Recipes from the Garden: Ham and Leek pizza

I found some volunteer leeks growing rampant in the vegetable garden (so that's what those giant, globular flowers were last summer). I got rid of most of them to make way for tomatoes and cukes, but left a few, hoping they will self-seed again this summer.

Anyway, I sauteed a vidalia onion w/the white parts of the leeks and some garlic for about 20 min, then topped the pizza w/red sauce, mozz, the onion mix and ham and the green parts of the leeks. It was a good spring-but-not-quite-feeling-like-spring-because-it-won't-stop-raining meal.

November Blues

Well, it's November 2 and we finally had to dismantle our garden last week. We had our first freeze, and I had gotten the tomatoes off a few days before. They are sitting in two bowls: one red, one green. I don't eat them anymore the way I did in August, sliced with salt, savoring every bite. This year, we had such a good yield that for the first time I decided to cook some of them (I found that to be a sacrilege before this year).

So, we will have the last of our red tomatoes this week in a pasta recipe with sausage, tomatoes, spinich and cream. I'll only simmer the tomatoes in the cream long enough to make the sauce pink.

And maybe I'll put aside one last tomato to slice and eat raw with salt. It's going to be a long wait til next August.