What does summer mean to you? – Neighbors, friends, family, strangers offloading garden abundance
Oh yeah! I haven’t had a garden since I was little, but it never fails that at some point in the season, there’s somebody who is desperate to get rid of dozens of tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, or whatever else they planted far too much of.
In this case, a friend of the family steadily supplied us with tomatoes all season long last year. Whatever we could pick, we could have, as they were already over run with picking their own and for family. And there was always tons left even after we walked away with bags’ full.
Aren’t they gorgeous? Yum.
And that giant above? His skin was a bit tough, but he peeled and sliced nicely into large steaks of tomato.
And in case you’re wondering how to use up a large amount of tomatoes in a short amount of time, turn ‘em into pasta sauce. I made my life easier by mass blanching, peeling, and slicing all in one go.
Tip: Stand at a low-sitting table or countertop (this works especially well if you’re short like I am, so you don’t strain your back leaning over). Place the cutting board on the edge and scoop the tomatoes and sauce directly off into a bowl or crockpot on the floor. Don’t worry, you can transfer it all to another dish after, if you’re squeamish about your floors being dirty.
Although if you’re squeamish, I wouldn’t recommend this anyway, because uh, you may get tomato juice between your toes. But it makes it so fast! Hehe.
See? It’s a mess, but from left to right, I had an entire baking sheet of blanched/peeled tomatoes, the cutting board I was using, the diced tomatoes were scooped forward toward myself and the tops pushed to the side. You can also see a crockpot I’d already filled, my laptop, various drinking options, a basket of produce, and the slotted spoon I used to dip out the tomatoes in the background.
I kept blanching continuously until I made it through them all, chopping and dicing during the minute they were in the water. I was through them in no time, but boy did it look a mess for a bit, ha.
Subs, subs, and more subs – How to mass produce sandwiches for a crowd
My family loves subs. The kids, the adults, the animals….we’re all happy for gatherings because it’s almost guaranteed that we’ll have subs on at least once and nobody’s wallets will be broken in the process.
There are pictures from one of our dozens of gatherings in the last few years, but I don’t recall which. When I run across more pictures, I’ll update with some of the variations we’ve created. This set is pretty basic.
If you check a chain grocery store like Kroger’s, they’ll usually have these loaves of bread for about a dollar a piece. They’re gigantic but delicious.
Don’t slice them all the way through. You want to create a pocket for all the goodies instead of them slipping and sliding out.
Add your mayonnaise and Italian dressing to both top and bottom, but don’t overdo it. If you’re going to be eating soon, put the dressing first to cut down on some of the mess. If these will be going in the fridge for a while, put the mayo first to create a barrier between the bread and dressing so the bread doesn’t get soggy.
A little goes a long way. You can see that I used half slices of one of the meats and the cheese doesn’t create a solid layer. There are enough toppings that you don’t need a huge amount of each.
Use fresh veggies, but don’t limit yourself to tomatoes and lettuce. Onions, avocados (replace the mayo with a layer of avocado to cut some calories/fat), cucumbers, and lots of veggies from your garden work awesome.
Notice that because the bread is so huge, there’s a cut down the middle first, so the pieces come out closer to square shape.
Also, at the far left of the picture, you can see that we put the whole subs right back in the plastic bags the bread came in. This keeps all the goodies inside and makes it a breeze to put in and out of the refrigerator if need be.
It’s also great to write across the label if you happen to have different subs. We sometimes have ones that are vegetarian or with extra dressing (or no dressing at all). No need in having to open them up to inspect the ingredients when you can just label it ahead of time and be on your way.
~Edit~ Here are a couple pictures from when we were getting ready to move. I put together 6 large sub sandwiches, stored them in the fridge, and pulled them out for various meals while we were packing, cleaning, and loading the trucks. Keep in mind that the sandwiches will hold up for a day or two (if they last that long, pfft), but you should leave the dressing/mayo off until time of serving then.
Also shared with Let’s Do Brunch linkup.
Mini wonton lasagnas – Dinner, bentos, or midnight snacks
What does it mean to find a huge tub of ricotta cheese on clearance for under 3 bucks? Lasagna time, of course!
Knowing that we were limiting dairy, I assumed I would toss these lasagnas straight into the freezer. Instead, I only used a thin layer of ricotta and no other cheese, and they turned out too good to not eat fresh.
Wanna make your own? Just use your favorite lasagna recipe and sub in eggroll or wonton wrappers. As Squirrel Bread says, wontons are the new black, and I use ‘em like crazy around here. For these, I just cut my wrappers in half, layered as usual, and skipped the fuss of precooking noodles or wondering if I cooked the dish long enough to avoid crunchy pasta.
When I originally bought these tins (on major sale, might I add), I thought they’d be great to fix all sorts of mini-this-or-thats in. I assumed I’d cut them in half and be able to toss various dishes into the girls’ lunchboxes.
Instead, I realized they’re roughly 2-cup tins and they’re perfect for building fast bentos right in them. Maybe not the most creative, but it opened up a whole new set of ideas of foods I could bake, toss in the freezer, and have ready in a flash for lunches.
And yes, I snacked on these a few times. Leaving them cold or barely heating them up turned them into easy, hand-held craving-satisfiers. Yum!
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