Thanks for the recipe. My cherry tomatoes are late this year (due to very hot, very dry summer I'm sure). Last night is the first time I've picked more than 5 at a time. I got a sandwich bag full last night. You mention that you like fresh basil. Here is what I have always done when my cherry tomatoes start coming in like gangbusters. Cut cherry tomatoes in half, roll up basil leaves and juliene, crumble some feta cheese, toss everthing with a bit of olive oil in which you have allowed a crushed clove of garlic to marinate for at least a few hours, grind black pepper on top to taste. I don't add salt to this, but taste to see what you think. I find the feta to add enough saltiness for me. The salad can be eaten right away, but it is best when it has been able to meld for an hour or so. With some warm, crusty italian bread, I could eat this for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Carmellia Ooops, P.S. The reason I am visiting this forum is because I want to make some V-8 juice this year. Do you ever juice your tomatoes? Have a recipe you would share?

I've made minestrone twice since seeing this recipe because it looked like the most interesting one I had seen, and I liked the comments from others who had made it. I made some revisions of my own (see link below). I omitted the frozen green beans and increased the amount of zucchini. My brother prefers it without spinach, and I've made it both ways and tend to agree with him - the spinach stays extremely hot and tends to burn my mouth, and it doesn't add appreciably to the flavor. I used farfalline pasta instead of shell pasta, and I did add some tomato paste. I also did not drain the tomatoes, and since I used whole ones, I puréed them in the can after draining them. When I chopped them instead of puréeing them, DB fished them out and wouldn't eat them. The first time I made it with canned beans because I didn't have time to cook dried beans, but the next time I cooked dried beans instead, and it was very much better. The canned beans made it taste like canned soup. My last adjustment was in the amount of celery - I first attempted to increase the celery, but this made it too crunchy, about DB preferred that. I thought it would help make up for the omission of the green beans. Anyway, this is now one of my favorite soups to make. Thanks for sharing this! Lars Here is a link that might be useful: Lars' version of Minestrone

Substituting honey for molasses? Depends on how much is used in the bread. If it's a yeast or quick bread and the amount is less than 1/2 c., probably no problem using honey for molasses, but when using equal amounts, you'll find more sweetening from the same amount of honey as you would get from molasses. Be aware that foods brown quickly when using honey. To adjust for over-browning, reduction of temperature by 25° is sometimes advised (especially when the amount of honey is 1/2 cup or more), or you can cover your bread with a tent of foil for a period of time, to prevent over-browning or even burning before it's completely baked. Molasses (blackstrap) is 70% sucrose and is about one-half as sweet as sugar. While honey is fructose, glucose, and sucrose and can be 20% to 60% sweeter than white sugar, but with a composition very similar to table sugar. So if substituting large amounts of molasses with honey, you may need to reduce the amount of honey because it's much sweeter than molasses. You could also try using 1/2 molasses and 1/2 honey. Molasses does add some flvoring, as well as coloring. I'll add information about sorghum (aka sorghum syrup/sorghum molasses) for Jan "gourd friends". While molasses is made from sugar cane or sugar beets, sorghum comes from the sorghum plant and it's properties are very similar to those of black-strap molasses and are good substitutes one for another. Watch out for "blended" sorghum products. Many are cut with high-fructose corn syrup, which makes it sweeter than plain old sorghum. You can add to this syrupy mix, 100% pure cane syrup (like Steen's), treacle (another name for molasses), golden syrup, and maple syrup. All can usually be substitutes one for the other, but all have different flavors and will differ in sweetness. There are a number of substitions that can be made for molasses; for a cup of molasses the following may be used (with varying degrees of success): 1 cup honey, or ¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar, or 1 cup dark corn syrup, 1 cup granulated sugar with 1/4 cup water, or 1 cup pure maple syrup. -Grainlady

When it comes to fresh tomatoes, my first go-to is the sandwich. What kind? Every kind! Tomatoes on whole wheat. Tomatoes on toasted whole wheat. Tomatoes on toasted whole wheat with mayo. Tomatoes on toasted whole wheat with olive oil and garlic powder... yep, every combination, every type of healthy bread. Throw on some cheese... what kind of cheese? Nearly any kind of cheese! Good American, provolone, Swiss, baby Swiss, lacey Swiss, baby lacey Swiss... lol... so many delicious choices. One of my favs is fresh tomato, avocado, and sprouts on lightly toasted, rustic whole wheat bread with olive oil, salt, and a light sprinkling of garlic powder... Yum... I could live on tomato sandwiches. When I haven't had protein... I slice a slab of raw tofu and toss that on! Super yum!