What to Do with Imagination and a Bounty

On of the most fun parts of our front yard family garden is figuring out what in the world to do with all the fruits of our labor. We had our most successful crop this season and we have had such a great time dreaming up new ways to include the harvest from our small patch of earth. Our tomato plants did especially well this summer. In fact, they did so well that once the first fruits started to ripen, we never found ourselves without five or six tomatoes in our windowsill. Of course, nothing beats a fresh raw tomato with nothing but a shake of salt and pepper on top, the juices dripping down your chin, flavors exploding in your mouth. But we had a lot of fun experimenting with some new ways to enjoy the bounty. We found some real success in whirring up a bit of fresh basil in the food processor along with some olive oil to make delicious basil oil that matched well with mozzarella and those fresh tomatoes that we couldn’t get enough of. With my steady sous chefs (my seven year old and six month old daughters!) by my side, we experimented with our first big batch of homemade tomato sauce, which we froze and saved for cold winter days. A favorite summer lunch was cold spinach tortellini, sliced tomatoes, chopped basil, and goat cheese and of course they found their way in to countless green salads. They were delicious on sandwiches, tossed with asparagus in quinoa, salsa-fied, and chopped up in to a fresh bruschetta. All in all, we couldn’t have enjoyed our summer tomatoes more. We found a lot of ways to include them in our daily munchings and never once tired of their sweet flavor. I can only hope that we can count on such a wonderful bounty each and every summer; in the meantime, I will have to make do with my frozen sauce and sub-par grocery tomatoes, which pale in comparison to our fresh, homegrown, in season beauties.