The Tomatoes Keep Coming!

While I was taking these, I felt a "slap-slap" on my legs, looked down, and Cora was cheesing for the camera!

We are picking every other day now, sometimes every day. We've had several thunderstorms lately, which is helping and hurting. We've had a lot of split cherry tomatoes from all the rain, which seems like a lot of waste, but I guess you can't really get around it.

I thought today I would update you on our amount of produce brought in, and give you a few recipes I've made lately using the produce from our garden, and my mom's garden.

Our total thus far: 24 lbs. and 4 oz.! I can't believe it's so much! 

Here's what we've been eating:

Yogurt or cottage cheese with fresh berries (from our CSA box and my parent's garden)

lots of vegetables for dinner, usually sauteed

Dilly Beans

Salsa (Weldon threw this together, so I don't have a recipe. He canned 3 1/2 quarts!)

Sausage and Cherry Tomato Bake

Pork Tacos with Radish-Avocado Salsa

Recipe for Dilly Beans

Ingredients

• 2 pounds fresh green beans, rinsed and trimmed
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled
• 8 sprigs fresh dill weed
• 4 teaspoons salt
• 2 1/2 cups white vinegar
• 2 1/2 cups water

Directions

1. Cut green beans to fit inside pint canning jars.
2. Place green beans in a steamer over 1 inch of boiling water, and cover. Cook until tender but still firm, for 3 minutes. Plunge beans into ice water. Drain well.
3. Pack the beans into four hot, sterilized pint jars. Place 1 clove garlic and 2 sprigs dill weed in each jar, against the glass. Add 1 teaspoon of salt to each jar.
4. In a large saucepan over high heat, bring vinegar and water to a boil. Pour over beans.
5. Fit the jars with lids and rings and process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath.

Sausage and Cherry Tomato Bake

• 2 pkg. of ripe cherry tomatoes - mixed colours if you can find them
• 2 sprigs each of fresh or dried thyme, rosemary and bay
• 1 tablespoon of dried oregano
• 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
• 12 good-quality coarse Italian pork sausages
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Balsamic vinegar
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Get yourself an appropriately sized roasting tray, large enough to take the tomatoes in one snug-fitting layer. Put in all your tomatoes, the herb sprigs, oregano, garlic and sausages. Drizzle well with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Toss together, then make sure the sausages are on top and pop the tray into the oven for half an hour. After this time, give it a shake and turn the sausages over. Put back into the oven for 15 to 30 minutes, depending on how golden and sticky you like your sausages.

Pork Tacos with Avocado-Radish Salsa

Prep Time: 25 minutes
Yield: Makes 4 servings

Ingredients

• SALSA
• 1 (6-oz.) package radishes
• 1/2 small red onion, diced
• 1 avocado, diced
• 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• TACOS
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1 pound pork tenderloin, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 8 (6-inch) fajita-size corn or flour tortillas, warmed

Preparation

1. Prepare Salsa: Process radishes in a food processor until finely chopped. Stir together radishes, onion, and next 5 ingredients; cover and chill salsa until ready to serve.

2. Prepare Tacos: Stir together brown sugar and next 4 ingredients. Toss pork with brown sugar mixture. Heat grill pan over medium-high heat; cook pork, in 2 batches, 2 1/2 minutes on each side or until done. Serve pork in warm tortillas with salsa.