Marinara. Success that tastes good.

Tonight, we harvested a pound of roma and cherry tomatoes with marinara in mind.  I've never tried marinara from scratch, and I hope this wasn't just beginners luck because it was AWESOME.

I took some helpful tips from some friends and took pieces of recipes I found for fresh tomato marinara and came up with this:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/3 cup finely chopped onion (also from the garden and is walla walla variety)
• 1/3 cup finely chopped green pepper
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 3 cups chopped tomatoes (I don't know how to efficiently peel tomatoes so I left skin on)
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon basil (I'll grow basil next year for sure)
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 tsp of ground red pepper if you like heat
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (this was per advice of a friend)

I sauteed the onion, green pepper, and garlic in the olive oil for about 5 minutes and set aside until I was ready to add tomatoes... The cherry and roma tomatoes (home grown and small) took a little while to chop..... I added all the remaining ingredients except for the red pepper and simmered for about 10 minutes, uncovered.  I then put batches of the sauce into the food processor for about 30 seconds to further puree the mixture and then added all puree back to the pan to simmer on low until the pasta was done.

I had baked chicken breasts in a tangy sauce with black pepper the day before for 30 min at 375 degrees, let cook and refrigerated.  I thinly sliced the chilled chicken breasts, wrapped in foil and reheated in the oven at 350 for about 15 minutes or until hot.  This saves a lot of time and chicken slices so much cleaner when chilled.

Once pasta was done, I put this together- it was so great and Ben (who dislikes tomatoes) loved it.

I shredded parmesan on top and that was that!

One note on the vanilla- it sounds weird, but it adds a sweetness and cuts the acidity in the tomatoes. It's splendid.  Also, adding FRESH basil (leaves cut in strips) at the very end just before serving would have made this restaurant quality.  Note to others who have no experience cooking like me: don't put basil in the back of your fridge, even in a package, as it will get too cold and wilt.  I had to settle for dried basil, which was still great but nothing like I would anticipate from fresh sweet basil.

Beginner's Luck in the Garden

So, I am willing to admit that I am not the most "consistent" blogger-type.  I just don't have time.  :)  But this is still fun and from time to time I will certainly check in and detail some fun recipes and happenings in our household.

This summer has been very busy with weddings, short trips, outdoor concerts, the city pool, one VERY short camping trip with Luke (we high-tailed it out of there the minute the sun came up), and "playing" in our first vegetable garden.  It's been hugely successful in our first year and you'll find us beaming nightly at our huge carrots, squash, ripe tomatoes, and our peppers that are finally coming around.   Oh, and the onions- those have been eye-opening delicious and Luke loves pulling them out of the ground.

Here's some picks that summarize some of the fun in the garden.  I'm also doing some fun meal-planning around what's been harvested in the garden so stay tuned for some pictures here too.  Since we've last talked, the Moore's have also gone organic.  We are strictly ingesting organic meats and produce and pleased to say that I think we've been spending much less money on groceries.  It seems our options dwindle when one goes organic, which means our diet is rich in lean, sustainable protein product, fantastic fruits and vegetables (some from our garden), and healthy dairy.  We went this direction after falling into a food documentary called Food Inc.  If you haven't seen it, watch it.  We also have stopped eating out and when we do, we choose restaurants that feature local fair.  There are a few really good restaurants out there that have gone this direction in Boise.... 36th Street Bistro, The Noshery, Fork, and Bitter Creek to name a few.  It's been really great to get back to basics- and it's been great on the pocket book too.

 Luke's eating strawberries and showing off the huge squash we just harvested.

 Sam and Luke listen to Ben talk about pulling carrots.

 OK, yes, more strawberries.  It's the first place Luke runs every day after we get home.

 Benny's hops.  We'll be harvesting them and turning them over to his brother for his home brew.

 Neat pictures of some of our flowers and moss.  Honeybees have been very happy this summer. :)

Ben worked all last summer on our garden.  He created two tiers of garden beds with stone blocks, mixed in some good soil, babied the lawn and really put a lot of sweat into the back yard.  This year was the first year we planted anything and even transplanted quite a bit of plants from Ben's parent's yard from Bend.  Everything has done well.  Ben is not a newcomer to gardening, so we certainly have a green thumb on our side.  It's really about finding the time to keep it all maintained.

More to come soon!