Lots of red!

Outside temperatures may have cooled, but inside the garden the colors are red hot!  For the first time ever, I left the peppers on the vine long enough for them to turn red which makes them taste even sweeter! Tonight I'm going to make a red pepper pesto from a recipe that I heard on the Today show.

Red Pepper Pesto

Ingredients:

Several medium sized red peppers, or two large

2 cloves garlic

2 or 3 leeks or onions

Olive oil, about 1/4 cup

Handful of nuts (walnuts, almonds)

Parmesan cheese, about 1/4 cup

Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

Chop garlic in the bowl of a food processor. Cut the peppers, remove the seeds, and slice into strips. Chop the leeks or onions. Saute the peppers and the onions or leeks in olive oil until just cooked through, but not too mushy.

Add the pepper and onion mixture to the bowl of the processor and pulse several times until mixed. Add the nuts and pulse again. Add the parmesan cheese and salt and pepper and pulse again briefly to incorporate all the ingredients. Be careful not to over mix! Serve with crackers. This is also great served with grilled chicken.

As you can see, we are inundated with tomatoes. I probably closed the garage farm stand prematurely, but I needed the time to prepare for my trip out to California (more on that later.) Anyhow, we are making tomato sauce almost every night and putting it all in the freezer next to the ratatouille, caponata, and basil pesto that is already in there. Cooking this winter is going to be a lot more fun knowing that I have the taste of summer stored in there.

As promised, the cooler temperatures have made the flower colors more intense. The zinnias have never looked better and I've been cutting armfuls of them every day to bring into the house. There is no time to waste because in a few short weeks we'll have our first frost and the flowers will be gone.