I love it when the weather breaks, and all of the windows are open, and it’s a perfect 84 degrees with a slight breeze. It’s so much nicer in the house, and in the garden, and everywhere when the weather is so perfect. Today was one of those days, and we are in for a solid week of more beautiful weather.

A big part of today was spent in the garden in the morning, and the kitchen in the afternoon, making different things with tomatoes. It’s the most productive garden I’ve had to date, thanks to learning how to use organic fertilizer, using excellent soil mixture, making my own compost, and consistent watering and pruning. It made a world of difference in production and flavor, and I will never revert to not doing those things. In years past, and in the interest of time I would skimp on all of those things, plant my plants, and hope for the best. Now that we are farming (on a small scale) and Shannon is selling what we produce, very sporadically, I feel the need to have it be as organic as it can be. From the heirloom seeds for the flowers to using zero pesticides in my gardens. I am impressed with the difference in flavor, and I’m sure nutritional content, in what we’re growing. It won’t be long before I add some hoophouses and a greenhouse, so that I can eek out some better tasting produce during the colder months, as well as grow my beloved pink jasmine, star jasmine and Bougainville that I had all over my yards in California.

So I have kept up for the past two months with using most of our tomatoes, and also pawning them off on my son in law, Tyler, who is a fantastic cook and loves to make tomato sauce! But I was actually starting to get bored with our sliced heirloom tomatoes with mozzarella cheese and basil, or gazpacho….every darn day…. or fresh tomato juice (which is amazing and great for breakfast). I recently ordered my first canning book and canning pots to preserve some of this to eat in the depths of winter, but have yet to break it out, and still am afraid I will poison us by improperly canning.

So today, I figured I would try roasting before canning, and waded into the new world of roasting my tomatoes and numerous peppers from the garden to make a delicious salsa, and roasted cherry and pear tomatoes to put in a jar in the fridge to use during the week. It is a lot more work to roast everything, but boy was it worth it. And if I had broken out my canner and done a bigger batch that would have been wonderful. This was kind of a dry run on whether it’s worth it, or not, to roast the tomatoes, the peppers, and the onion. And it definitely was. The next time I do this it will be to can the still large amounts of tomatoes ripening out in the garden, and have them on a shelf in my garage to eat the first week of March, when I am tired of the cold, and yearning for summer.

I started with 17 tomatoes, cleaned and cut in half and sprinkled with olive oil, salt, pepper and chipotle chili powder. I ended up putting a piece of aluminum foil under them before slow-roasting as per so many recipes that I looked at. I roasted them at 325 degrees for 30 min and then an hour at 200 degrees.

I roasted these in the second oven, with olive oil, salt, pepper, and Italian spices on low, 200 degrees, for three hours. And then just put in the glass jars in the fridge to use during the week. We have so many of these on the vine that it’s nice to be able to use so many at once!

My husband fire-roasted these peppers on his grill for me. He is an amazing cook, and we have so much fun creating things together in the kitchen. He covered them so they could steam and then I peeled the skins off. We both are not sure why that is necessary as I think the burnt flavor might be good. Maybe it’s like marshmellows and a personal preference. Or maybe it tastes nasty if you don’t take the skin off. We erred on the side of caution and went with what the internet said to do. We ended up with a lot of extra peppers to use in some recipe this week. The yellow peppers are lemon peppers that I have grown the past two years, and they are delicious and VERY spicy. I add 1/2 to my fruit smoothie in the morning and it’s delicious. Note: please don’t do this if you don’t have an incredibly high tolerance to hot foods…I do!)

The top photo is the roasted tomatoes, the bottom is unroasted. They are both delicious, but very different flavors.

I have to say that this fire roasted salsa was the best salsa I’ve ever made. My dad was THE salsa king, and he would putter around in the kitchen making the best salsa. I never understood the time involved in creating a great salsa, until today. He would tell me all the things he did in preparing his salsa (like his hummus, which was also the best!), and until you do it yourself you don’t understand. I wish he was here to taste this. He would have loved it.

Here is the recipe for the fire roasted salsa. If you have a day to spend in the kitchen it’s so worth it.

• 17 tomatoes cut in half and roasted
• 1 ancho poblano chili roasted
• 1 jalapeño roasted
• 1 onion roasted with garlic and olive oil
• 1 squeeze lime juice
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro
• 1/2 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
• Salt/pepper

Put your fire-roasted chilies in the blender, add tomatoes, and all other ingredients. Pulse for 10 seconds. Let flavors meld for a few hours and eat, or put in a jar and keep in refrigerator.

I can’t recommend this recipe enough if you are a salsa lover! It is so delicious and worth the time to make. Please let me know if you make it, and how you liked it. It’s just such a fantastic way to use your tomatoes at the end of this beautiful summer!

Happy gardening and happy cooking!!