Scalloped Tomatoes

One of our favorite tomato recipes comes from the Joy of Cooking.  It's so good at this time of year with all the fresh tomatoes.

 Cut up the tomatoes into chunks and grate pepper on top.  This was two tomatoes, a Goldie and an unknown since this was just for two of us eating.

 Dice an onion and saute until soft in a good pat of butter.  When done turn off heat and add a tablespoon of brown sugar.

 Add bread crumbs to that and stir it all up to moisten the crumbs.

 Sprinkle the onion crumb mixture on top of the tomatoes and bake for 30 min at 350º.

 It comes out bubbly and browned up and is delicious.

Here's the official recipe from Joy of Cooking for 6 servings:

3 cups diced tomatoes

3 T butter

1/4 cup onion chopped finely

1 T brown sugar

1 t salt

1/4 t pepper

grating of nutmeg (optional)

1 3/4 cup bread crumbs

Joining Robin for Thursday Kitchen Cupboard.

Wordless Wednesday -Tomatoes Here!

What Was That Volunteer Squash Thing?

We had the volunteer squash thing last night for dinner.  It was awful - no flavor despite butter and pepper and butter and cinnamon, I tried it both ways.

Cutting it in half was a task that required muscle.  The skin was very firm and I had to pound it with the knife in the cut to go through it.

I scooped out the seeds and baked it open side down for an hour. Then turned it over and sprinkled one half with pepper and one half with cinnamon.  It looked like an acorn squash.  But taste-wise was so bland.  Neither of us finished our serving and it went into the compost bin.

Lesson learned?  Don't nourish any volunteer squash types no matter how prolific they grow!

Harvest Monday

With the heat the tomatoes had a lull in their ripening schedule.  Then with rain and cooler temps color started to show on Sunday and I picked some only to discard one to ants and another to rot.  These I did pick to bring in each have their troubles.  Something is burrowing in leaving a hole.  It may still be in there and I'll find out once I cut these open.  What kind of bug does this?

Other harvests this week: basil.  Picked on a rainy Saturday, chopped with olive oil and frozen in my new Seal a Meal.

Peppers were picked for hot pepper jelly: green, cubanelle, and jalapenos.

Zucchini has been on the menu every night but last night.  We ate it all and I also made a zucchini lasagna to freeze.

Other harvests: cucumbers on multiple days (one pictured above) and beans at least once.

See other harvests at Daphne's Dandelions.

And I almost forgot.  I also harvested this unknown.  Is it a squash?  I think there's a bug in its stem because particles are coming out that way.  I'll open it soon to discover what it is, I hope.