Gardening/Kitchen Update

The hot weather and being away a lot in July has made it challenging to be outside weeding and watering the garden, but thankfully our garden has been plugging along just fine without much tending to.

We picked tons of tomatoes, zucchini, basil, and onions, and have lots of green tomatoes that are waiting to ripen.

Last week, we had several ripe bananas, so Ella and I made mini banana breads, and a large zucchini bread. Yesterday, I used the tomatoes, basil, and onions to made tomato sauce (the only thing I used canned was a can of crushed tomatoes since I wasn't sure how to make the tomatoes I had concentrated enough to get that same consistency).

I blanched the tomatoes (mostly roma) to make peeling the skin off easier. Then I added them whole to the onions, basil, and garlic and broke them into small pieces as they cooked down when they were simmering. We didn't taste the sauce, yet, but we'll have to compare the fresh version to when I make it with cans of tomatoes.

making banana bread


tasting her work
(This is a huge improvement for someone who normally refuses to taste anything new...We told her it was called banana "cake.")


just some of the tomatoes and zucchini we picked


the peel tomatoes ready to go into the sauce


getting ready to simmer