from their garden

i don't have my own garden, though i wish i did. i also wish i could have my own chickens so i don't have to buy eggs again. i dream about one day making our home self-sufficient in as many ways as possible - a garden and trees for produce, chickens for eggs, solar power. i'll do anything besides farming animals for meat because i just don't see myself slaughtering a cow for dinner. one day, friends. one day. 

but, for now, we know plenty of people who have gardens and they are always happy to share their produce. the mister's co-workers always ask him if he wants some lemons, tomatoes, zucchini, etc, and he always says, "yes! my wife will turn it into something." it's true and it goes hand-in-hand with my previous post about ways we save money. i take whatever produce is offered to us and i will make it into something that my family will eat. the following are just a few examples of where i did just that.

tomatoes. we were given tomatoes from multiple gardens - my dad, stepmom and mother-in-law. it was a tomato influx from every which parental direction. 

the first thing i did was make a confit of tomatoes a la david lebovitz. 

i poured enough olive oil to cover the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish, threw in about 1 tablespoon each of chopped garlic, black pepper, salt, herbs de provence, and sugar. i cut the tomatoes in half and placed them open face down into the oil, sprinkled a little more salt and pepper on top, threw in a few bay leaves, then baked it at 325* for about 45 minutes. i store it in a large glass jar in the refrigerator and it lasts for about a week.

i love this recipe because it is extremely versatile. i've found that it's the best way to preserve a ton of tomatoes that would otherwise go bad and still be able to use it in a variety of ways. one way is for bruschetta. who doesn't love bruschetta? give the tomatoes a rough chop and serve with sliced baguette. yum.

another use is to chop the tomatoes and toss them with pasta. the tomatoes are cooked in a tasty oil, so that's all the sauce you need. it makes for a quick and light meal.

we then took what was left of the confit after a few days and turned it into spaghetti sauce, which we canned and will place in the freezer. it keeps forever.

lemons. the mister's co-workers sent him home with this humongous bag of lemons. it had to be at least 25 pounds worth. and these were not ordinary little lemons - they were the size of softballs!

after using 5-6 of them for margaritas over the weekend {if only i had some fresh mint, we would have made some mojitos, too}, i made some lemon bars. these are sooo good and sooo easy. i shared some with a preggo friend of mine and, after eating her first ten pieces, she had to make her husband hide them and ration two pieces for her each day. hysterical.   

zucchini. we also were given zucchini from a few different gardens. and i'm not sure what was up with the zucchini this year, but they were gigantic!!!! here's one pictured with a large steak knife for size reference.  it could double as a baseball bat.

one can only eat so much stir-fried zucchini, so i made a ton of zucchini bread which was a huge hit in this house. wyatt tore this stuff up. i think that boy ate a whole loaf by himself in a day. 

on another note, did you notice my sweet, new button action to the right? the lovely ladies at j&m's eye candy featured my post about ways we save money. they made my week. :) thanks, kristine and britney!