A Haven for Vee

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Tomato Glut

An entire week has flown by so soon? It never ceases to amaze me. Apparently, I am easily amazed. 

⛺️ ⛺️ ⛺️

Let's see, what did I have on the docket? Hmmm...seems as if it's zip. Wait, wait, I can do better than that. Let's start off with a cute picture of Auntie and Sam who, along with Jakob, enjoyed a camping trip with friends over the weekend.


~Sam and Laurel~

Gotta love the grins. I have no idea where Jake was when this picture was taken. Perhaps swimming. So that's the only photo of Labor Day things even though I was invited to a Labor Day meal at my son's with the family. He made Greek kabobs on the grill...yummy...Michelle made Rice Pilaf and a veggie platter with hummus for dip and Laurel made a traditional cole slaw. It was all delicious. After dinner, we walked down to the ice cream shop where four of us enjoyed Flurries (two Butterfinger and two Oreo),  one a vanilla milkshake, and one a chocolate mint cone. 

On Saturday, I was visiting the Farmer's Market when I saw a box of tomatoes for canning. With the drought, tomatoes are running $3.50 a pound or more. A good-sized tomato can be pretty expensive. Anyway, I was thrilled to see that the price on the tomatoes was $7 for a half-bushel. The mother lode! On my way home with all those tomatoes I realized that I was going to have to think of something quick.  (I do not can.) Sometimes I forget that I am only one. I tried dropping off some with my niece...not home. Fortunately, she would come later and take about half of them off my hands. I did blanch some for freezing in ziploc bags for sauces; the rest are lined up on my window sill like the stars of September that they are. 

~my favorite chorus line~

I have been eating a lot of this...


for these...

~open faced BLT~

Okay, my dear, I have exhausted conversation for today. Friday perhaps, I'll have some book conversation for you. I'm in the middle of a series and enjoying it very, very much.




38 comments:

  1. Good Morning, Vee. Such a joyful photo of Sam and Laurel. Your Labor Day menu sounds delicious. I look forward to your next post about your new series.
    BLT's are a favorite of mine and your tomatoes look so pretty. May God bless your day. xoxo

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  2. Good Morning, Vee...I just saw your email and don't worry about my blog---I will look at it over the weekend, a lot of folks including sweet Mildred is having problems...not that I am saying much at the moment anyways....

    Keeping you in prayer.

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  3. Oh Vee! You fell for the tomato con! I have a box of cherry tomatoes on my back porch that I diligently dip into on a daily basis ... salads, salsas, sauces, side dishes add-ins. It never ends ... perhaps I'll do a big pan of oven roasted and dried to store in olive oil and herbs ... I fear they'll still be coming on though! SB keeps picking them! Praying for rain here ... we've toted buckets to 'spot water' al summer. It's gotten old ... we need some good soaking rain from the heavens above.

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    1. Hi Susan, well it was easy to fall into since my tomato plants produced exactly five tomatoes. Yes, we need some rain, too.

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  4. If it makes you feel better, my three tomato plants have produced two tomatoes. I think I need to visit the farmer's market. Your sandwich looks so good.
    Glad you were able to enjoy some family time on Labor Day. Cute picture of Laurel and Sam.
    Your chorus line is looking very happy.

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  5. BLT's never taste so good as when they can be made with real, fresh tomatoes. I could live on them for a while! We are still waiting for our tomatoes to ripen. I was all set to harvest the first one and found some wretched animal had eaten half of it the day I went to pick it. It annoys me no end that only half was eaten. If the thief is going to help itself the least it could do would be to not waste half the tomato! We had a quiet Labor Day weekend. I did yard work and Earl worked on beginning re-roofing the shed. We were both fairly exhausted at the end but so happy to get those things done!

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  6. Your Labor Day sounds like lots of fun, and, oh, how lucky you were to find those tomatoes....I've been looking for this myself, without luck. My own four tomato plants produced about ten rather small tomatoes this year! I would make lecso (lecho) that Hungarian stew of tomatoes, peppers and onions. So delicious. Ripe tomatoes are the spirit of summer, or a good part of it!

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  7. Vee, I do love the beautiful tomato chorus line! Summer tomatoes are the only ones worth eating in my opinion. And your BLT is just the best! I love the sweet photo of your grand and your daughter. I do see a resemblance between the two of them. Your Labor Day festivities sound very nice. Enjoy those juicy tomatoes. ♥

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  8. Oh the divine BLT..nothing better! Enjoy!!!! Have a great week Vee!

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  9. Oh, BLTs...YUM! Laurel is so wonderful with the boys. I never had an aunt that was that sweet and thoughtful. Please tell the boys that I said they are very lucky. I'll just bet none of their friends have an aunt as special as she is.

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    1. They are doubly blessed as their dad has Laurel and their mom has a sister who is a wonderful auntie, too.

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  10. I think you fell into a good deal on the tomatoes! Lots you can do with them and for sharing!

    Love those smiles! Those boys are growing up, way too fast!

    My friends leave today, they are getting the trailer ready for the road right now. Its been a wonderful visit. We'll see them, Lord willing, this fall when we go to visit Tim's mom.

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  11. Cute, happy people photos. :-)) I'll have to fry up some bacon for BLTs. Wish you were here, for my tomatoes are abundant and I can't make enough chili to stay ahead of it. Also I'm not up to the lugging the canner and jars around, so I'm afraid I won't be making use of all the lovely tomatoes. So sad. I'd share, but everyone I know also has an abundance of tomatoes. We haven't had a lack of rain. In fact, this week we're getting storms and rain every day. So nice to hear from you. I don't know how much blogging I'll be doing, but hope to get back from time to time. xo

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  12. Oh yum...now you've gotten me totally hungry for a good BLT. And summer tomatoes is the only way to go on those. Such a cute pic of Sam and Laurel. I will be anxiously waiting to hear what you are reading...I soo need a new good series.

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  13. Oh for the love of fresh tomatoes from a nearby garden and not Mexico! That BLT is making my mouth water and that's not a lie, as I swallow more than once in writing this comment. Very happy photo of Sam and Laurel. I love happy photos. Have a good day dear Vee!

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  14. Fresh tomatoes are the best! I'll look forward to hearing what you're reading because I am ready for something new.

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  15. Tomatoes is one thing there's no shortage of here in Indiana. The next town does canning and shipping of Red Gold and we see truck after truck load of them going east. Some times we see them on the road where some roll off the truck.LOL. Hope you use yours up. Blessings, xoxo, Susie

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  16. I didn't harvest a single tomato this year, so you are very lucky with your find.

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  17. ummm....my favorite kind of sandwich on the planet...can't wait to get some ripe tomatoes so I can make us one.
    I don't can either so if it can't be frozen, I can't buy it...didn't know you could freeze tomatoes...but I don't like tomato sauce very much so I just buy a small jar at the store.
    Now, could you tell me if that is a shoe on the right end of your header ?
    I've looked and looked at it and decided that's what it is....

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    1. Yup, a pair of old black leather shoes/boots that require a button hook to fasten. Found them in my grandmother's attic years ago and she gave them to me. They don't show up so well I see.

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  18. oops...meant to add those kids are sooo cute and that's an amazing photo of them...and of the sandwich, too...now you are making me step up my pace on photos...and I just have a cheap little point and shoot...don't you dare set the bar so high, I have to take pics of something other than what goes into our mouths...

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  19. Oh I do love me a BLT! YES, YES, YES. But reading about that ice cream has got me hankering for some of that too! Dang...I just love to eat Vee. Love the picture too! Hugs and blessings, Cindy

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  20. Oh my does that look good! It's been awhile since I had that! And your photos of the smiles! Happy times.

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  21. We eat a lot of them this time of year too but from our garden this year. All of our tomatoes have turn black on the bottom.
    Glad you enjoyed your day. : )
    Prayers and thoughts are still coming your way.


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  22. Oh yum! BLTs with fresh tomatoes are the BEST! There's a glut of tomatoes here, too. I'm roasted them and freezing them for later. Love the smiles on those camping folks!

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  23. You are such a good girl to have your BLT open face Vee. I rather like the top piece of bread to hold it all together.
    Your Sam has the same impish grin as ours does. :-)

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  24. Send some of those babies over here! My first year not planting tomatoes...they don't work here. Ha!

    Love these sweet little faces, Vee! ;-D

    Jane

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  25. Your BLT looks fantastic! Lovely tomatoes! xx

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  26. What a nice camping photo! Aunts are the best and it looks as if Sam knows that.

    I can almost smell that bacon from here!

    I remembered a recipe I'd seen for an uncooked sauce made with fresh tomatoes. It's from an older issue of Cook & Tell, supposed to be good over freshly cooked pasta. You'd need to cut the recipe down, but that's easily done if you are interested.

    Fresh Tomato Sauce
    1 lb. very ripe tomatoes, cut up
    1 clove garlic (it doesn't say whether this should be minced, pressed, or what)
    10 fresh basil leaves, snipped (oh -- and you have basil, too, don't you!)
    1/8 tsp. oregano
    1/2 Tblsp. snipped parsley
    2 1/2 Tblsp. good olive oil
    1 Tblsp. balsamic vinegar

    Stir it all together in a bowl and let stand at room temp for an hour or so. Serve as is, over hot drained pasta, with freshly grated parmesan cheese on top.

    4 servings.

    If I am given more tomatoes (my daughter's have done well), I think I will try this.

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  27. So I had to look up the weight of a bushel of tomatoes to see exactly what you came home with. 1/2 bushel should be 24 pounds...your niece took half...so that leaves you with 12 pounds. You won't have any trouble finishing up the ones you haven't frozen, I'm sure. Those fresh, juicy tomatoes are the best! I'm eating the cherry tomatoes by the handful from the garden these days. PS I love those grins too!

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  28. Mmmm...BLT's! I haven't had one lately but I sure do love 'em! My son, Aaron gave me a big bag of green tomatoes a couple of days ago so I could make us up a mess of fried green one...so I did! They sure were yummy and it was the last of the crop as he cleaned out his garden doe the summer. I only have one regret (well, I have more than one but...) that I never learned to like my veggies as a young person. It sounds like you had a nice Labor Day gathering...ending with ice cream, well, it just doesn't get any better than that!

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  29. Nothing better than a good ol tomato samich. Its been hard finding good tomatoes this year. Even the hot house tomatoes are under par.
    Lisa

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  30. It's been a good tomato growing season here too. I have a potted cherry tomato on the deck and it is producing abundantly. They are so tasty to pick off and pop in the mouth! I probably will have to cover them some night soon. It was down to 6 last night (about 40F) and is a chilly morning today with blue skies and sunshine. I'm way behind in visiting as sister is still here. Have a lovely day Vee. Hugs.

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  31. What a fun weekend... it is so hard to stop and get pictures sometimes when the fun is happening! And the good deal on tomatoes is quite splendid! I love BLTs as well, so yummy! Have a blessed day my friend :)

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  32. Hi Vee,

    What a great picture of Sam and Laurel!! I always enjoy seeing what you have on your windowsill -- part of what makes your house so homey. :) You did get a good deal on those tomatoes; it's good that you could freeze some. I don't can either -- never have. Neither does my mom. The bacon and tomato are making my mouth water; we love BLT's here at Forest Manor.

    I hope you're well, Vee; I've been absent for a little bit. I just can't seem to get my thoughts together lately. Happy first day of Fall and warm hugs to you...

    Denise at Forest Manor

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