Final Days of Summer

As the days grow shorter and the nights grow cooler, it is time to make the last big push for canning tomatoes. After converting 20 lbs of tomatoes to 5 quarts of spaghetti sauce I also tried Sweet Vinegar's recipe for tomato soup. The sweetness of the fresh tomatoes is drawn out in cooking so you really don't need much addtional sugar. Take note of her revised recipe which reduced the sugar amount. My family loved the soup and only left me with 3 quarts to can ... but I look forward to having some on hand when the cold weather hits. Thanks Daniela for a great recipe.

One could get all the recipes one really needs by clicking through food blogs. 101 Cookbooks blogger, Heidi Swanson has a great blog and a great cookbook. This weekend I tried a number of her recipes from, Super Natural Cooking. Her Expresso Banana Muffins were a big hit for Saturday morning breakfast. Since I didn't have walnuts on hand, I substituted with chopped toasted almonds. A slightly different taste.
But my favorite recipe this weekend came from blogger site Figs Olives Wine. Her recipe for Thyme Roasted Chicken and Fingerling Potatoes with panfried tapenade was outstanding. Check out her site for the recipe and a picture of what the dish should look like. The best I could do was get a photo of the leftovers. My family is amused by my blogging, likes the recipe testing, but gets a bit impatient when they need to wait for me to take a picture of the dish. So, I'm afraid that I'm a cook for eaters, not lookers. I also can't decide if I prefer cooksbooks with or without pictures. It helps sometimes to see how the dish should look like, but often it is frustrating when your result does not match the book.

Final judge should be if it looks good enough to eat...and if it tastes good.