Lots of Tomatoes

We didn't do a full fledged garden this year; the back yard doesn't get enough sun, and Monkey needed a place to play, so our traditional garden plot was converted into an amazing little kid's fun land.  We did make an experiment of tomatoes in pots along the side of the house which gets A LOT of sun.  We did a few heirloom varieties and I think the experiment, for the most part was a success.

This is one of the first tomatoes we got.
It was our most successful variety, Black Sea Man.
The fruits are big, juicy, sweet, and dark

Needless to say, we have quite a few tomatoes and we are getting a little pasta'd out.
What, Italian people getting tired of pasta?!
It happens, trust me.

Also little Monkey came down with a cold yesterday, so I made us some tomato soup!  This is a pretty good recipe, it's dead easy, and very customizable, AND it doesn't taste like watered down ketchup with extra sugar the stuff from a can!  Eugh... I hate that stuff. 

Mmm... thanks Mum!  Don't wipe my nose! 

We ate our lunch of champions with a jalapeno bagel smothered in butter.  I omitted the lobster, sherry and hot pepper, but added some truffle salt and some left over chicken I had kicking around.

As I was blending I was thinking of so many other things you could do with this:

• Add rosemary or other herbs to the roasting pan 
• Add other vegetables like fennel, celery, carrot, fennel... mmm... fennel...
• Use bacon fat instead of olive oil and garnish with bacon (I keep a jar of bacon fat that I save from cooking the bacon in the freezer.  It's great for sauteing, soups, biscuits, pie shells... just about anywhere you want a nice savoury substitute for oil or lard) 
• Use shrimp instead of lobster, and throw in a spoon (or two!) of creamy horseradish

Are there any other things we can do with this?  Any ideas?  I love experiments!

I totally just realised I had linked to the wrong bisque with lobster from Food&Drink (go figure.) 

This is the recipe I originally linked to.  It looks amazing!  And very festive.  I might have to try it out this winter.

While I'm on the subject, I'd like to thank the LCBO for making all of my booze purchases and higher taxes totally worth it.  If I have to pay exorbitant amounts of money for liquid gold, at least I can get a bi-monthly recipe book for free!