I only planted two Roma tomato plants and one cherry tomato plant this year. Having had overflowing bounty in years past, I've learned to plant conservatively. And, yet, I've still got tomatoes coming out of my ears.
None of our pepper plants did well this year. I think we got two puny jalenos and a few little banana peppers. Even the zucchini didn't grow (yes, zucchini didn't grow!), but I think it may have been a victim of the zealous pumpkin vines that took over 3/4 of the garden by mid-July.
One thing I don't remember planting is watermelon. But, we found three watermelons hiding among the pumpkins. I may have planted them -- June was a long time ago and a certain 3-year-old pulled all the plant markers out the day after I sunk them in the soil, so I really am not sure what seeds we sowed.
Back to the tomatoes.
I've canned more than 25 jars of salsa -- which should be plenty enough to get us through another succesful Steelers season and SuperBowl.
And, yet, there are still buckets of tomatoes to deal with.
Though I'm hardly kitchen-savvy, I recently made up a meal I call bruschetta -- though I suspect the original involves oil.
Start with a "Freschetta" pizza crust (at WalMart in the prepared foods area near the deli). If you can't find that, I'm sure any sort of prepared pizza shell would work (Boboli is always good).
Sprinkle generously with minced onion, salt, garlic, low-fat parmesan cheese and basil. Top spices with diced tomatoes ( and olives & onion if you're so inclined). Cover tomatoes with fat-free mozzarella cheese and bake in the oven until the cheese melts.
I've been making these in the toaster oven on personal-size pizza crusts and they're really tasty (and they're putting a dent in the tomato bucket). They're also a healthy dinner -- weighing in at about 450 calories for the entire bruschetta.
I also like to eat a big bowl of diced tomatoes with some bow-tie pasta (add some basil and onion, too) tossed with fat-free Italian dressing.
Got tomatoes coming out of your ears? How are you using them? Post below!