Here’s the last of my 2012 tomato crop.  The line-up of jars reminds me of bookending things.

A few Bookends:

• Monday, April 22nd  Friday, May 26th
• Earth Day  Earth Year Mindframe
• Seedlings  Jars of Stewed Tomatoes

As Monday was Earth Day, it’s exciting to take some of the practices you did to honour the day & incorporate these practices into our day-to-day.

One practice was to enjoy meals built around the offerings from the earth.

Here’s a recipe which was passed down orally (no written record of this one).  Be prepared to try a recipe that has no ingredient amounts.  My fam calls this “German Spaghetti.”  In no way am I saying that this is “Germany’s Spaghetti.”  The way my fam knew which recipe was from my mom’s side and which was from my dad’s side, was to add the Prefix:  German to the name of the food/meal that came from my dad’s mom. We would start our day with “German Pancakes & bookend it with German Spaghetti.”

Writer’s Note:  Feel free to make a healthier version of this one!  A lot can be done to ‘healthify’ this one.  To make it authentic to a farming community in the 1950s, this is what was done:)

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• spaghetti noodles
• canned tomatoes (1 large jar)
• Velveeta cheese (globs)
• butter (globs)
• salt & pepper
• wieners (cut into small pieces)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Cook spaghetti according to package
3. Drain spaghetti
4. Put 1 layer of spaghetti on bottom of roaster
5. Pour 1/3 of stewed tomatoes over spaghetti
6. Add globs of Velveeta & butter
7. Place another layer of spaghetti
8. Pour 1/3 of stewed tomatoes over spaghetti
9. Add globs of Velveeta & butter
10. Add rest of spaghetti
11. Pour remaining stewed tomatoes on
12. Top with wieners
13. Sprinkle with salt and pepper
14. Bake covered for about 45 min.
15. Uncover and bake another 15 min. to brown the tomatoes and weiners

Next post will greet you with a heart healthy recipe using stewed/canned tomatoes.

For those of you who are vegetarian, here is a vegetarian chili which is yummy:

Ingredients:

Makes 8 servings:

1 table spoon of olive oil

1/2 medium onion, chopped

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon ground cumin

2 tablespoons dried oregano

1 tablespoon salt

2 stalks celery, chopped

2 green bell peppers, chopped

2 jalapeno peppers, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

2 (4 ounce) cans chopped green chile peppers, drained

2 (12 ounce) packages vegetarian burger crumbles

3 (28 ounce) cans whole peeled tomatoes, crushed

1/4 cup chili powder

1 tablespoon ground black pepper

1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, drained

1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained

1 (15 ounce) can black beans

1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn

Directions:

1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Stir in the onion, and season with bay leaves, cumin, oregano, and salt. Cook and stir until onion is tender, then mix in the celery, green bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, garlic, and green chile peppers. When vegetables are heated through, mix in the vegetarian burger crumbles. Reduce heat to low, cover pot, and simmer 5 minutes.
2. Mix the tomatoes into the pot. Season chili with chili powder and pepper. Stir in the kidney beans, garbanzo beans, and black beans. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer 45 minutes. Stir in the corn, and continue cooking 5 minutes before serving.