Category Archives: Gardening

OVEN ROASTED TOMATOES

Oven roasted tomatoes are such a great add to so many dishes…pasta, salad, pasta salad, sandwiches, bruschetta, hummus, pizza, risotto, paella…I could go on and on.  I hadn’t made any myself for a long time until I bought Gwyneth Paltrow’s cookbook, My Father’s Daughter (I am also a big fan of her blog GOOP).

I forgot how much I loved oven roasted tomatoes until I was flipping through the pages and saw a picture of them in her book.  In the summer my garden always runneth over with tomatoes and I plan on roasting and freezing a ton of them to get me through the winter when grocery store tomatoes just don’t cut it for me; they are so bland and blah.  Once you have grown your own tomatoes and picked them at the height of freshness you will never enjoy a grocery store tomato again…you may still eat them, but you won’t “enjoy” them.  Roasting the vine ripened tomatoes brings an already amazing tomato into the stratosphere.

Again…another VERY simple recipe…

INGREDIENTS

Organic tomatoes (grape, cherry, beefsteak, heirloom, any variety)

Organic olive oil

Himalayan or Celtic Sea Salt

Pepper

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Preheat the oven to 275°

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Slice the tomatoes in half and place them in a bowl.

Lightly drizzle the tomatoes with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Toss gently to coat.

Place the tomatoes skin side down on the baking pan.

Bake for 3-6 hours (depending upon the size of the tomatoes).  When they take on the appearance similar to that of a sun dried tomato they are done.

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Filed under Books, Gardening, Gluten Free, Recipes, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian

WINTER GARDEN

Garden Goodies

Garden Goodies

It really feels good to sink your fingers into dirt and get messy.  Sometimes life gets busy and we can only do it one step at a time, but slowly and surely it gets done…

Last week before the rains came I spent some time taking all of the compost out of my composter and spread it on my bare garden.  A few days later I went to Home Depot and brought home a truckload of nice organically fertilized dirt to spread over my compost and with my husband’s help I was able to spread out all ten bags before another wave of rain came (we literally finished minutes before the onslaught). 

Primed & Ready

Primed & Ready

Today after Yoga I went to one of my favorite nurseries, Plant Depot, and stocked-up on winter greens for the garden.  I came home with two packets of seeds (kale and cucumber), sugar snap peas, bok choy, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts.  It only took me about 30 minutes to plan the layout and plant.

All Planted

All Planted

I put some finished compost into my composter as a starter and threw in the pulp from my green drink this morning.  I am all ready to watch the plants grow and keep feeding my composter with scraps which will be ready to prime my planters when the time comes to plant my Spring garden.

New Compost

New Compost

Happy planting!

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Filed under Gardening