Summer's Finest

Many months ago, in the early days of Spring, Dan & I took a hot date to Costco and bought a three pack of already happily-blooming tomato plants, which included three different varieties. We were so excited! Time for tomato planting & harvesting, sweet family of mine! We eat a plethora of tomatoes around here- almost every night in our salads, always on burgers (remember these sliders? Still a family favorite), and often just drizzled with olive oil & kosher salt on top. In fact, I've been known to spend half of my weekly Farmer's Market budget on gorgeous (and the not so gorgeous, but cheaper and still just as tasty) heirloom tomato varieties, so the thought of going out to our own backyard to pick them was a concept too exciting for words (that is, for Mom; not so much for everyone else).

But I was nervous. I've been known to kill almost every plant we've tried to grow around here. I don't know what I'm doing wrong- I water, I whisper to them, I wait, and I give them space. Inevitably, they die because apparently finding the balance between too much water and not quite enough is impossible when you're me. My basil plant is in a complete state of rebellion- constantly trying to reflower itself and will only give me basil leaves the size of my thumb nail. How am I supposed to make pesto with thumb nail sized basil leaves? It's a disgrace to my Italian ancestors. Maybe basil rearing skills skip a generation. This is my defense.

Anyway, we were left with no choice but to forge ahead! Mom's non-green thumb was not going to keep us from trying. Even the kids got involved in the watering process. No amount of stubborn green tomatoes could kill our hopeful little spirits!

Watering tomatoes is really so much more fun in a swimsuit. Here, Ella is proving that point.

Ben takes his tomato watering quite seriously. So sometimes I "accidentally" spray him with the hose to get him squeling with sheer deight.

In defense of the green tomatoes, we had an unusually cold, gray summer here in Santa Cruz. Apparantly this does not mesh well with tomato growing. Plants really do need sunshine- who knew? And then suddenly, one day, the tomatoes all got together and decided to turn red. The most beautiful deep tomato red you've ever seen! Even though the army of snails had their way with my plants over the course of the summer, we must have done something right. Because we have more tomatoes than I know what to do with. So for now, I line them up on our kitchen windowsill and show them off like they're my personal trophy collection. Who's suddenly in the mood for a Caprese salad?



Tis The Season (For Soup)

It's borderline FREEZING around here (my toes are on the verge of hypothermia, I'm just sure of it...), and of course we're on the "economically-friendly" heating plan in this house. Which means we walk around bundled in multiple layers, sporting big bulky socks and sweaters, and practically watch our breath puff out with every word we utter. Then we wait for the house to drop to 60 degrees, at which point the heater kicks in and begins defrosting little fingers and toes. So, it's not surprising that lately all I can think about is soup. And if my family would let me, I'd make a wide variety of soups all week long. But they keep insisting I focus on other foods, like breakfast and lunch, too. Luckily for me, we've got some big rain storms approaching in our forecast, so it seems appropriate to be in this soup phase. And I feel like I'm doing my family a huge favor by serving them up big steaming bowls of soup.

I thought I'd share one of my favorite and easiest go-to soup recipes-- it's incredibly delicious and easy on the pocket book, too (which is why I named it what I did)! Usually I'm not a huge fan of using canned foods because I love, prefer & encourage using fresh ingredients, but this soup is perfect for a long busy day because it can be ready as quickly as 10 minutes. And since it's paired with fresh garlic and fresh basil, you would never guess it wasn't all prepared from scratch. (Wow, that sounded dangerously close to something that goon from the Food Network, Sandra Lee, would say....)

*Fun variations: try throwing in some Italian sausage in there, or mini raviolis or tortellini. Or some sort of whole grain, such as barley. I also like to add sliced zucchini or green beans. Bottom line: use this recipe as your base, and then throw in whatever the heck sounds good to you. 

"Poor Woman Soup"

Ingredients:
1 can whole plum tomatoes (with basil, if possible- T.J.'s sells it)
1 can diced tomatoes
2 cans Cannellini beans (white Italian kidney beans)
1 large onion, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup fresh basil, chopped
1 cup parmesan
3 T. olive oil
1 carton low-sodium chicken or vegetable stock (about 4 cups)
1 loaf stale bread, cubed
Salt & pepper, to taste

Directions:
In a large pot, add olive oil and saute garlic and onions. Add both cans of tomatoes and stir to combine. Add chicken (or vegetable) stock. When soup comes to a slow simmer, add cubed bread and cannellini beans and half of the chopped basil. Season to taste with salt & pepper. When serving soup, top with other half of the chopped basil, parmesan cheese and shot of olive oil on top.

Happy Soup!