Pasta Ponza ! ! ! !

So I found a recipe from Everyday Italian that I loved the way it looked and wanted to try it.  The problem was that my grocery store doesn’t carry different colors of tomatoes.  Figuring they were out there I went on a search and ultimately found some very cool new seed places.  Last year I tried growing them and they didn’t quite do as well as I was hoping and we never got enough to really do anything with.  I did only have 1 plant of each.  I did the black, white, orange, and yellow cherries.  This year I got some black cherry seeds from a friend and tried the other colors again.  Well even with the damage from Irene I was able to finally get enough to try out the recipe. 

Totally worth it.  So excited to know that not only can I grow the different tomatoes, but they do taste way better than what’s in the stores and the selection is so much better.  The pasta dish was fantastic and super easy to put together.  I made it in my Demarle at Home products which made clean up a total breeze.  I think we ate it for about a week and I still wanted it.  Making me want to expand what I can do with what’s in my garden.  Which I guess is as good a reason as ever to really evaluate where I’m at.

Update: So knowing that this has sat for a while it's time to let everyone know that the new and improved can be found over at www.gardeningfoodies.com I've learned a lot over the years and I'm super excited to share that with everyone.  So come check us out and see what we now have in store for you.  A lot of food, a little bit of bon COOK business and a sprinkling of gardening to bring everything together.  Or just check out our growing community over at www.gardeningfoodies.com/fbgroup Can't wait to see you there and catch up.



Fresh Cherry Tomatoes from the garden before cooking



After cooking with bread crumbs on top







Finished Product

Finished Product

Is that Butter? ? ? ? ? Now what?

It’s amazing how you can’t do something if you try, but you always manage to do it when you least expect it.  Last year when I started making bread I thought it would be cool to make my own butter to go with it.  I thought it was only fitting.  So I got some heavy cream, did some research and started whipping, and whipping, and whipping and of course nothing happened.  Imagine my surprise this past weekend. 

I was making a dessert that needed some whipped cream.  It only needed a little bit so I tried making it in a different container than I usually use.  My immersion blender has a whisk attachment, and when I turned it on it causes that cream to fill the whole container (think tall cup).  Well I thought I had whipped it enough, but when I went to pipe it onto my cupcakes it looked a little watery.  I still had some leftover so I decided to whip it some more so I could use it later.  Well it didn’t get thicker.  Instead it got more watery, so I whipped it some more.  Next thing I know I’ve got CLUMPS!

Then I got excited.  So I kept going and guess what.  I GOT BUTTER! ! ! ! Well that was what I was guessing it was anyway.  Turns out it was.  I kept going so the butter had completely separated out.  I put it in a container to take to work (a co worker I knew use to make butter) and asked now what.  Turns out you don’t really need to do anything else.  So we put it on some bagels and it was AWESOME! Turns out it tasted better with a little salt added for the bagel, but seriously how awesome is that.  Fresh butter that I actually managed to make.  Of course I couldn’t do it when I tried, but now I know what container to use to make butter (note to self not a good container to make whipped cream in).  Now where is some fresh home made bread?