Week 2 (Tomatoes!)

Writing is hard! Or is it finding the time to get this stuff down that is hard? I am not sure, but I am only two weeks into this and I feel I may be falling behind. Tomorrow is the pick up for week three, so about time I write about the second farm share pick up.

The Bounty

You may have seen a sneak peak of the bounty in the previous strawberries post. Week 2 included:

• Garlic Scapes - .25 lbs (Those long thin green things in the lower left hand corner)
• Garlic Leeks - (Upper left hand corner; white bulbs, leafy greens)
• Cilantro (Top of photo)
• Two gorgeous tomatoes-- 1.5 lbs
• Fennel (also called Anise)

*Bonus Strawberries*

I was a little sad that there was not another head of lettuce, that was probably my favorite part of week 1, but there were two gorgeous red tomatoes. Tomatoes are perhaps my favorite vegetable. Probably the only one that I enjoy eating straight - ie, just give me a bowl of cherry tomotoes, and I am happily snacking.

Tomatoes

The weekly FDC newsletter provided some info on the tomotoes:

"The green house tomatoes come from Fairview farms in Sunderland, MA.  These are grown in pots, in soil, and are watered directly into each pot, and are IPM. Many folks forget what that is. It stands for Integrated Pest Management. This system relies on the grower to identify pests, and determine a course of action based on the intensity of the infestation, and the threat to the crop.  Because these are greenhouse grown, the threats are minimal."

Modeling the tomatoes on a granite sample

So, with my love of tomotoes, those obviously went first. Both Stella and I had some Mac and Cheese for dinner (do you sense a theme here?) which i jazzed up by added half of one of the tomoates, diced up. The same went into Stella's lunch for the next day.

Stella loved it all.
Served on paper plates because we came home to a broken kitchen faucet.
I was NOT washing more dishes in the bathroom sink.

When we got home Friday evening, I quickly put a pot of quinoa on the stove top and got that going. Side note: I need to learn how to cook quinoa properly. The pot was pretty burnt by the end. There was still plenty of un-burnt quinoa, but man was that a b-eotch to get clean. Thankfully the kitchen sink was fixed by then.

I diced the rest of the tomatoes, saving a half of one of the tomatoes. Added to the quinoa, along with some left over peppers and onions that we had from the fathers day BBQ cook out, as well as some Feta cheese (a main stay in my fridge). Mixed it all together and topped with a little olive oil.

Super yummy, and super easy. Was also really good the next day for lunch. Stella on the other hand... let's just say I will probably hold off on giving her Feta cheese again for a while. She did give it a try though, which is awesome!

inspecting dinner.

Finally, on Sunday I used the rest of the tomatoes (along with a few more purchased at the super market) in my most favorite meal of all time - Caprese.

Basically a bowl of tomatoes, with some mozzerella, oil and vineger.
S&P and dried basil since we didnt have fresh. SO good!

And Stella had some added to her lunch too!