Cherokee Purple Heirloom Tomatoes

A perfectly buttered and grilled bun makes a sandwich perfect in my opinion. I hand pattied hot sausage and fried them in a cast iron skillet. Onions were sauteed with the sausage and it all made it's way to the perfect buttered and grilled bun. The only condiment I needed was a Cherokee Purple Heirloom tomato seasoned with salt & pepper. Today was a perfect day for coleslaw. Cabbage heads are being harvested daily.

A sink full of cabbage.

Cherokee Purple Heirloom tomatoes. Flavor is good. Color is interesting. This photo really doesn't show off the purple color well.

My big bowls are pulled from the cupboards and are being put to good use around here lately.

 Onions are one of those items, my garden or pantry could never be without.

 On the far right in the photo, you can see the last little bit of my pinto beans drying.

 And then... ahhh the celery. The celery has a few tender stalks in the center but, the outer stalks are rather woody. The less than desirable stalks and leaves were tossed in a big soup pot, to make vegetable stock.

Vegetable Stock

7 quarts of water

1 pound of carrots

2 really ripe tomatoes

3 bay leaves

10 peppercorns

3 quartered onions

scraps from cauliflower

scraps from broccoli

one large green pepper cut into strips

5 garlic cloves peeled and smashed

a bunch of celery

salt if you want it

Bring this to a boil in a huge cook pot. Simmer two hours. Strain and allow to cool before pouring the stock into freezer proof containers. Freeze. Discard vegetables scraps. Or compost.

Pretty Cubanelle Pepper Patch

Second Generation Sweet Potatoes.

A few sweet potatoes from 2010, were still in the bin, when spring rolled around this year. Do you remember as a child growing a sweet potato plant, in your classroom at school? This was my basic approach to starting my slips for our sweet potato row this year. Cut sweet potato in half, stick the potato pieces in a glass of water and allow it to start rooting.

Sweet potatoes are a must at Thanksgiving.

Oh, what a busy day. I baked 2 birthday cakes today.

For my very special Mother, I made a Marble Pound Cake.

 I hope the Brown Sugar Tomato Nut Torte turns out to taste delicious. Tomorrow is going to be a slower day. Visiting and delivering cakes.

 The recipes for the cake and torte will be posted after I cut them tomorrow. Taste tested first.