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Tomatoes and Squash - two ways

Posted at 8:17 PM on September 26, 2008 by Sareen Dunleavy Keenan (3 Comments)

Do you remember the Top Chef episode where Tiffani made a bunch of dishes two ways? You might not, because that was a long time ago in TV years, but that was the last time we watched TV on a regular basis in my house, so that is my reality. Anyway... she has inspired our meals for the end of this week. It went a little like this:

Wednesday - much needed harvesting with many surprises hidden under leaves or in the three tomato plants we forgot about in a different garden.

Thursday - tomatoes and an over grown squash on their last legs. So I tossed them in a crock pot with salt, pepper and sugar. At dinner time we made some rice and threw the sauce over the rice.

Friday- I pureed the sauce, cooked it further. Some got mixed with the left over rice, re-seasoned and put into peppers from the garden. We baked these at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Some other of the sauced was, cooked down and used as a sauce for grilled pizza. The pizza had fresh mozzarella from Jakeenos and basil from the garden. The flour was from the farmers market in Madison.

Oh, did I mention there was still some sauce left? That is going in the freezer for another use. Four meals in fewer than 30 minutes of active time. This is how the meals come together in my house.

Comments (3)

Thanks for the ideas. I'm going to go home and see what I can find in my garden. I've been afraid to look too closely at the zucchini plant. My daughter's aren't fond of it, but maybe I can sneak it into some pizza sauce. I'd forgotten about Jakeeno's. I'll have to check out their mozzarella. We live very close to them. We have a cheese share from our Harmony Valley CSA, but we don't get enough mozzarella. Thanks again. I enjoy reading your posts.

Posted by Karen | September 30, 2008 11:36 AM

I am pretty sure that you can watch the zucchini grow while you are standing there. Have you tried the zucchini chocolate cake? That is where I first learned to appreciate the veg as a kid. But just one forgotten zucchini can make a whole lot of cake. Those guys are HUGE!

If Jakeeno's can't help you at the restaurant, they have a whole lot of things for sale in their Midtown location. That is where we get the cheese.

Posted by Sareen | October 1, 2008 7:45 AM

My friends Michael and Suzette serve a cilantro pesto. Michael makes the pesto and serves it over shredded zucchini and pasta. It is quite good.

Fried zucchini is delicious.

Paulette

Posted by P. Thompson | October 2, 2008 9:27 PM