Good Eats!

Eddie chops while Lana supervises from the couch.

Our heirloom tomato plants were full of nearly ripe fruit when we left home a week ago, so we picked about 20 pounds of them and put them in a basket in the basement of the coach. We thought they'd make it to Washington where we could share them with friends.

No such luck. When we pulled in to Salem on Tuesday afternoon I checked them and a few had spoiled. So although the kitchen in La Casita is compact it is complete, and we set about blanching, peeling, dicing and freezing them...about 4 quarts worth.

Lana supervised the entire process from the couch. Though she doesn't eat tomatoes she is all eyes and ears when something is going on in the kitchen.

As we stowed the zip-lock bags of chopped tomatoes in the freezer we reminded ourselves that "there's a pot of chile, a pasta sauce, a minestrone, and an osso bucco"...and that's Good Eats!*

*This is a reference to our favorite TV cooking show with Alton Brown, the scientific chef. Our hosts here in Puget Sound just offered us a pail and a fork to go clamming in front of their house so we HAD to watch this amusing and instructive tutorial again.

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