A Day's Labors

A day's labors.....hah! I haven't done much all weekend! Practicing what it will be like to be retired.

Labor Day has noble origins. People risked their lives for a nine hour work day and a six day work week. Sheesh, I struggle to make it through a 40 hour work week these days.

I've been making use of an abundance of local produce from my patch and the bounty of friends.

My tomatoes are all splitting from the rain this weekend. I picked about 15 pounds of splitting tomatoes from my vines. I put a small X on the bottom of each tomato and an popped it in boiling water until the skins started to curl back from the X - about 30 to 60 seconds depending on how ripe the tomatoes were. I cut them in half through the circumference (stem end on top/blossom end on the bottom) and squeezed out the seeds. I diced them up and froze most of them in zip lock bags with a bit of Maldon Salt.

Garden Bounty Stewed Vegetables

One Large Zuchinni or Patty Pan Squash sliced - seeded and peeled if needed
A cup or two of peeled and seeded tomatoes
A Japanese eggplant sliced
4 or 5 cloves of garlic peeled and sliced thinly
Optional - a quarter of a preserved lemon diced
A tablespoon of olive oil

Saute' the garlic until it's fragrant, but not browned.

Dump in the tomatoes and stir for a couple of minutes until they're juicing

Put in the rest of the ingredients and a generous pinch of salt and a big grind of pepper.

Cook over medium low heat until the vegetables are very tender. You don't need to add any liquid - the vegetables will release a lot of liquid.

While I was stewing up some vegetables for my lunch today I came across the following recipe.

John Mariani's Diaquiri Recipe

The diaquiri is a classic Puerto Rican rum creation, perfect for hot summer days.

Here's the recipe from the back of restaurant critic John Mariani's business card. The italics are his.

Recipe

Ingredients
1 freshly squeezed lime
1 teaspoon sugar
2 ounces gold rum

Do this
Shake with ice, strain into Martini glass

I didn't have any gold rum - so here's my take

Calamityville Daquiri

Fill a martini glass or glasses with water and ice to chill

1 1/2 oz white rum - I used Cruzan

1/2 oz demerara rum - I used Lemon Hart 80 proof Demerara Rum is the

1 oz fresh squeezed lime juice (the juice of one lime)

1 teaspoon of Agave syrup - I really like the slightly caramel flavor of agave syrup and it mixes easily.

Shake in a Cocktail Shaker until the outside is frosty and you can't stand to hold the shaker any longer.

Strain in to the chilled glass and enjoy a couple of these!

Note: Demerara Rum is made from mollasses and is the rummiest tasting rum going.