Off The Rack: A Few New Seeds

I made a foray to get a few seeds and new seed mix.  Though I've tried to pare down on tomatoes in the past few seasons, I went for those.

My eight rows of Peas which were decimated last year are going to be tried again.  Mr. DOA is vowing to plunge some sort of extra protection under the ground near the veg fence this spring to prevent plundering.  Thumper cold be thwarted!

Always reliable Supersweet 100

A few herbs.  Parsley is showing up in lots of recipes.  We love Cumin.  I always grow Basil.

Although I never have luck with California Wonder peppers, try, try again.  I really want Pole beans rather than Bush Beans this year.  The Bush Beans were also decimated.  Fly you high, little beans!  

I haven't had as much luck with Morning Glories as I'd like.  I haven't tried these varieties before.  This time I will start some inside and some outside and see how they do.

Figure A: Tomatoes

I did nothing with my vegetable garden this year except move raised beds around and plant a few tomato seedlings.  Miraculously, the seedlings thrived and better late than never, have put out some nice tasty little tomatoes.  

Back to full production in the spring.

DOA in the Kitchen: Caprese Salad Returneth

I made Caprese Salad once before after seeing it roll by on Facebook. You know how that goes.  It is such simple ingredients but such a wonderful flavor!

I finally have some medium sized tomatoes RIPE from my garden but I am crushed as they are mushy and near tasteless.  Good thing I keep such good garden notes because those aren't going in again.  It needs to look like a tomato, smell like a tomato, TASTE LIKE A TOMATO.  Sheesh.

I thought that I could try using them up in the Caprese salad and the robust flavors of that salad would compensate.  I was right!  They were great.  Lovely.

I followed the Pioneer Woman's recipe with the balsamic vinegar reduction. It stinks like a pot of ammonia cooking on the stove, but when it is nice and glazy the taste is a delicately sweet taste, utterly transformed. That last time I reduced it too much, this time too little.  Too much is better!

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/06/caprese-salad/

This time I had my pretty but mushy tomatoes, some really nice sliced Mozzarella fresh basil and that lovely vinegar.  I used the leaves whole this time but they did taste better sliced into the salad the last time so I'd go that route.

When is the last time you actually found yourself craving a salad?

A Single Tomato

I have officially had a single red tomato in my garden.  An aptly named Supersweet 100 was red and ripe and gone in a trice.  No photo, but it was REAL.