Busy Weekend: Beans and Tomato Sauce in the Freezer

Worked yesterday freezing 10 pounds of tomatoes and today I blanched and froze green beans.

My Job as an Orchid Sitter

My friend asked me to watch her orchids while she is away on vacation.  The one on the dining room table is awesome.  I placed the other two in a bathroom which gets just the right light.

My Funny Little Tomato

Early in the planting season, I clipped a sucker from one of my tomato plants and stuck it in a vase of water.  I was hoping for some rooting action and to eventually plant the tomato in the garden.  Things moved too slowly and I never got the rooted tomato in the ground.

As the plant sat on the kitchen counter rooting, the sucker blossomed.  Now the little plant has grown tiny tomatoes and one has ripened!  Cute.

Tomato Sauce Redux

Between the Italian Heirloom, Champion, San Francisco Fog tomato plants, I had 56 ounces of tomatoes from Tuesday and Wednesday's harvest.  Time to make my favorite tomato sauce.

The two large tomatoes (Mr. Stripey and Beefmaster) were excluded from the sauce for use on sandwiches.

(Recipe from Simply Classic--The Junion League of Seattle)

Clean up day

Basket of tired, yellow leaves from the garden.

After a few months of intense growing and producing, the plants in the garden started looking a little worse for wear.  I went out with my trusty garden shears and cleaned things up.

Wall of Beans and a Friend

cotton square borer

The soft breeze rustled the leaves  on the bean vines today as I worked in the garden.   

A small insignificant critter was found munching small and large holes in the beans growing on the vines.  Critter....go home.

A Day in the Kitchen

Zucchini Carrot Maple Bread

Once I started freezing green beans yesterday, I decided to tackle several cooking tasks while I had my apron on.  I made two salads (cucumber and cole slaw), chicken stock, and decided to use my zucchinis to make a loaf of zucchini bread.  The bread uses brown sugar and maple syrup which gives a very special flavor to the finished product.  Lurking in the delicious treat...carrots and zucchini.  See, I can get veggies in everything during the summer.

From the Garden to the Freezer--Beans

Cutting Beans into two-inch sections for blanching.

After blanching (scalding) the beans for three minutes, a three minute ice bath and into the bags for freezing.

And for dinner tonight.

I gave beans away to everyone and decided it was time to freeze a few bags for after season use.  I blanched the beans, immersed them in an ice bath to stop the cooking, drained and blotted them dry and placed them into freezer bags. 

I decided to make a small mess of beans for dinner tonight. 

It's Hot....How do you stay cool?

It's Hot!

It's so hot in many parts of the nation.  Here's a look at a blog which features way to stay cool when it's hot.