What to do with those Tomatoes?

The weekend was lovely, sunny and bright and breezy and after watching Rose in her marathon for the phaUK, we got chance to explore around Greenwich for a while. Greenwich has been on my list of places to visit for a long time, so I was really pleased to get chance for a good look around. We had already been all round the park while watching the marathon and had lunch at the Maritime Museum and I would have liked to visit this, but the weather was so pleasant we decided we didn't want to be stuck inside. Instead we chose to just wander aimlessly, with our cameras in tow, around the grounds, then on through all the ancient buildings and down to the riverside, soaking up and enjoying the busy,vibrant, Sunday afternoon atmosphere.

We headed towards the Cutty Sark, a famous tea clipper, and decided to see if it was wheelchair friendly enough for me to go on board and have a look around. The Cutty Sark was fully renovated a couple of years back and was very wheelchair friendly, with helpul staff directing us where to go, proper wide walkways and lifts to all the various decks. So we enjoyed a good look around and learned about its interesting history, browsed around the shop and enjoyed afternoon tea looking up to the stunning views of the underside of the ship.

As usual for me, I can't quite tick Greenwich off my list yet as there is still much more to see and do including the Maritime Museum and Royal Observatory, so we will have to go back again one day...

www.greenwich-guide.org.uk/cutty.htm

After weekend the weather suddenly turned cooler and autumnal with a vengeance and was wet into the bargain and it's beginning to feel well and truly Autumn just like the flick of a switch, summer seems to have disappeared, so we were glad we had spent the afternoon just enjoying the weather on Sunday. 

A few weeks ago after the summer holidays, I started to get into my cooking again and began with making a roast tomato and pepper soup as a starter when all the family were round for dinner. It's a good way to get using up all those tomatoes from the garden that are all ready and ripe at once! 

We usually have so many tomatoes that I don't know what to do with them all, but this year's crop was pretty poor: I don't know whether it was because of the hot summer weather or because I didn't tend them as well as I should. However, tomatoes are in abundance in the shops right now and are cheap and cheerful!

My soup obviously went down well, as yesterday Mr G said he had bought me a present when he came back from shopping, he then proceeded to present me with a big pack of tomatoes, saying I could make some more of that soup seeing it was feeling chilly and cooler. So feeling a dab hand at making this soup now and with the cooler weather and nights drawing in, I thought I'd share the recipe.

Roast tomato and pepper soup with garlic and basil

Ingredients

Pack of tomatoes (about 800g to 1kg)

A yellow pepper or equivalent mixed peppers

Stock (about a litre, adjust to ingredients)

Onion

Olive oil

Black pepper

Basil (fresh or dried)

Garlic olive oil or garlic salt

Crusty bread

Chop the tomatoes, pepper and onion and place in a roasting dish, drizzle with olive oil and season with black pepper and basil, roast in the oven for about 3/4 hour. Once roasted transfer to a saucepan and add the stock and bring to boil. Liquidise the ingredients, but save a small portion to one side for later. Reheat the soup. Serve and top with a piece of toasted crusty bread topped with a spoonful of the remaining ingrediedients and drizzled with olive oil. 

Easy, delicious and nutritious! Enjoy! 

Tomatoes

Tomatoes are part of the nightshade family and are packed with goodness including vitamins, minerals and antioxidents. They are linked to good heart health and bone health and are known to have anti- cancer benefits. People often cannot decide whether a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable: well it is a fruit and botanically speaking it is a berry, but it is not sweet like most fruits, so it is treated as a vegetable! The French call the tomato, 'a love apple'; Italians call them 'golden apples'. So now you know! 

There is still time to sponsor Rose for her Run to the Beat marathon, so far she has raised £2365 for the phaUK: 

www.justgiving.com/Rose-Graham