Garden Tea

Since the seasons are changing, if you have any fresh herbs and are wanting to use them up...here is a yummy way to do it.

Mint and Sage are suppose to last through the winter, but basil will die as we get more cold weather unless you move it indoors.  So, I decided to make some tea with some of my herbs.  I'm going to call it garden tea because when I shared a glass with my neighbor, her comment was..."yum, this tastes just like a garden".

Pictured below you see the basil stems, mint stems and sage leaves I cut.

To prep for the tea I pulled off some leaves and washed them real good with water.

Next I used boiled some water, placed two green tea bags in the hot water to steep and added my sage, mint and basil leaves. (forgot to take a picture, but was nothing fancy)

 I left it there for a little bit...then combined it all in a pitcher (pictured below).

The final touch was two tablespoons of honey to add a little sweetener.

This is a very mild tea and not very sweet, but very refreshing...enjoy!

Tomatoes for soup

 Many of you know we had our first garden this year.  I had no idea that when our tomatoes ripened, we would have such an abundance.  I love tomatoes on sandwiches, in salad, even in cottage cheese for a snack...but a girl can only eat so many tomatoes...

So, I got some advice from my sweet neighbors across the street to cook them down.  Yeah..I had no idea how to do it at first, but here is my attempt and I think they turned out pretty good.

First stick them in the water whole and let them get good and hot.  

I let mine come to a boil for one minute.

When they are done, I cooled mine off faster by putting them in a colander and running cold water over them.  Then you peel them.  Boiling them is the trick to a fast and easy tomato peeling job.  Here is a pic of before (right) and after (left).  

Next, cut the tomatoes up in to chunks and put them in a pot, juice and all.  Cook them until they are hot all the way through.  It turns into a soupy looking consistency.  

Note: I went ahead and seasoned them with a little bit of salt, but this is optional.

Once they are cooled down, put in a freezer bag and freeze for the winter...

This is gonna make us some yummy soup.