Tag Archives: Tomatoes

Spaghetti Sauce Right Off The Vine

Here in Kansas, it is apparently tomato season. Let me be more specific. It is apparently freakishly high-yield tomato season. We’ve had about a month of arid, relatively hot weather, with almost no rain or precipitation of any kind. Everything was really dry. Those with gardens were having to fight with every hose they had to keep the things alive.

Fresh Tomatoes

Courtesy of The Corner of Awesome & Bombdiggity

That dry spell finally came to a close, and with a welcome deluge it rained for 3 days straight and since has rained on average one out of every three days. The result of this has been all the tomato plants that were fighting just to stay green have now starting producing tomatoes like they’re going out of style. It’s wonderful!! My friend’s garden, which only has three tomato plants, has produced enough tomatoes to feed 4 different families and me!

Here’s a little secret about tomatoes – well, it’s not really a secret, just something some of you might not be aware of. Tomatoes that you get in the store are not actually ripe. It’s true. Most of the tomatoes that you find in the grocery store are picked while they’re still green by illegal and often times enslaved immigrants and then shipped to their destinations. In route, the tomato container is saturated with a gas called ethylene, which causes the tomatoes to turn red. It doesn’t make them ripe, just red. That’s why most of the tomatoes you buy at the store taste like they’re not ripe. Because they’re not!

Garden-Fresh-SpaghettiAnyway, with home grown, delicious, ripe garden fresh tomatoes, recipe’s take on a whole new character and explode with flavor and color! With the tomatoes I received from Tomato Lady, I made up a batch of simple spaghetti sauce. Only 4 ingredients plus spices, but oh the flavor! Combine that with a plate of angel hair pasta, top with an avocado, and you’ve got a wonderful meal! If you’d like to try this for yourself, you can find the recipe in the recipes section of the blog.

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Holy Guacamole

Guac-IngredientsTonight, I tried my hand at a creation suggested by one of my good friends. She is walking along with me in this fruit and vegetable desert. We’re often exchanging ideas about how to break up what can become a monotonous stream of fiber. She’s very creative, so I’m always eager to hear what she’s coming up with. The other day she told me she had enjoyed black beans topped with guacamole. Anything, according to her, with guacamole on it is bound to be delicious.

I’m inclined to agree. So I borrowed her idea. However, I decided to add to it a bit to make this my own. What I ended up with is a simple yet delicious plate of seasoned black beans over a bed of brown rice, topped with a mango-lime guacamole.

The unlike most guacamoles I’ve tasted, the mango and lime work together to give it a sour and sweet quality that goes very will with salty things (such as tortilla chips). Unfortunately, tortilla chips are not part of the landscape of this veggie desert. This is where the beans and rice come in. Savory black beans with a sweet guacamole isn’t the same as guac and chips, but it’s still pretty damn delicious! I recommend it!

Black-Beans-and-Rice-with-Guac

If you’d like to try it, you can find the recipe in the recipes section of the blog.

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