More garden goodness!
Yesterday I picked a whole bunch of produce from the garden… and I do mean a whole bunch.
A whole bucketful of Kentucky Wonder bush beans, lotsa basil, 6 ears of Black Aztec corn, 2 cabbages, 2 Anaheim chiles, and another golden pattypan squash. And oh, yeah, about a crate of tomatoes. (What you see in the picture is only about 2/3 of the whole batch!)
I spent all last night making spaghetti sauce – seven quarts of it! – and I have no desire to peel another tomato ever, ever again. It seemed like I had to skin about two hundred of them! And because I didn’t think to strain the water out as I processed them, I had to simmer the whole mess for about four hours to thicken it up. But after I added in a whole mess of my own onions, garlic, and basil (along with bell peppers, olives, and mushrooms from the store), I have a bunch of ready-to-go deliciousness. I even have a couple extra quarts of blanched, ready-to-be-peeled tomatoes that I think might be just enough for a batch of cream-of-tomato soup.
I also picked a whole bowlful of lima beans.
Turns out the drought got them before I did, so they all crisped and dried on the plants in the space of about two days! So much for eating them fresh. Any ideas on how to cook them dried?