Christmas Gifts

One of our side dishes at my house for Christmas was these lovely tomatoes, all from my garden, ripening on the window sills and the perfect gift in the middle of a blustery snowy cold Christmas day...A promise kept by Summer...she never lets me down.

Me and Thomas!

Funny story... though it looks like I am being grabbed by Thomas Keller...well, OK!
If you have the chance , grab the book too!

Tomato Leaf Soap

As promised and in just enough time (there was snow on the ground this morning!) here is the recipe for tomato leaf soap. I forgot to take photo during the process but here are a few of the finished project!






tomato leaf soap

* Note: do not heat glycerin soap above 160 degrees! or it will sweat once hardened.

Tomato Leaf Soap
Use as a gardeners soap or hand soap in late Winter or early Spring when the urge to grow something in the ground is almost unbearable. The smell of this soap will immediately transport you to a warm hillside in Tuscany.

Makes two bars:

8 ounces unscented clear glycerin soap
8 ounces of fresh tomato leaves and their stems. (this is more than you think)
2 extra ounces tomato leaves, no large stems
2 drops grapefruit essential oil
2 drops lavender essential oil.

1 large heavy saucepan, 1 wooden spoon, 1 slotted spoon, 1 large bowl with a pour spout side, 1 large strainer, 2 soap molds or other containers. (I used two plastic Glad tupperware containers)

Instructions:
In a heavy saucepan over low heat, melt the glycerin soap until liquefied. Add the 8 ounces of tomato leaves and stems pushing down to submerse all of the leaves. Keep the soap on low and using a wooden spoon press the leaves to extract the chlorophyll and scent. Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in both of the essential oils. The soap will be a natural colored green and smell lovely. Place the smaller amount of leaves into a large bowl (I used a bowl with a funnel side for pouring, this will help later). Pour the heated soap mixture into a strainer set over the large pour spout bowl. Press down to remove soap from leaves. Discard original leaves and remove the second set of leaves from strained soap mixture with a slotted spoon. Quickly pour the soap into clean molds. Let harden for three hours and remove by turning the mold upside down and popping out with your fingers. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving at my house

We like to start the day off early every year. People begin arriving around 10:00 am and this year my good Italian friend Natalie brought this amazing Egg, Spinach and Sausage Calzone...a few pitchers of Thanksgiving morning Salty Dogs and everyone had breakfast together while some of us flitted in and out of the kitchen finishing up last minute items. Warming the stuffing, adding another round of cornish hens to the smoker and putting the cranberries on the stove.



We had smoked Cornish hens for the second year in the row. I find they are trouble free and cook in about one hour. We do brine them overnight for added flavor and they turn out perfect every year. Allot one bird each per person to ensure leftovers to send home with anyone. Instead of Turkey sandwiches or tetrazzine the week after think more along the lines of a smoky infused chicken and rice soup with paprika.


Rounding out the meal, we had Southern style cornbread dressing, an apple walnut stuffing, fresh Orange Cranberry sauce, Locally grown India Mustard greens, roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon, Baked Scallops with sage and breadcrumbs, Port wine gravy, Cayenne honey glazed Sweet potatoes, Grilled asparagus with pickled shallots, Apple Crisp, Flourless Chocolate cake and Pumpkin Pie with maple whipped cream...








Oh yes, and my husbands Southern Oyster Casserole...all I can say about this is that is does not contain any cheese or cream of mushroom soup, just oysters, butter, Worcestershire and cracker crumbs....and butter. We used enough plugra butter that day to stop a small team of Oxen in its tracks.

It is almost December

Seriously folks, I picked a cucumber today. It would not win a prize at the county fair or anything but there it was, still in the garden, along with about 40 good looking green tomatoes.

I do believe that cold weather is probably coming but until then, my garden is actually looking better these last few weeks than it did all Summer. Swiss Chard, Ornamental peppers, Flat leaf Italian Parsley, Italian Chicory, Butter crunch Lettuce and Tomato plants that are outrageous for this time of year.

I am not quite sure what I will do with all of those green tomatoes, maybe pickled or tomato chutney, but I do have plans for the leaves.

Did you know that tomato leaves are NOT poisonous. Well, not necessarily. A lot of things in large amounts are poisonous, but even basil leaves in large doses can be symptomatic for some people, and no one thinks anything about Sassafras leaves (Gumbo File) in their Cajun creations which has always been listed as being a carcinogen. I say this because Harold McGee says this, and he is a Food/Scientist authority. I have even found recipes from Mario Batali's father that uses tomato leaves to add a true garden flavor to his tomato sauces and salumi...I do LOVE the smell of tomato leaves.

I will try a few recipes on myself first at home, but actually I plan to make soap. Yes soap, not soup... Soap. I am perfecting a recipe and I better get on it. The Weather channel is telling me that the next few days make start to feel like it is supposed to in late November.

Here are a few pics of my home garden with all of those tomato leaves and one tiny cucumber.