Fresh Home-Pressed Tomato Juice

What else can you do with all those juicy tomatoes?  Your neighbor gives you some to add to the bowl on your counter and you dread the thought of peeling and cooking down the tomatoes for hours to make a fresh sauce.  The alternative is to make yourself some delicious, fresh tomato juice.  There is no peeling necessary - just the help of a food mill.  For breakfast, add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and some freshly ground black pepper or fix yourself a spicy Bloody Maria.
Fresh Tomato Juice
3 lbs. fresh tomatoes (about 12 medium) 1 rib celery, including leaves 1/2 medium Vidalia onion 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. sugar
Wash tomatoes.  Cut into quarters.  Remove core and add to a heavy saucepan.  Add celery and onion and simmer about 30 minutes, or until tomatoes break down. Pass through a food mill to remove skin and seeds. To each quart of juice, add 1 tsp. each of salt and sugar. Chill at least 4 hours or overnight.

Makes 1 quart
BLOODY MARIA
2 wedges lime 2 Tbsp. Old Bay Seasoning or celery salt Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 12 oz. Blue Agave blanco tequila 3 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lime juice 2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce 1/2 tsp. hot sauce (or to taste) 2 tsp. balsamic vinegar 1 Tbsp. prepared horseradish 4 cups fresh Home-Pressed tomato juice Celery stalks or scallions
To prepare the glasses, rub the rim of each glass with a lime wedge.  On a saucer, combine the Old Bay Seasoning or celery salt, 1 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. black pepper.  Invert the glass and dip the rim of the glass into the mixture.  Set aside.
Combine tequila, lime juice, Worcestershire, hot sauce, balsamic vinegar, horseradish and tomato juice.  Add a pinch of the Old Bay salt mixture and stir well to combine.

Fill cocktail glasses with ice and fill with your fresh Bloody Maria mixture.  Garnish with celery stalks or scallions.  Garnish are not limited to celery stalks.  Garnish contenders include dill pickle spears, pickled jalapeno slices, green olives, lemon slices, bacon, basil and hard-boiled eggs.

Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday - My Cottage Garden

This is the beginning of my Cottage Garden.   I love, love, love blue flowers!  I found a garden plan on-line but most of the plants are only sold in the UK, so I had to subsitute.  I can't wait for it to fill in!

 

Jebediah - Keeping things neat and tidy.

His Gnome Home

English Ivy

 

Hydrangea - "Blau Doneau"

  Columbine - "Blue Angel'

I Lost the tag for this one!

Spunkmeyer - Always playing!

 Fescue Grass - 'Elijah Blue"

Violas

Five Rosemary plants will create a background hedge.  "Tuscan Blue"

Bulbs:  Gladiolus x 12 - Violetta

            Iris x 6 - Deep Black

Still waiting for my Azurea - Electric Blue Summer Flowers

Fudwick and Lumbiddle looks like they have been hittin the sauce!

A Little Garden Tip

I just planted some radishes and beets in my garden and wanted to share a quick tip.  Wrap the seed packets in plastic wrap and thread bamboo skewers through the packet and stick it back in the ground.  A quick marker to let you know what is growing where.  The plastic wrap will protect the packet from the rain so you can refer back to it when your seeds are growing and when they will be ready for picking!  Put a date on the packet for easy reference.

Grow your own Garlic!

I thought I would change things up a bit this weekend with the arrival of Spring.  I have a small garden every year that includes tomatoes, kirby cucumbers (for pickles), parsley and zucchini.  This year I'm going to try Garlic.  Now is the time to plant!  It's easy and fun, even if you're not usually much of a gardner.  You also get the reward of eating your home-grown garlic crop!

Garlic is grown from the individual cloves.  Each clove will produce one plant with a single bulb - which may contain up to twenty cloves.

When planting garlic, choose a garden site that gets plenty of sun and where the soil is not too damp.  The cloves should be planted individually, upright and about an inch under the surface.  Plant the cloves about 4 inches apart.  Rows should be about 18 inches apart.

As garlic reaches maturity, the leaves will brown and then die away.  This is the cue that it is time to harvest your garlic crop.  It's important to dry the garlic properly, otherwise it will rot.  The bulbs should be hung up in a cool, dry place.  After a week or so, take them down and gently brush off the dirt.

~Garlic Central