OK,, Today was a dreary wet day so its time to experiment !

I told you about the half frozen tomatoes and today was so boring and rainy and wet figured I would experiment and see what I could do with them ! Washed cut and cooked then seasoned with half of what I had in the spice cabinet added one small can of tomato sauce and about 1/4 of a good sized onion ! It tasted amazingly good ! Sieved the finished product to eliminate the peels and keep the pulp ! Simmered it down and will use it for baked cod which I have been wanting to try along with a pecan crust on the fish ! Never tried this before so if you have tips,, I am listening !

 

That all sounds good. The idea of pecans on fish is something I have never considered. I am very curious about your impression of the finished meal.

 

I have pecans in the freezer so I will grind them almost to a flour add a bit of seasoned flour and oven fry the cod ! I really get tired of the same foods and or variations of the same so this sounded good !
Will post when I try it ! Its good to know that even half frozen tomatoes can be turned into something good !

 

Okè Mart can’t wait for your evaluation. The Bride likes the sound this cod dish too.

 

I am jealous of your pecans! They are so expensive here.
Do let us know how the dish comes out!

 

I will let everyone know how the dish turns out ! You mean New England doesn`t have pecan trees ?

 

Chuckle!

 

I am serious,, I have no idea what trees grow there ! Ask me about Texas and I can tell you but not your area ! Or is it just the prices stores charge ?

 

Mart, we lived in upstate NY for many years. There are no pecans, but they do have walnuts and hickory nuts. After trying to crack black walnuts (a friend put plywood over them on a cement driveway and drove his truck over the nuts to crack them, with mixed results) I was so glad to encounter pecans!
Here I can buy in-shell pecans for $1 a pound at the feed store. We have a pecan cracker and I enjoy cracking and picking out the pecans.

 

Mart, I think pecans are a warm weather crop. They are imported here from the south and are expensive.

In NJ, we had walnut trees & we had the same experience as MG in trying to crack them. (My Dad also ran over them in the driveway!) And the dark brown dye in the shells is awful.

I live in Massachusetts and we have apple orchards, blueberry groves, peach groves, walnuts, pignuts & hickories. We also have in our town an experimental chestnut grove... Chestnuts have been all but wiped out by some disease. Scientists are trying to breed a resistant strain. They used to be plentiful in Massachusetts, but no longer.

So question for you: i get it that Texas is huge. Is the climate very different in different areas of the state? Can you grow apples, peaches, blueberries?

 

Oh lord,, never will I crack either black walnuts or hickory nuts again ! Dynamite will not get the shell off of those and picking the meat is nothing but a pain in the posterior ! There is a hue pecan factory in Corsicana that sells anywhere in the USA ! Have no idea of the prices but our local garden center sells them I think !

 

That brown dye in the shells of black walnuts is anti-fungal ! Its been used for years to cure ringworm ect !
Our state is pretty diverse with the panhandle the coldest area and far south dry and warmer ! We are in the NE and our winters are very moderate ! Last week when the temp dropped to 22 it was 42 by noon and comfortable with only a light jacket ! Ocassionally we get a week or two of really cold weather but its mostly what I call cool ! Summer can be rough if you are not used to it !

 

Is it hot and dry throughout Texas in the summer? When is your growing season?

 

Well,, here you can almost grow year round ! But the weather varies year to year ! This past summer was perfect for gardening here in my area,, plenty of rain, hot but only a couple of 100 degree days ! But other years it can be dry as a bone and hot as Hades ! Some start planting potatoes in February but I like last of March or first of April ! All just depends on how the weather goes ! Usually the worst months are January and February for winter and July and August in summer ! But don`t hold me to that,, it can change !

 

We are in central Texas, Cayuga, and here we have hot summers (90 to 100 degrees) with less rainfall. We have two growing seasons--spring garden that stretches into the summer with some vegetables, and then the fall season with planting in late August and September. Mart just harvested the last of her tomatoes, and I still have perennial herbs growing.
We get around the less rainfall with our rain harvesting cubes which are "fill buckets and carry", but it keeps plants alive. There are varieties of plants that are adapted to our climate, which is why we have mostly native flowers and the roses are own-root or antique roses.
We grow apples and pears and almonds. Our soil is too alkaline for blueberries, but they are grown in some areas of Texas. Peaches are rampant around here--peach orchards, peach trees in gardens, I wish I liked peaches!
Texas has eight growing zones. Each has its specialty, like the citrus from the Rio Grande Valley, and each has its gardening requirements. Amarillo gets snow!
It ain't easy gardening in Texas, but it can be done!