Add a little flair to your special holiday meals with maple leaf-shaped butter. I found a wonderful "maple leaf" cookie cutter set by Fox Run Craftsmen. The smallest size in the set is a perfect size for a butter pat, 1.25". www.foxruncraftsmen.com.

Take a stick of butter which has been cooled in the refrigerator. Remove paper. Cut 3 or 4 butter pats at a time on a cutting board. Take your cookie cutter and place it in a bowl of warm water, dap excess water on a paper towel or kitchen towel, dab same cookie cutter in a plate of shallow table sugar, and then press your cookie cutter face down into an individual pat of butter. The warmth of your cookie cutter will make an easy outline of a leaf in your butter pat. Remove excess butter around cookie cutter, and remove your finished leaf-shaped butter pat from the cookie cutter. Repeat process till you finish stick(s) of butter. Arrange finished butter leaves on a table-ready dish for serving. Cover and refrigerate until you are ready to serve.

Interesting butter shapes are not limited to leaves. Look for any charming cookie cutter shape that is within the size of a butter pat. One can flavor butter with honey, herbs, or spices beforehand. If you did not want to dip your cookie cutter in sugar, you could use salt.

  I have just about eaten all of my tomatoes grown on the vine for this season. It is a short season, but "oh so tasty" a season. Being in Zone 11, tomato growing can be something of a challenge. Each year I seem to get a little better at growing and harvesting the rewards. Every spring I search out new tomato seedlings to try and experiment growing. This year had several stars.

There are tomatoes in just about every rainbow color. I'm drawn to the black and purple, like Black Prince, Black Krim, and Cherokee Purple for their smoky, earthy flavors. I also lean towards the orange and yellow tomatoes...something that will pop out at you in a salad, pizza, or salsa.

One of the biggest surprises, and tomato stars for me this year was "Jubilee". It is a bright orange, fleshy textured fruit that is prolific on the vine. It was the All-American Bronze Medal winner in 1943.    Another star was "Fuzzy Peach", a 100 year old heirloom which actually looks like a lemon-colored peach, and has the fuzzy texture, to bout. When it ripens it has a slight blush pink color. It is a mild tasty tomato, which was delightful when I used it in my homemade salsa. It is about 2 ounces in size, and has outstanding storage ability, too. 

An enduring tomato star is the heirloom cherry tomato, "Sun Gold".  It is actually golden orange in color. It is so sweet and unforgettable in taste, it is hard not to eat them all right in the garden. The fruit grows in sprays of 6 to 8 together, so pretty, one can imagine using them as a subject in a painting.

I had never grown the fabulous hybrid tomato, "Celebrity" until this year.  I was so surprised at the colossal, beautiful red, firm, flavorful fruit it produced.  Colossal, meaning one slice will cover your entire hamburger, and then some. The vine as it grew was very strong and even sprawled up and over the rusted antique iron bed frame I provided for support. With this beauty, I felt that I was officially a successful tomato grower.

Some key tips to growing tomatoes successfully: 1)  mulch your soil well before planting, 2) plant in a warm sunny area, 8 hours of sun ideally, and when night temperatures are consistently above 50 degrees, 3) plant your tomato seedling deep-stems will root once planted, 4) water deeply and frequently in the beginning and less as the tomato plant matures, 5) fertilize your seedling plant when first planted, a month or so later, and then on an as needed basis, and 6) rotate your tomato spot in your garden each year if possible.

Finding tomato seedling sources is as much fun as growing them. There is always your favorite local nursery.  Other sources I have used in San Diego are: www.summerspastfarms.com, www.tomatomania.com and www.pearsonsgardens.com.

One important step in the process of making wine is transferring your "barrel ready" wine to individual bottles to be corked, labeled, boxed, and further aged in a proper storage environment until the winemaker deems the wine ready.  The process of doing this is simple using a self-primed pump, three-bottle bottler, corking machine, ready-to-fill clean wine bottles, and a lot of enthusiastic help from your friends.

Have you ever heard the expression, "garage wine"?  Sometimes wine growers and wine makers have only a garage or a non-traditional building to make their wine in.  Don't knock "garage wine",  some can produce exquisite wine with cult following--generally from smaller volumes and relentless attention to detail . Did you happen to catch the reference to "garage wine" in the wonderful, Provence-based movie, A Good Year starring Russell Crow.

My husband and I are proud "garage wine" makers, hence our label, Le Vin De Garage. We made a Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and a 60/40 blend of the two from grapes we purchased from the pristine Guadalupe Valley in Baja, Mexico last year.

We are emptying our barrels and transferring to bottles, because it is time, but also, we must prepare the barrels for this year's harvest. Last year's wine is put into bottles, the inside barrels are pressure-sprayed  with water, and sulfured for storage until the 2008 harvest in a few weeks. When done all of the hoses, equipment, tools are cleaned, sanitized, and stored ready for the next time.

The newly bottled wine in boxes is best placed cork down for a week or so to wet the cork. Boxes are then turned right side up, and left to recover from bottle shock for about six weeks. Bottle shock is a temporary condition of wine characterized by muted or disjointed fruit flavors. It often occurs immediately after bottling or when wines are shaken in travel.

VintageGardenGal commenced on September 4, 2008!