***Tuesday's Tip*** DRIED green TOMATOES!

Ah yes, remember the days of Tuesday's Tips!?  I know I am a day late by a couple of months.... well better late than never....

It is an amazing tomato year for me.  It is hard to know what to do with them all!  I have been canning and dehydrating like crazy, as well as sharing.  I have canned sauce, soup, red & green salsa.  I haven't made a count yet.  That will come at the end of the season...whenever that may be!  In the meantime I want to share with you and amazing new way to dry tomatoes... Dried Green Tomatoes with Sriracha Sauce.  It is simple and easy...which is a blessing this time of year and ever so delicious!  Almost fried green tomato-ish.  DH really loves them!

Simple Steps---> wash your green or greenish tomatoes.  The semi pink ones work here too, no need to be fussy.  I slice mine about 1/4 to 3/8 inch thick.  Then I add a couple drops of diluted Sriracha Hot Sauce.  I dilute it 50% water to 50% sauce.  It goes on a bit nicer and is plenty hot plus, stretches your sauce when you are doing a ton like me.  I only add a few drops to the middle so there is still a green tomato flavor.  If you spread the sauce over the whole tomato slice the sauce will overwhelms any tomato taste.  I use the Excalibur Dehydrator at 140 degrees for about 14 hours.  Bag them up or start eating them!

~Recipe~

Green tomatoes sliced to about 1/4 inch

Diluted Sriracha Sauce 50/50 with water

(of try your own favorite hot sauce)

Dry at 140 for 14 hours

That is it!  I would love to hear what you think about this recipe.

Cucumbers are great this way too...even the boyo liked them!

☼ Forest & Field Happenings ☼ ~ the first

Starting to really reap the fruits of my labors.  Also, feeling like I might be able to have just a wee bit of a breather (at least until harvest is in full swing). I hope to blog more regularly now and even might clean the house!  Yesterday was all about the beetles but today I celebrated the general good health & beauty of my gardens.  I forgot my camera today.  I weeded, wandered and wondered.  It was so pleasant.  But, I have to confess to a bit of selfishness.  While my guys were at the movies I ate the first ripe tomato all by my Self!  It was one of my favorite varieties, the Heirloom Black Krim.  They are ready when they are still a bit green, you have to give them a gentle squeeze to check for ripeness.  I made a nice dipping oil with Olive Oil, Garlic Scape Pesto, a pinch of Pepper Flakes, Oregano, & Rosemary.  Add a few slices of bread and I had the perfect quiet meal.  Soon, I hope, I will be drowning in tomatoes but, the first is the sweetest. 

Bon Appetit 

Ode To Tomatoes by Pablo Neruda

The street
filled with tomatoes,
midday,
summer,
light is
halved
like
a
tomato,
its juice
runs
through the streets.
In December,
unabated,
the tomato
invades
the kitchen,
it enters at lunchtime,
takes
its ease
on countertops,
among glasses,
butter dishes,
blue saltcellars.
It sheds
its own light,
benign majesty.
Unfortunately, we must
murder it:
the knife
sinks
into living flesh,
red
viscera
a cool
sun,
profound,
inexhaustible,
populates the salads
of Chile,
happily, it is wed
to the clear onion,
and to celebrate the union
we
pour
oil,
essential
child of the olive,
onto its halved hemispheres,
pepper
adds
its fragrance,
salt, its magnetism;
it is the wedding
of the day,
parsley
hoists
its flag,
potatoes
bubble vigorously,
the aroma
of the roast
knocks
at the door,
it's time!
come on!
and, on
the table, at the midpoint
of summer,
the tomato,
star of earth, recurrent
and fertile
star,
displays
its convolutions,
its canals,
its remarkable amplitude
and abundance,
no pit,
no husk,
no leaves or thorns,
the tomato offers
its gift
of fiery color
and cool completeness.