Summer in Phoenix

I know, I know, it has been a long time. Not to make excuses but I'm back in school (I'll finally be a college grad next year - yeah!) and work has been keeping me busy. One of my co-workers inspired me to get back on my blog posting after she was asking me some questions yesterday and I rattled off about 3 recipes in a minute. So, I promise I will try to do better. Just to get up to speed, we are well into summer veggies here in Phoenix and I have tomatoes coming out my ears. I've started getting ulcers in my mouth from eating them 3 meals a day and I can only give away so many because people start to get sick of me showing up with a bag of tomatoes everywhere I go. And 4 of my plants are barely even producing yet. We have 1 beautiful plant that popped up all on its own in our backyard (I must have dropped some seeds when carrying tomatoe waste to the composter last summer) that has been producing enough tomatoes to feed a small country. So, I did some research and have discovered how easy it is to make sun-dried tomatoes. Now I'll have tomatoes later in the year when they are well past in season. Here's how to do it:

* Fashion a rack to hold cheese cloth (I used the lid of a casserole dish that is inset about 1 inch, so the cheese cloth could be well suspended above the surface when attached firmly with packing tape)

* Cut tomatoes into pieces, basically you want each to be about the size of a quarter

* Lay the cut tomatoes on the cheesecloth rack leaving space between them for air to circulate

* Sprinkle with salt and dried oregano

* Cover with another piece of cheesecloth

* Place the rack in a warm sunny place with lots of sun for several days, bringing it inside at night

* Once the tomatoes have no internal moisture, they are done. I put mine in a jar with some olive oil and put them in the fridge.

So easy and a huge pile of tomatoes now fits into a small jar.