What To Do When Gifted By Tomatoes

Sundays may be a day of rest for you, but it isn't for me.

I go about my usual daily schedule every day of the week without fail.  When the weekends hit, if anything, life gets busier. 

Starting early, I am going through web pages applying to jobs.  This lasts generally from breakfast to lunch, and on average it is a full time job.  30 hours of search, 10 hours of actual applications and record keeping, and to add some spice to that soup, there is also the added fun of chatting with prospects and recruiters. 

On top of that, there is the web development, social media, and other consulting I do.  Generally I'm "at it" being "productive" from when I am awakened by a wet nose on my elbow before 6 in the morning and on until some evenings well after dinner.

On a Sunday, I let the rhythms of the house wash over me.  Sometimes I am able to clear a few hours off, walk outside and rub my eyes like a mole coming from a hole, and do "other things" but generally the weekends are terribly busy.  My "weekend" might just be Monday when the numbers of job postings are normally fewer and I can get caught up on job applications.

Our original plans were to make some Salsa Chicken in the crock pot, which meant Kevin was banging away in the kitchen for about 15 minutes and back doing his thing in another quarter of the house.  I noticed he was gone around a half hour after he had left.  I was busy applying to job number four of the day.

When I broke for lunch, I realized I needed to make some food for the week.  Since the Chicken was going to be made up for us and the rather healthy trade in food across the street to Lisa and Billy, I thought it might be nice to warm up the grill.   Making a few burgers is never an option, I made 10 so there would be some left over for the microwave and freezer.

It's October, we're supposed to keep that freezer empty but it never is an option when you know how to make food and realize that it's just as easy to cook for 10 as it is to cook for one, and it certainly is easier to cook for 10 than it is to cook for one 10 times.   It's crammed with all sorts of goodies.

The refrigerator is just as stuffed.  This time though there are two gallons of Orange Juice that Billy had brought across since he had a lot from a party he had helped throw.   Lisa and Billy are two wonderful people that this particular neighborhood in Wilton Manors are blessed by.  Mother and Son, we chat often, share often, and laugh together at the oddities that sometimes work their way through on the ebb and flow of life here.

Having finished lunch, I went back to my research, Kevin kept scarce since he had "work things" to do.  I am busily reading SQL manuals, and UML manuals, and XML manuals and other things that have an alphabet soup of acronyms that do very well to confuse outsiders and keep them well away.  Sometimes they even do that to me.

Needless to say I was in "My Cave" with the headphones on when I heard a passable imitation of Radar O'Reilly from MASH in the next room...

"Incoming!  And its more food!"

Billy was crossing the street with a large aluminum tray of something as well as some smaller trays.  It turns out there was a large tray of tomatoes and two smaller trays of Bread and Butter Pickles. 

Four Pounds of Tomatoes.  Sliced and ready for hamburgers. 

So what do you do with Four Pounds of Tomatoes Sliced And Ready For Hamburgers?

Four bloody pounds?   You laugh and start snacking.

Then you set about turning your house into a factory.  By the time it was rolling, this house smelled like childhood.

Kevin fixed Billy a drink with that Orange Juice, and one for me, and we set about storing the food.  Luckily I was almost out of pickles and my favorite was Bread and Butter, which was good since now I have the equivalent of a pickle barrel in my refrigerator, replenished from across the street.

I said "Hey lets make spaghetti sauce" and Kevin started pureeing the slices of tomatoes that I hadn't stolen for a snack, Billy and I were sipping a Screwdriver and nibbling on those sweet pickles and generally enjoying ourselves chatting about other people and lowering our I.Q.s.

You see this was a good approximation of what went on in my house while I was growing up, and well into my adulthood.  Mom would have put a big pot of tomato sauce and reduce it down to Spaghetti Sauce by the end of the weekend.  Some weekends it would have started on Friday Night when she'd brown some meat for "bracciola" that would get tossed in to the sauce for stewing all day Saturday with some Italian Sausage.  Served on a torpedo roll from Amoroso's with some extra sharp Provolone and some of that sauce and you had Lunch on Saturday and sometimes on Sunday if you were lucky and managed to get past the Eagle Eye of mom. 

If only I could get some Amoroso Rolls here in Florida.  "Sigh".

She had to keep enough for Sunday Dinner, but she did have to go out and sell some houses.  Couldn't watch every minute could ya Mom?

Any time you have a party you end up in the kitchen, or at least someone did.  This impromptu get together was no exception.  By the time it was going, it was we three, and the dog in the little kitchen preparing sauce, more pickles were brought over from across the street and these Dill Pickles were stored in Ball Jars. 

How on Earth do you eat so many pickles?  One at a time!  Hopefully with a good bratwurst sandwich.  Billy also brought over a good 20 Brats that will get grilled. 

That sandwich may be a Pizza Burger since the sauce turned out so well much later that night.  Remember this was mid-afternoon, there was still that chicken to finish off.

There was so much food this weekend with the Chicken then later the Sauce and Lisa brought over some excellent Roast Beef that between the two houses we caused a spike in the consumption of electricity in this little corner of our quirky little island.

If anyone was watching they must have thought we were having a pot luck dinner for 10 because of all of the food going back and forth!

So, Billy and Lisa if you're reading this, there's a Ball Jar of Spaghetti Sauce, or Table Gravy as the recipe called it, waiting for you.  I sampled it this morning on a cracker, it turned out excellent.   It also used up a lot of left over vegetable and spices we had laying around.

No I didn't try it on a pickle.  That would be odd.   That roast beef will be had with pickles though.  We like pickles here.  That is a lucky thing.  We have enough pickles for the block.