A "Successful" Experiment, or, "What to Do with Wedding Reception Leftovers"

As the wedding is over and the dust is settling we are finding what no doubt countless families have found before.  After throwing a party for somewhere around 150 people, leftovers can be a problem.  Specifically, I found myself with a bunch of cherry tomatoes that were starting to soften, a large quantity of broccoli and cauliflower pieces, lots of baby carrots, and a big handful of celery sticks.  I also have found that the tomato plants in buckets under the kitchen window are very busy and I have a half dozen really big tomatoes turning redder by the day.  Throw a big bag of lemons into the equation as well.

Time to do some kitchen experimentation.  Now I know that all experiments are successful.  You do something, something happens, and you learn from the experiment.  But once in a while a cooking experiment yields something that would be nice to replicate.  I threw the cherry tomatoes, lots of broccoli and cauliflower, baby carrots, and all the celery I had into a pot.  I added a tomato I had picked (seriously, these Beefmaster tomatoes are huge) and which was starting to be less firm in places.  I cut up a lemon and threw it into the pot.  Add a bit of onion, some salt, pepper, and basil, simmer in water until it's all pretty soft.  Now out comes the blender.  I blended it until it was uniform and smooth.  

Every time I've made vegetable juice before it has had one problem.  It comes out kind of pudding-like.  If you add a lot of water it tends to separate into pudding and water.  If you just leave it, well, it isn't so pleasant in a glass.  Rather than think about getting a vegetable juicer, I hit on a novel idea.  Put a strainer in the way and collect the bits that don't go through.  Now we have juice that pours.  We also have a strainer full of something that looks rather like spaghetti sauce, though it is a little orange from the carrots.  Hmm, I wonder.  Take out a spoon and try it.  Not bad!  Time to pour that thick pulp into an empty jar.  It will go great over pasta.  The juice tastes fine and is not thick like pudding.

This experiment has possible applications to Cap'n Salty's voyage.  You may notice the list of upcoming events in the right-hand margin of the blog.  When we can move, we want to move to a place that allows for more gardening, kind of like a cottage farm.  
We're thinking of some small livestock, at least some chickens and maybe taking the plunge to having a goat as well.  But for now, I can already taste the fresh vegetable juice (some of it put up in jars to enjoy in the other seasons) already!

Thanks to all those who came to Lizzie and Justin's wedding and who left me with some interesting ingredients for a yummy experiment!

--
Dave Spotts
blogging at http://capnsaltyslongvoyage.blogspot.com and http://alex-kirk.blogspot.com