Using the Harvest - Oven Dried Tomatoes

With the never ending harvest of tomatoes this year I've  had to come up with more creative ways to use them up other than tomato sauce! I looked on the Internet and found a way to oven dry them. 

Ingredients

Tomatoes

Thyme/ Rosemary/ Oregano

Olive oil

Garlic

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to the lowest temperature possible; mine is 140 oC. Oil a baking tray.

2. Cut tomatoes in half and place them cut side up. Drub rosemary, thyme and oregano with oil and put them in between the tomatoes. Spray/ drizzle the top of the tomatoes with olive oil.

3. Bake for 2-6 hours. After 2 hours check cherry tomatoes to see if there done. You want them to be squishy but not brittle. 

4. Sterilize a jar and place a whole garlic clove, spring of rosemary (or other woody herb) and cooled tomatoes; fill to the top with olive oil. 

*Notes* Don't put in the fridge other wise the oil will 'set'. Use within a few weeks; but they'll be gone before you know it! Check the oven every half hour to make sure none of the tomatoes have burnt.

Using the Harvest - Basil Pesto

Home made pesto is super easy to make and it's 10x better then anything you can buy at the store. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

Bunch of basil

45g of toasted pine nuts

60g of grated parmesan

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

5 tablespoons of light olive oil

Instructions
1. Combine the basil, pine nuts, parmesan and garlic in a food processor and wiz until finely chopped.
2. With the motor still running slowly add the olive oil in a slow but constant stream. Once all the oil has been used scrap the bottom of the food processor and wiz again to combine everything.
3. That's it! You can store it in the fridge for a couple days but if the top is left exposed it oxidises and goes brown. To counter act this either cover with oil or push glad wrap onto the top surface. If this fails the brown top can be scraped away but the bottom is still good to go!

Dwarf Peach

I received a gift card for a home improvement store for Christmas and I decided to buy a dwarf peach with the money. I'm really excited to see how it goes and fingers crossed I'll be eating peaches soon.