Tomato Quinoa Soup

Recently Chelsea sent us a great cookbook, Vegetable Soups by Deborah Madison. We made our first recipe last night - Roasted Fall Tomato Soup with Saffron Quinoa. Luckily here in San Diego there are still tons of tomatoes at the farmer's market each week, so we were able to get our 3 lbs of ripe late-summer tomatoes without an issue. We used Romas, although I think any variety would work. The recipe called for roasting the tomatoes with onions, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper and a bit of brown sugar for an hour. Meanwhile we cooked quinoa over the stove with a pinch of saffron - a new and delicious way to do quinoa that I had never tried before. We used chicken broth instead of water. Once the tomatoes were done, we pureed them, skipping the step of passing them through a sieve because neither of us is bothered by the seeds. We almost always skip that step! Then we added a bit of curry powder, ladled the tomato mixture into bowls, and spooned some quinoa on top. We topped the soup with a swirl of Greek yogurt. This was an awesome recipe! We took the leftovers for lunch today. Thanks Chelsea!

Dinner and Tomato Eater

Recently I've been working on my salad dressing. Normally Dana always makes the salad dressing for our dinners because she has a natural talent for it. Over the last seven years, after closely and carefully watching her prepare her dressings, I am starting to feel comfortable making them myself. So far I've just been doing the basic balsamic vinaigrette. The last couple of attempts have gone really well so I am going to start branching out into mustards and who knows what else!

Below is a recent dinner we made - spinach salad with avocado, onions, home-grown cherry tomatoes and a balsamic vinaigrette, and wheat-flax pasta with a sausage tomato sauce topped with coarsely grated parm.

Our heirloom tomato plant on the back deck has stopped trying to grow fruit, but the cherry tomato plant growing out of our driveway is still going strong. Dana found this little guy hanging out on one of the branches - a tomato hornworm. We just pick them off.

Mexican Bass with Crispy Potatoes and Lemon Baby Broccoli

Last night we made up a very delicious recipe based on some Mexican Blue Nose Bass from our local fish shop and a bunch of things we had on hand. We had some leftover boiled potatoes and these beautiful, sweet orange cherry tomatoes from our farmer's market run last weekend. We also had baby broccoli, lemon and parmesan cheese (perfect for modified version of the Amateur Gourmet's broccoli dinner). The dinner plan was coming together! First we roasted the cherry tomatoes in the oven with olive oil, a few garlic cloves and basil from the garden. Once that became a sweet, pulpy mess, we kept it on warm in the toaster oven. Then we got the broccoli ready by drizzling with olive oil, salt, pepper and roasting for 15 minutes, spritzing with lemon juice and tossing with Parmesan. Meanwhile, we diced up the potatoes and cooked them in a pan till they got nice and brown/crispy. At the same time we coated the bass in flour and a little salt and pan fried it (with a nice pat of butter). When everything was done, we plated the broccoli, put the bass over a bed of crispy potatoes and then spooned on some of the yummy roasted tomatoes. There were a lot of dishes, but this was a terrific meal!

Garden Update

I haven't posted much progress on my various gardening endeavors here - it's been ups and downs. Let's start with the Square Foot Garden:


As you can see we've had some moderate success here. The failures were:

• Spinach - never really worked - always looked sickly and recently just sunk back into the dirt
• Onions - same - sprouted but never thrived
• Radishes - this was my fault for not pulling them out in time. At one point they looked pretty good but I thought they would keep getting bigger and left them in the ground too long and they got really gross

Doing 'OK' are the carrots. The yellow pepper was very slow to get started and unfortunately got clobbered by an ill-placed wrench that fell from the deck railing. I don't think it's going to be able to bounch back from that. The basil, cabbage, and chard are doing pretty good.

So today or tomorrow I'm going to pull out the remains of the yellow pepper, spinach and onion and plant some more chard and some lettuce varieties.

Moving on...here is a pic of our heirloom tomato plant and our passion-fruit vine:


The tomato plant has had some real issues. It grew really well at first but I wasn't looking at it very closely for bugs and it got infested with these green worms that ate all the fruit. After pruning a lot of the branches and getting rid of the bad fruit, it's doing a little better. The passion-fruit vine is the same - still growing and making fruit but none have yet ripened. We think we're about a month away on those.

I've also planted some basil, cilantro (just last weekend for this), and lavender - I'm going to make pesto tonight!


Here is a closer look at some of the heirloom's tomatoes - it's the 'Mortgage Lifter' variety - the fruit can be up to two pounds!

In the front yard, we've had a nice surprise. On the edge of our driveway a random tomato plant has grown out of the side of the yard - you can see it in the foreground below:


It's doing really well - I think mainly b/c it's in the reach of the sprinklers for the yard:


Here are some of its fruits:

There are tons on there!

Heirloom Tomato Extravaganza

The heirlooms have reached their peak - something we noticed last weekend at the farmers market. Our favorite tomato stand (Valdivia Farms) had a rainbow colored sea of deeply hued tomatoes proudly displayed on their tables. Just by looking, we could tell it was the peak time. Usually we save the tomato stand for last (because they are so delicate and I have an obsession with coddling delicate fruit post-purchase). We typically end up having limited cash funds leftover by the time we get to the heirlooms. They are also pretty expensive, so we look longingly at the different types, and then buy just one or two to take home and enjoy.

Last weekend, we made a pact that we would have an heirloom tomato extravaganza the next weekend to celebrate the peak of the season. What this would entail is us taking out extra money from the ATM, not caring about the cost, and then buying one of each variety (9 different types of heirlooms), taking them home and making a feast out of them, enjoying the taste and texture nuances of each variety. The ultimate summer activity to celebrate being alive and having all of our tastebuds in working order!

Here are the tomatoes just after we brought them home from the market:


And a beautiful cross-section view to show off their gem-like luster:


With fresh mozzarella, basil from our garden, a drizzle of olive oil, balsamic, and grinding of sea salt and tri-colored peppercorns:

Served with sliced ciabatta loaf from the bread stand, toasted and drizzled with oil:


Summertime on a plate! We've agreed to turn this into a tradition and do the same thing every August during the peak heirloom week.

Monday Dinner : Lamb Burgers, Kale, Tomato Mozzarella Salad

Tonight we had lamb burgers - minced lamb (from New Zealand!) combined with diced yellow onion, crushed garlic, rosemary, mint, hot pepper flakes, sweet Mexican chili and a dash of olive oil, formed into patties and grilled outside. The buns were toasted, and while Dylan grilled, I made a little garlic mayo to spread on the buns. Then I sauteed the kale and made a cherry tomato/mozzarella salad in the white leaf dishes that Chelsea gave Dylan for his birthday. The leaf dishes are great - we also used them recently to serve ice cream when we had people over.

This dinner was fantastic! The lamb reminds us both of our trip and is delicious with kale. I have to mention some important things about the tomato salad. These tomatoes are possibly the best baby tomatoes I have ever tasted. They come from Valdvia Farm in San Marcos, and we pick them up at the weekly La Jolla Farmers Market, where we get all of our great produce. I bought one container of these tomatoes last week, and after experiencing the sweet, juicy, flavor explosion of the six unique varieties (reddish purple, bright red, orange, yellow-orange, green, pale yellow) bundled together last week, I stocked up with three containers this week. They are incredible!