Food: Home Bottled Tomatoes

I've had these bottled tomatoes done for a couple of weeks now. I love having home canned tomatoes on hand. I love fresh, but when I don't have fresh, these are the next best thing.

I got a case of tomatoes from Bountiful Baskets and ended up with 9 quarts of tomatoes. Love it!

I use bottled tomatoes for all kinds of recipes including, pasta sauce, chili and sauteed vegetables.

The next canning project will be black beans, since I've used up the ones I had on hand.

Canned anything lately? Share a link in the comment section.

Bountiful Baskets Jan. 28, 2012

In Winter, when the garden is growing slowly, I like to take advantage of Bountiful Baskets, a co-op here in the Western states. Your contribution for a conventional basket (5-6 fruit items and 5-6 vegetables items) is only $15.

I ordered both a conventional basket (not strictly organic) and an Asian pack from Bountiful Baskets this week. I was very pleased with the offerings. My refrigerator is pretty well overflowing with vegetables, which is always nice. I'll be making stirfry for dinner tomorrow night!

Pictured below, the Asian pack included an eggplant, 2 yellow onions, celery, bok choy, napa cabbage, green onions, basil, garlic, ginger (small piece next to the onion), fresh water chestnuts and peas. The quality was very good.

Asian Pack $8.50

 The conventional basket had lots of braeburn apples, tangerines, a clam shell of blueberries, green beans, bell peppers (green and red), cabbage, asparagus, tomatoes, romaine lettuce, green beans and a bag of red potatoes. The tomatoes have a bit of ripening ahead of them, but they should be ready to use later this week.

 Conventional Basket $15

Pomegranates and other great produce

I tried posting this a week or so ago, and blogger wasn't allowing me to upload the post. I just found this in my drafts, so here it is. Hopefully, I'll be back to posting atleast weekly again. I've really missed blogging!




It seems like I've taken quite a break from blogging, but I am ready to get back to it!

I took these pictures last Saturday after I picked up my Bountiful Baskets co-op offerings. The pomegranates were a great price, $15 for a case of 34. I'm using them as decor this week, but will get ready to process them and get them ready for freezing. Here is a link to see how to open a pomegranate and get the seeds out. It is from POM.

I decided to get the organic basket this week. I had to pitch the 4 large peaches that were included. They looked pretty, but were hard. They were rotten after a couple of days. Weird! Besides the peaches, there were bananas, grapes (they have seeds...bummer), pears, plums and apples. Vegetables included cabbage, fennel (!), kale, sweet potatoes and peppers.

The pears are ripening well and taste amazing. I had a plum this morning and it was delicious. I'm using the fennel tomorrow night in a recipe for dinner. Haven't decided between two recipes, but I'll post when I make one or the other.

Bountiful Basket Coop 3-12-11

It is a beautiful day here in Southern Utah! It is in the 70's today, and I can't wait to get out into the garden this afternoon. I have to do some errands first :) Well, here is the haul that we received today in our Bountiful Baskets. I forgot to include the beautiful apples....put them right into the crisper when I got home. So, fruit included apples, bananas, cantaloupe, pineapple, strawberries and blackberries. Vegetable fare included green cauliflower (love this stuff), asparagus, green beans, green leaf lettuce and Roma tomatoes. I think it is a very nice basket today. I've already prepped the cauliflower and lettuce. I'm going to try an awesome recipe using the asparagus for dinner. I'll share pictures. I also got the Italian Pack which was $7.50, and included baby bella mushrooms, regular mushrooms, red onion, 2 sweet onions, head of garlic, fresh cilantro, basil, oregano and rosemary. It all looks and smells so good!

The best thing next to picking it from your own garden, is getting a basket for $15 with all of the fruit and vegetables. It really helps us to eat more produce when we get a basket.

Bountiful Baskets Pick-up and Strawberries

I've been trying to keep up with all of the produce I get from Bountiful Baskets . Every spare minute I have, I'm peeling, cutting, dicing and otherwise getting the produce ready to use. After I finished peeling, slicing and storing the cucumbers, son #4 comes into the kitchen and asks if we have any. Of course, I directed him to the proper container. There is no excuse for not eating veges when they are ready-to-eat!

Today was another pick-up day for produce. I got 2 flats of strawberries. Tonight, after son #4's chamber orchestra performance, I am going to get them washed and freeze them in a single layer on cookie sheets, then, when frozen, will put them into ziplock freezer bags. We like to use strawberries for smoothies in the morning, and these were such a great price at $8/case (8#).

I made some vegetable soup stock yesterday using some wilted celery, a couple of carrots, some zucchini and seasonings. I made 3 quart containers of soup stock, and it smelled and tasted fantastic. Making soup stock is a great way to use vegetables that are a little past their prime. Those are now in the freezer. It will come in handy for making risotto, soup, or for using in other recipes.

I also froze a bunch of greens for smoothies. They were washed, put into my lettuce spinner and then packed into ziplock freezer bags.

Finally, I baked all of the yams I had, and am using them tonight for a yummy sweet potato casserole. I'll share the recipe for that later tonight. I'm making mini turkey meatloaf to go with the casserole. I'll probably include a green salad.

Hope that you are having a fantastic Easter weekend!

Bountiful Baskets Haul from March 6, 2010

Yesterday was the first day of Bountiful Baskets at Tuacahn, where I am one of the site coordinators. I think it went very well, all things considered. Take a look at the wonderful produce we got! I can't say enough good things about this coop. The bread is amazing, and the produce is fantastic.

Below is the Mex-pack...I've already used the green onions and 6 zucchinis (some from the mexi-pack and some from my basket) in the roasted zucchini with feta cheese recipe I made as a part of dinner tonight. I got the recipe from Kalyn's Kitchen, and it is delicious!

Five loaves of 9 grain bread....$10. It is really good! Some is going in the freezer.

Below is what I got from the standard basket, which costs $15. Lots of bananas, tangerines, apples (braeburn), spinach, cabbage, zucchinis, cucumbers, strawberries, blueberries, asparagus and red leaf lettuce.

Since I am a site coordinator, I was able to order a couple of cases of organic blueberries for $15. Can I tell you how thrilled I am about that! Of course, my family is gobbling them up!

We are really enjoying Bountiful Baskets! Check it out at http://www.bountifulbaskets.org/ .