Photo Credit: Grape Tomatoes by Adam used under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

By Steve Shetter

With our children growing up in the scouting family, we have spent many a nights in the woods.

Hence, our favorite little place to go is the Cub Scout camp in our little town.

After our son had put in his 16 years of scouting as a youth, the time had come to give him the Eagle Ceremony that he had earned.

In short, our sons’ first year as a scout, the ranger had been killed while on camp. The council had not had a chance to put a new ranger in since the tragedy so no one was allowed to camp.

We (the ranger and I and a few others) know that (call him Andy), Andy still patrols and keeps an eye on things. My wife and I had planned on our sons’ ceremony at the camp while we relied on our son to come up with what he wanted to dine on.

As expected, Read the rest of this entry »

Photo Credit: Tomatoes by Ruthie Hanson used under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

To aid one in making and/or using their sun-dried tomatoes, I have come up with a simple recipe.

While this bread does take some time, it is well worth it.

Add your own twist to this basic recipe by adding different greens and cheeses along with herbs.

Greens, Cheese, and Sun-dried Tomato Rolls

Ingredients

1 cup of steamed greens (spinach, fennel, mustard)
1 cup of chopped sun-dried tomatoes
3 egg whites
3 cups lukewarm water Read the rest of this entry »

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

Every tomato gardener loves the first days of summer when the weather is warm, soil is moist and the planting conditions are perfect.

I, myself, have to wait until the second week in May before I can get my warm season crops in the ground.

But this year’s unusually warm weather has caused many gardeners to consider breaking with that tradition.

But take heed from a long time gardener, while March may have come in like a lion there is still a lot of weather to get through so do not be fooled or be a fool.

I learned this lesson long ago when I was a beginning gardener and thought I knew everything. I mean, I was in agriculture class in high school and came from a long lineage of farmers, what could go wrong.

Well, that year, everything went wrong. It snowed on Derby Day, which was Read the rest of this entry »

By David Harbilas

Pureed vegetable soups are some of my favorite soups to make and eat.

They’re also very easy to make, which makes me wonder why they aren’t seen more at restaurants.

I think a lot of people are afraid of ending up with a very thin, flavorless puree, rather than one that is silky, quite thick and full-flavored.

The secret is really not much of a secret: don’t use too much liquid.

Essentially, it’s better to use too little liquid rather than too much, since you can always add liquid in the pureeing stage of the recipe. And as far as flavor goes, just use a well made stock as a base for the soup. It’s hard to make a bad soup from a good stock.

Makes about ½ gallon

3 cans chickpeas
6 plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise
1 onion, sliced Read the rest of this entry »

By David Harbilas

This is essentially a spruced-up hummus, made with an addition of tomatoes and feta.

But it also resembles a Greek spread called htipiti, which is traditionally made with roasted red peppers and feta.

So it’s sort of a mixture of two different approaches, and its use can be applied to sandwiches, raw vegetables as a dip, spread on pizza dough as a base for pizza, or any other number of dishes.

Makes about 4 cups

1 can chickpeas
2 plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise
Juice of ½ lemon Read the rest of this entry »

By David Harbilas

This is an excellent winter vegetable sandwich.

Roasting out of season tomatoes concentrates the sweetness of those less than ripe fruit, making good use of what might otherwise be bland, even tart tomatoes.

Portobellos are a great substitute for meat–and this sandwich can in fact be made with grilled steak or even hamburger.

While this sandwich is a little labor intensive in the preparation it is well worth the effort, and the ingredients can be made in bulk amounts for future use, maybe in variations with beef, chicken, or pork.

Serves 2

2 plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise
2 portobello mushrooms
1 small handful of arugula Read the rest of this entry »