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Cliff Rohrabacher
08-09-2007, 12:24 PM
Hung 'em upside down this year. It works great~!!
I'm enjoying a tomato sandwich even as I type.

Bonnie Campbell
08-09-2007, 12:37 PM
Nothing like fresh off the vine tomatoes! Unfortunately ours are about done producing this summer.

By the way, LOML calls his 'sink sandwiches'..... best eaten dripping into the sink than on your clothes lol

Ed Falis
08-09-2007, 12:45 PM
And ours aren't quite starting yet!

Joe Pelonio
08-09-2007, 12:54 PM
Nothing like fresh off the vine tomatoes! Unfortunately ours are about done producing this summer.

By the way, LOML calls his 'sink sandwiches'..... best eaten dripping into the sink than on your clothes lol
That makes me sick. I have tons of tomatoes but the largest is about golf ball sized and none ripe yet. I'm dying for some to eat!

Bonnie Campbell
08-09-2007, 2:11 PM
Just think of how happy you'll be once they're ready.... I'll be buying tasteless greenhouse store tomatoes soon :eek:

Mike Henderson
08-09-2007, 2:35 PM
I plant about ten vines each year. Last year was a bad year - didn't get many tomatoes and they finished early. This year is a good year - I have more tomatoes than I can possibly use. I'm cooking some right now to make spaghetti sauce which I'll freeze for later eating.

I blanch the tomatoes to remove the skin, then cook them with oregano, onions and green pepper. Meatballs are made separately.

Anybody have a spaghetti sauce recipe that they'd like to share?

Mike

Steven Triggs
08-09-2007, 3:07 PM
Hung 'em upside down this year. It works great~!!
I'm enjoying a tomato sandwich even as I type.

No picture? We can't acknowledge gloats without pictures.:D

Bob Childress
08-09-2007, 3:28 PM
Anybody have a spaghetti sauce recipe that they'd like to share?

Mike

Yeah Mike, we've had a great year, although last year was not much. Here are a couple I've been doing this summer, adapted for larger amounts from Lidia Bastianich's book Lidia's Table.

Marinara Sauce:

For every 3 pounds of tomatoes, cored, peeled and seeded (I've been doing about 9 pounds at a time):

1/3 to 1/2 cup olive oil
8 cloves of garlic, crushed
Salt to taste
Peperoncino (crushed red pepper flakes)
10 fresh basil leaves, torn

Core, blanch, and peel the tomatoes. Cut in half and squeeze out most seeds into a strainer (save the juice).

Heat oil slowly over medium heat, add the garlic and cook about 2 minutes, stirring often.

Add the tomatoes, juice, salt and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer about 20 minutes, breaking up the tomatoes with a whisk as they cook down. Five minutes before the sauce is finished, stir in the basil and correct the seasoning (when planning to freeze this sauce, I leave out the fresh basil and add it to the sauce when I'm ready to use it. I think it makes for a fresher flavour.)

Tomato Sauce:

For each 3 pounds of tomatoes, cored, blanched, peeled, and seeded:

1/3 to 1/2 cup olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup finely chopped carrots
1/4 cup finely chopped celery
2 dried bay leaves (or 4 fresh)
Salt to taste
Peperoncino

In a large saucepan, heat the oil, wilt the onions, add the carrots and celery and cook medium about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, pass the tomatoes through a food mill (or I use a blender and just barely get them chopped up, not pureed, still lumpy). Add the tomatoes, juice, salt, peperoncino and bay leaves. Simmer over medium-low heat about 45 minutes. Remove the bay leaves and store.

I am using loaf pans to "pre-freeze" the sauce in 4 cup batches, then turning out the cubes and vacuum-sealing them. Everything is easy except the coring, peeling, seeding, which is tedious.

When I'm ready to use a sauce, I just add meatballs or sausage, or shrimp, or whatever.

Good stuff. :)

I've also pickled a couple of pints of habanero chilies, which should take the roof off my mouth if I'm not careful. :eek:

David G Baker
08-09-2007, 3:31 PM
Cliff,
Did you use the as seen on TV pots designed to grow tomatoes upside down? I have been curious about them and have thought about trying them. I love tomatoes.
As Steven wrote, "No picture, no gloat"

Ed Falis
08-09-2007, 3:54 PM
If you have enough, can 'em! You'll love yourself for it come Jan and Feb.

Bob Childress
08-09-2007, 4:00 PM
If you have enough, can 'em! You'll love yourself for it come Jan and Feb.

I toyed with the idea but decided to freeze instead this year. Aside from sauces, I have frozen many pounds of just plain "recipe tomatoes."

I am going to can some more chilies and maybe some succotash if the farmer's market holds out with the other ingredients.

Ed Falis
08-09-2007, 4:03 PM
Sounds like a plan to me.

Mike Henderson
08-09-2007, 5:18 PM
Thanks, Bob. I finished the batch today but I'll try your recipe with the next batch. I do put a few more thing in the sauce - parsley and olive oil, plus seasoning to taste.

To make my meatballs, I put the ground meat in a food processor and add Italian bread crumbs, a couple of eggs, finely chopped onions, a little bit of milk, and parmesan cheese. I like to process it a lot so that the meatballs are smooth - that is, so that the meat is not lumpy like ground meat often is.

Then fry them in a small amount of olive oil and add them to the sauce, along with the olive oil left in the pan (it has flavor from frying the meatballs). Although not traditional, I then put a few of the meatballs back through the food processor (after they're cooked) and add that to the sauce. I like a little bit of meat in the sauce, in addition to the meatballs.

My biggest problem is getting rid of the seeds when I process the tomatoes in the first place. I can never get them all so I just look at the seeds in the sauce as proof that it's home made - kind of the same thing we say about the woodworking mistakes in our furniture!

Mike

Brent Dowell
08-09-2007, 5:41 PM
This is a cruel, cruel thread.... :mad:

We moved this year and for the first time in 10 years, I did not get a garden planted.

So, that, means <snif> no home grown tomatoes for me....

The wifes and my favorite way to eat them was BLT lettuce wraps.

Just peel a nice big leaf of good ol merican iceberg lettuce, put in a little mayo, a strip of bacon, two big slabs of tomatoes and a little salt and pepper. Wrap the lettus around it like a burrito and enjoy without that pesky bread getting in the way of the blt flavor.....

Bob Childress
08-09-2007, 5:46 PM
Just peel a nice big leaf of good ol merican iceberg lettuce, put in a little mayo, a strip of bacon, two big slabs of tomatoes and a little salt and pepper. Wrap the lettus around it like a burrito and enjoy without that pesky bread getting in the way of the blt flavor.....

Yum! Eat your heart out. :D :rolleyes: :D

Joe Unni
08-09-2007, 6:36 PM
...Anybody have a spaghetti sauce recipe that they'd like to share?
Mike

Ok Mike...

This will work with canned "crushed" Italian style tomatoes or already blanched and peeled tomatoes...Roma if that's what your growing ;)

In the bottom of your dutch oven ad a bit of olive oil and fry up a couple/few cheap center cut, salt and peppered, bone in pork chops. When there good and brown take them out. If there is enough fat - fine - if not ad a bit more oil and start your chopped onion(s). Sweat for a while and add a bunch of chopped garlic. My father (2nd generation Sicilian) always said, "don't burn the garlic!" So don't burn it. When cooked a bit add a small can of tomato paste and cook it with the garlic and onion. It's gonna look pretty funky, but it works. When the bottom of your pan looks kind of nasty add your tomatoes. For the non-canned, pick them up in hand fulls and crush them through your fingers - seeds and all!!! I use about 4 cans (15oz) to the one can of paste - so judge the fresh. As the liquid hits the pan it you'll be able to deglaze (i.e. scrape the brown bits with your wooden spoon). All that flavor is now in your sauce.

Now, add your chops back to the sauce and flavor as desired. I usually put a couple of tablespoons salt, a few grindings of fresh black pepper (some like red pepper flakes), about a teaspoon of dry oregano, about 2 1/2 to 3 tablespoons dry basil (adjust for fresh accordingly) and about 2 tablespoons white sugar :eek: ! Yup - it cuts the acid from the tomatoes. Most importantly, add a few (to more) tablespoons of grated pecorino romano cheese. Partially cover and simmer for a couple of hours. You may need to add more liquid as things evaporate. Your choice, water, stock...I like to add cheap Italian jug wine (:rolleyes: it's what I grew up with).

Serve over your favorite pasta. Growing up we called it macaroni, but I think that's a Boston area thing.

Enjoy!!

-joe

Belinda Barfield
08-09-2007, 7:08 PM
Mike,

I pretty much follow your recipe for meatballs except that I use equal parts lean ground beef, lean ground pork, and ground veal. Then I bake, not pan brown. Have a sauce recipe I'd like to share, but it's packed up somewhere. When I find it I will e-mail you.

BTW, where were all you guys who cook when I was looking for the perfect man?;)

Joe Mioux
08-09-2007, 8:03 PM
Mike,

I pretty much follow your recipe for meatballs except that I use equal parts lean ground beef, lean ground port, and ground veal. Then I bake, not pan brown. Have a sauce recipe I'd like to share, but it's packed up somewhere. When I find it I will e-mail you.

BTW, where were all you guys who cook when I was looking for the perfect man?;)

Belinda

Port?, ;)

I think that would make an interesting sauce!

Cliff, what variety did you use for the upside-down tomato?

Also, we have been having a great year for tomatoes.

LOML, makes lots of Salsa, which also can be used for Spaghetti sauce

onions, garlic, tomatoes, green peppers, olive oil some balsamic vinegar (sometimes) etc.

She never measures or write anything down, so these recipes usually yield wildly different flavors.

Joe

Mike Henderson
08-09-2007, 10:47 PM
Joe - Thanks for the recipe. I never thought about using pork chops but I'll try it for a change. Also, good idea about the sugar to cut the acid. I'll try to follow your recipe when I make it.

Belinda - I think many men, especially those who were single for a while, learn to cook a few dishes so we could feed ourselves and impress our girlfriends. My range is pretty limited although being from New Orleans I do make a good jambalalya, Red Beans and rice (but everyone from NO makes red beans - it's part of the residency test), and a few other Cajun dishes.

Mike

Joe Mioux
08-09-2007, 10:59 PM
Joe - Thanks for the recipe. I never thought about using pork chops but I'll try it for a change. Also, good idea about the sugar to cut the acid. I'll try to follow your recipe when I make it.



OH yea, a bit of Haberno flakes for some zip. But just a bit!

TYLER WOOD
08-10-2007, 9:03 AM
Well I guess I'm just a freak. I very rarely get fresh tomatoes even if they are some of my favorite things. I just don't have time to plans and take care of them.

Belinda-Not sure when or where you were looking but my wife found me in Weatheford Texas. ALthough she did not know at the time I knew how to cook, and cook very well according to other people, not just me. I cook more of gormet style and grill though. My wife loves the food, but hates the mess I leave. So it's a toss up relative to what you want, good cook or clean kitchen. Now there would be the perfect man, cooks and cleans!! (I think they are like unicorns and mermaids, they don't exist just a figment of someones immagination!!)

Cliff Rohrabacher
08-10-2007, 10:06 AM
No picture? We can't acknowledge gloats without pictures.:D

Wasn't a gloat. Honest injun~!!


I don't have a digital camera. Instant pix are not part of my universe. Now, if you'd care to buy me one ~~~~~~~

Cliff Rohrabacher
08-10-2007, 10:13 AM
Cliff,
Did you use the as seen on TV pots designed to grow tomatoes upside down? I have been curious about them and have thought about trying them. I love tomatoes.
As Steven wrote, "No picture, no gloat"


Nooooooooooooo~!!

I used old Drywall compound buckets and painted 'em green to look purdy. I hung 'em from a rig I made that is composed of Two, 8' long pieces of 4/4 decking separated with chunks of 2*4 , screwed together and attached to the railing of my deck with two opposing L shaped assemblies made from 2*4 stock.

The buckets are hanging by the wire bail from 2*4 pieces screwed in between the decking boards. I drilled holes in 'em. 3 holes each bucket ( about 2" diameter).

Shoved the baby plants through the holes packed a scosch of moss around the stems to keep the dirt from falling out and filled 'em with soil.

In one bucket I put in rather mature plants in. They wouldn't fit through a 2" hole, so I cut out most of the bottom and made up a plywood circle that fit inside drilled some holes and sawed the plywood through the holes so I could assemble it in the bucket ( around the stems) after positioning the plant.

It's really very easy. The toughest part was deciding how I was going to hang 'em. The default was the rig I described.


Next year I will have made an extension for my watering wand from copper pipe that may also include a way to inject fertilizer in the stream so I don't have to use a step latter to water 'em.

David G Baker
08-10-2007, 11:38 PM
Thanks Cliff,
I have copied your information and will plant some tomatoes your way next year.

Curt Fuller
08-11-2007, 10:04 AM
Homegrown Tomatoes

Ain't nothin' in the world that I like better
Than bacon & lettuce & homegrown tomatoes
Up in the mornin' out in the garden
Get you a ripe one don't get a hard one
Plant `em in the spring eat `em in the summer
All winter with out `em's a culinary bummer
I forget all about the sweatin' & diggin'
Everytime I go out & pick me a big one


Homegrown tomatoes homegrown tomatoes
What'd life be without homegrown tomatoes
Only two things that money can't buy
That's true love & homegrown tomatoes


You can go out to eat & that's for sure
But it's nothin' a homegrown tomato won't cure
Put `em in a salad, put `em in a stew
You can make your very own tomato juice
Eat `em with egss, eat `em with gravy
Eat `em with beans, pinto or navy
Put `em on the side put `em in the middle
Put a homegrown tomato on a hotcake griddle


If I's to change this life I lead
I'd be Johnny Tomato Seed
`Cause I know what this country needs
Homegrown tomatoes in every yard you see
When I die don't bury me
In a box in a cemetary
Out in the garden would be much better
I could be pushin' up homegrown tomatoes

Guy Clark