This weekend we went hiking at Mount Madonna County Park near Watsonville.

We were basically hiking in a cloud, then it drizzled, and we were surrounded by beautiful trees.

It was just like hiking in Oregon ;o)

Afterwards we paid a visit to Birdsong Orchards, a friend of a friend’s farm. This year they planted 87 varieties of heirloom tomatoes, and some chillies and peppers:

Splendid! They treated us to some dehydrated sliced pears and tomatoes – Yum, and then we picked some tomatoes to take home:

What to do with a whole load of super flavoursome tomatoes and a couple of chillies?

Spicy Roasted Tomato Soup (with Feta) Recipe

Ingredients

1kg/ ~2lbs tomatoes, halved

1 red onion

a couple of chillies – pick your favourite strength!

a drizzle of olive oil

salt and pepper to season

a drizzle of Balsamic Vinegar (optional)

feta, crumbled (optional)

Method

Preheat the oven to 190C/375F.

Wash and halve the tomatoes and place in a large roasting tin, along with the onion and chillies.

Drizzle with olive oil, and any other seasonings, then shake to coat the tomatoes.

Place in the preheated oven for an hour, until nicely roasted.

Allow to cool slightly, then place in a blender and pulse until the consistency required is reached. (I like mine a little bit lumpy) Alternatively you could use a stick blender, but we left ours behind in the UK!

Serve, along with optional feta crumbled over the top!

Umm need I say Deeeee-licious? Before I had even blended them, Mr M kept stealing little bowlfuls of roasted tomatoes. It almost didn’t make it into soup! I think it must be the tomatoes.

Meanwhile, I have been working away on a little project that involves this box of leftover teeny tiny scraps of material:

To be continued………………