Eleven Jars of Tomatoes and One Delicious Dinner

It’s prime tomato season now and that means we need to save the flavor of the season. Andy purchased so many tomatoes last year from one farmer at the Murfreesboro Farmers Market that he remembered Andy. This year Andy got a good deal on tomatoes and was even able to gather some “ugly” ones for free. Since he planned on making sauce the beauty of the tomatoes didn’t matter. They may not have been pretty but the scent of the tomatoes was heavenly, like the smell of summer sunshine captured for one sweet, brief moment.

Summer used to be one of my favorite holidays. Minnesota had such fleeting good weather that you had to be out in it all the time to try and soak it all in before it disappeared. My most favorite thing about summer was (and is) the tomatoes. My parents had a vegetable garden where they grew green beans, peppers, chives, pumpkins and most importantly- tomatoes. I’d like to say that I helped with the vegetable garden; but honestly I mostly supervised via the hammock down the hill. There was only one thing that concerned me in the vegetable garden: tomatoes. The point in summer when red globes of tomatoes adorned the tall vining plants was like Christmas in July. I relished the hunt, peering through the branches for that special red ball at just the right time. At some point during summer days you could find me sitting somewhere with a salt shaker in one hand, a tomato in the other and juice running down my face.

Now summers are a bit less dreamy, mostly due to this oppressive southern heat and the lack of summer vacation. To preserve this tomato harvest for the non-summer times Andy took the sauce making duties upon himself. My role was to help fill jars and then make dinner. The process for making tomato sauce is fairly straightforward. You first chop up the tomatoes and cut out the stem end. Andy cooked them for a little bit to soften them up for the food mill. The food mill is a great investment for making tomato sauce (and applesauce too!), it takes the skins and the stem bits and (as Andy says) “poops” them out one end and keeps the juicy pulpy goodness pure. Then the tomato juice is put back into the stock pot to boil for a good long while to reduce and concentrate the flavors.

This looks like a bit of a process but it's not that complicated. The slightly cooked tomatoes are in the big stock pot. They're ladled into the top of the food mill attached to the mixer. The mill "juices" the tomatoes and squirts all the seeds and skins out front. The pulp and juice comes out the middle where you can see the bowl catching it.

Once you feel good about where your sauce it at (and you’ve prepared your jars) it’s time to fill jars and process. Prior to filling, add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to each jar. Then leave ½ inch head space, add your lid and screw band to finger tip tight and then process for 30 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes in the water and then pull the jars out and wait for the delightful “pop!” sound of the seals being formed.

In our canner there was only enough room for 10 jars of sauce at a time, so we made one extra jar to use within the week and I cooked dinner with the sauce leftover from that. It smelled so good and was probably one of the freshest sauces I’ve ever had. I love making pasta sauce because you can readily improvise and use what you have on hand. There’s something satisfying with using up ingredients in the fridge.

Calzones!

I don't have a "finished" calzone picture because I was hungry. Please admire my raw calzone.

Recently Andy discovered an early British show with Jamie Oliver on Netflix, Oliver’s Twist. We both love Jamie Oliver and support his food revolution. We also have one of his cookbooks but have yet to see one of his TV shows, so we were intrigued. In two of the shows we watched Jamie made calzones (pronounce the word “calzo-neighs” and you’ll be in the British spirit of the program), both a sweet and a savory.

Watching this got us hankering for calzones, especially since we’ve never made them before and so it became a bit of a challenge. After making the calzones a couple nights later we realized that they’re just pizzas folded over and cooked a bit longer. There’s really nothing to calzone making. For all those calzone novices and pizza experts, you are just 3 simple steps away from making a delicious dinner (or lunch).

Andy's ingredients. Our small plates were a bit too big for one calzone.

Making pizza dough is super easy, even more so if you have a stand mixer to knead the dough for you (or an overactive child who likes to mush things). Andy usually makes the dough and he uses a recipe from Cooking for Dads, which is a website I highly recommend; though I’m sure Jamie Oliver has a recipe too that you could use, since we’re making these calzones at his urging. You could get a pre-made dough if you don’t have time to do your own. Once you get your dough made, roll it out all at once and use a small plate (these are individual sized, unless you only have large plates) to cut out circles for the calzones. For pizzas I usually make them free form, but it’s good to have a symmetrical shape for calzones so that everything seals up evenly.

Load up your calzone like a pizza. Don’t worry about putting all the ingredients on one side, the dough should easily stretch over. We used tomato sauce, sauteed onions and peppers, olives, goat cheese and Parmesan. This is a good meal to use up leftovers, don’t be afraid to try new combinations and use up the odds and ends in your refrigerator. Alfredo sauce or pesto would be good sauce options. The typical pizza toppings such as sausage, pepperoni, you could try chicken or ground beef (maybe cheeseburger calzone?). Different cheeses would give your calzone unique tastes and are always fun to try. You could even take a cue from Mesa pizza and make mac and cheese calzones, but maybe it’s best to take things slowly. To seal up the calzone pull up one side and fold it over the other. To make sure it's really shut it helps to kind of roll up the edge, plus it looks pretty. Slash the top a few times with a knife to let steam out. And the calzone is ready to go into the oven at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes (or until you think it looks done).

My calzone, it looks a little pathetic after seeing Andy's, but it was scrumptious!

Extra calzones do fairly well refrigerated (after baking) and eaten the next day for lunch. Just make sure your lunch bag is big enough to handle it. If you want to show off for a crowd these are pretty simple meals to create for people in advance. Or you could have a DIY calzone party, which is always awesome. If you want to get really crazy, you can do like my friend Matt and make a Stromboli. Whatever you choose to do calzones are really easy and make a satisfying “gourmet” meal!

Playing in the (Indoor) Dirt

As it’s currently snowing in Nashville (and creating the expected chaos) it seems a little early to be planting a garden. And it is. We should probably wait a week or two before sowing more seeds indoors. However, the hubby starts to get cabin fever this time of year and planning the garden gets his mind off the cloudy days and bursts of snow. Plus we have much-needed greenery to cheer the both of us up.

New thyme sprouts! They start so little...

Last year for Christmas Andy gave me a grow light and seed starting kits to grow a little herb garden. We started with Basil, Cilantro, Thyme and Parsley. They grew so well that we realized that we could start a lot of our garden inside and move the seedlings outside when they are ready. Since we didn’t need more herbs, we couldn’t resist starting a tomato. This year Andy and I were careful to select tomato plants that would do well in this climate. Last year’s single tomato disappointment shall not be repeated.

Of the two varieties of tomato seeds we have, we have started a pink variety called Oaxacan Pink. The other tomato seed we have is another pink variety, Arkansas Traveler. I hope to use these tomatoes for fresh eating as well as canning, for tomato sauce and salsa. Day dreaming of the future garden makes the time until we move into our new place tolerable (2 days!).

In addition to the aforementioned herbs and tomatoes, we already have a number of seeds to start. Awaiting propagation are Spinach, French Breakfast Radishes, Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce and Catnip (for the cats and experimental herbal tea). Additionally, we’d like to do carrots, beans (bush and/or pole), onions, potatoes (red and/or sweet), cucumbers and bell peppers. I’m also planting some Cleome Spider Flowers, these are for me specifically as Andy disdains “purposeless” flowers. But flowers bring bees, butterflies and smiles, so I think they’re purposeful enough.

Hello World!

To keep organized and on track for planting, I purchased a kitchen garden planner. This way we can remember which varieties worked well and which would good to not try again. We can write tips and ways to improve the garden for the next year. It’s been good so far to give ideas of what to plant and tips on ways to care for the garden. Part of the purpose of the planner is to help figure out how to rotate crops so that we can continually harvest. Andy has been reading up on square foot gardening and that’s the strategy we’ll start with this year. Thus far the plan is for 36 square feet of gardening space. Which seems like a lot, and makes the garden both exciting and slightly terrifying.

Deliciousness in waiting.

Our goal is to go to the grocery store as little as possible. We can depend on the farmer’s market for meat, cheese and extra veggies. Then stock up on long-lasting staples such as flour and sugar at the Turnip Truck. I’m most happy when I can make meals of food we grow ourselves. Never mind local. There’s nothing like completely ignoring the 5 second rule as you pull a carrot out of the ground for tonight’s dinner.