted homemade tomato sauce? From tomatoes grown in the dirt around your home. Tomatoes that have been chopped on your kitchen counter. Tomatoes that have simmered for hours on your kitchen stove. Until the extra liquid has evaporated and the tomatoes have reached the smooth perfection of…homemade tomato sauce.
Last week I made homemade tomato sauce. Then I diced up a leftover chicken breast (from a whole chicken that had boiled on my wood stove in a cast iron pan), and tossed it with pasta, artichoke hearts, mozzarella cheese chunks, and some Italian herbs. Topping it with my homemade tomato sauce, making sure some cheese was near the top to peek its way through, I popped it in the oven.
The bubbling and browned delight that came out was absolute perfection. Most especially because of the homemade tomato sauce.
Posted October 28th, 2009.
I did not grow up eating winter squash. In fact, I didn’t really know what it was until I met my husband’s family. Probably part of it had to do with the fact that my daddy didn’t like squash or sweet potatoes. I always knew that if Daddy didn’t like it, I probably wouldn’t like it (sour kraut being the primary example). But I had to be polite and try this new dish at the home of a guy I liked, right? So began my love of winter squash (not to mention my man…). I was eventually prodded into trying candied sweet potatoes at a family potluck, and found out that my daddy was actually wrong once in a while (at least where food is concerned). Soon I was frequenting Burgerville for their sweet potato fries during the holiday season, and buying winter squash at a local farmer’s market when I hadn’t been to visit my boyfriend’s family lately.
Now that I’m married to that wonderful man, I get to cook winter squash for him all the time (and unlike growing up, the head of this household doesn’t complain about winter squash on the menu). As much as I love summer squashes and zucchinis, I’m always excited for the frost to bring the harvest of all the delectable varieties of winter squash.
Since it’s such a winter staple around here, I’m always experimenting with new dishes using winter squash. (Our little girl thinks it’s just great cooked and pureed, but her daddy appreciates the variety.)
Squash and Potatoes
1 lg. sweet onion, chopped
several cloves garlic, minced
small winter squash, peeled (with carrot peeler), seeded, and chunked
potatoes, peeled and chunked
Fill a 13×9 pan with the vegetables and garlic. Drizzle with several tablespoons olive oil. Season liberally with sea salt, lightly with fresh grated pepper. Stir to coat veggies well. Cover tightly with foil. Bake at 350 one to two hours or until veggies are tender. Stir halfway through if desired.
Braised Winter Squash
2 lbs. Winter squash, peeled and sliced into 2/3 inch chunks
2 T. butter
2 c. apple cider
1 tsp. salt
Rosemary and pepper to taste
Melt butter in skillet with rosemary. Add the squash, salt, and cider (add additional cider or water as necessary to cover the squash). Bring to a boil and braise for 20 minutes or until tender. At this point the juice should be reduced to a glaze. If not, raise heat for a few minutes until excess liquid evaporates. Add pepper and a splash of balsamic vinegar, if desired.
Sweet Squash Soup
1 T. butter
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1/4 c. minced parsley
1 lb. winter squash, peeled and chunked
1 3/4 c. chicken broth
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. each salt and black pepper
14 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 c. milk
1/3 c. half and half
In large saucepan, melt butter. Add onion, carrot, and parsley; cook for five minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring often. Add squash, broth, cinnamon, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes or until squash is tender. Cool slightly (do not drain). In a blender, process mixture, half at a time, until smooth. Return to saucepan. Stir in milk and half and half. Cook, uncovered, for 5 minutes or until heated through. Serve hot or cold. (Soup will keep in refrigerator for one week. If serving cold, stir 1/4 c. milk into soup before serving.)
Posted October 7th, 2008.
Last week my husband and I spent an evening canning tomatoes. It’s that time of year where everyone’s plants are finally producing, leaving some extras for us to can. And I’m so glad, because I’d already used up all my canned tomatoes from last year. They are just too good with all that Italian food that winter weather seems to call for.
Since I knew I’d be salivating over the smell of the tomatoes the whole time I cut them up, I decided to make tomato soup for lunch just to curb my tomato appetite.
I got out my big cast iron skillet with the “drip-drop” lid, and sauteed a sliced onion in a dab of good old fashioned bacon grease. I added chopped tomatoes, a whole head of minced garlic, and more than a dash of salt and pepper.
Topped with some fresh parsley and basil, it was the perfect companion to the French bread I’d just pulled out of the oven. And I made it through canning tomatoes that evening without eating too many cans’ worth!
Posted October 3rd, 2008.
It’s one of those cozy, rainy autumn afternoons meant for curling up by the fire with a good book. Everyone must have felt it, for it was a slow day at the store, and my husband and I did just that–sat by the store’s wood stove with our books. I convinced him to try a George MacDonald, The Fisherman’s Lady, and I had a fun read in Who Gets the Drumstick? by Helen Beardsley.
Then I got to come home, feed the chickens (who love the mud and the rain), laugh at the kitties (who try to delicately shake the mud from their feet each step they take), light all the candles, and make dinner for my husband who will soon be home from work. (Meanwhile, I’m keeping one eye on the fields in case a buck should present himself as steak for our winter’s dinners.)
Tonight I’m trying Bortsch (beet and cabbage soup) for the very first time, as well as making my mother-in-law’s standby sausage and potatoes (a simple white sauce and sausage gravy over mashed potatoes) in case my husband doesn’t like the Bortsch.
As the end of a second season on the farm draws to a close, I’m realizing how much living off the bounty of the garden has taught me about cooking. I thought I cooked from scratch before. I may have grown up with a few Costco or Schwans prepared dinners in the freezer to fall back on in emergencies, but I knew how to grind wheat, bake bread of all kinds, and make lasagne (sauce and all). Now I’m making salsa with tomatoes, peppers, and onions I planted, and cilantro from my pot outside the door. Not only is the beef in the enchiladas from our cows (I grew up on our own beef and venison), but my husband farmed the alfalfa hay that fattened those cows up. And the vanilla and honey baked custard is made with eggs from our own chickens and ducks.
But more importantly, I’m learning to cook according to what’s in season. This spring it started out with cream of spinach soup and broccoli casseroles with green salad. (And this pregnant lady’s favorite keep-away-the-nausea snack eaten at least twice daily, of a tortilla smeared with cream cheese, layered with spinach and salsa, and rolled to perfection.)
As soon as the first little summer squash showed itself, we had squash and zucchini with every meal (sauteed in a cast iron skillet with just a dab of butter, salt and pepper). My favorite summer lunch was an “open-face sandwich”, with some of my sister-in-law’s homemade bread, toasted, buttered, and topped with bacon, onion, tomato, and cheese, then broiled just until the cheese browned–I could get fat on those!
The week the peppers and tomatoes came into profusion, our favorite Mexican meals began showing up frequently in the menu. My latest experiment was winter squash enchiladas, with a sauce of pureed winter squash, garlic, and jalapeno instead of the traditional tomato sauce. (While I didn’t grow up with it, I have become a fan of winter squash in every way, shape, and form!)
But the one farm-style delicacy I didn’t get to try this year was Ratatouille. My mouth has been watering ever since we saw the movie by the same name at the drive-in. I came home and dug through all my cookbooks, very proud to find that my non-gourmet cookbook library had several versions of the recipe. And upon reading the ingredients, I found out why the movie characters were so scandalized at serving such a “peasant dish” to the gourmet food critic: the primary ingredients of Ratatouille are zucchini, tomatoes, and eggplant! There were never any eggplant to spare this summer, but I’ve convinced Mom and Dad to plant a few eggplants again next year just so we can make Ratatouille.
Maybe you can always find eggplant and zucchini at the grocery store. But there’s nothing so gourmet as food straight from the garden. And nobody eats better than those who live off the land, eating what’s in season, and preserving the abundance for winter.
(written autumn of 2007)
Posted March 16th, 2008.
Last week my husband and I spent an evening canning tomatoes. It’s that time of year where everyone’s plants are finally producing, leaving some extras for us to can. And I’m so glad, because I’d already used up all my canned tomatoes from last year. They are just too good with all that Italian food that winter weather seems to call for.