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It’s a week from Thanksgiving, but we are still eeking out the last of the fresh summer produce. I hate to see it dwindle away, so even the bowl of last-ripening tomatoes from the garden, even those turning a bit wrinkly, were used this week along with the leeks that grew slowly in the shadow of those tomatoes. Luckily, we found an excellent recipe for using lots of tomatoes quickly – it will tolerate canned tomatoes, but is well improved by homegrown ones, and fits well with the occasionally snowy weather lately.

Fresh Tomato Tiny Pasta Soup

• 1 tablespoon olive oil


• 1/2 to 1 cup alliums (onions are fine, we used the last of the garden leeks this time)


• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced


• 3 pounds (yes, pounds – or use 4 14.5 oz. cans of diced tomatoes) fresh tomatoes, coarsely chopped


• 3 cups vegetable broth


• 1 tablespoon minced fresh or frozen basil


• 1 tablespoon minced fresh or frozen marjoram


• 1 tablespoon minced fresh or frozen oregano


• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper


• 3/4 cup uncooked tiny bowtie pasta, rosamarina, tiny stars, or other tiny pasta


• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add alliums and garlic (technically also an allium); cook and stir until alliums are tender. Add tomatoes, broth, basil, marjoram, oregano and black pepper.

Bring to a boil; reduce heat. Cover; simmer 25 minutes. Remove from heat; cool slightly.

Puree tomato mixture in a food processor or blender in batches. Return to saucepan; bring to a boil. Add pasta; cook 7 to 9 minutes or until tender. Transfer to serving bowls. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. (8 servings-ish).

Yum. The last of the garden now consists of some brave lettuce and a handful of carrots, resting comfortably in the ground (easier than constructing a root cellar in a basement apartment). But we do have many jars of pickled green tomatoes, so even if a blizzard caused us to lose power, I suppose we’d be eating garden goods still. I have a feeling the soup is more satisfying than the pickled green tomatoes, though.

Early this morning, I heard a terrible sound from the toilet like a monster blowing bubbles as he rises to the surface. Falling back asleep, I heard a sharp crack: the futon I had fallen asleep on the night before was breaking underneath me, and collapsed on one end as I stumbled off of it. When I got to the bathroom, it turned out that both the toilet and the tub had overflowed, with a half inch of water across the entire floor.  And at breakfast, an angry white cat paced the windows, mewing to be let in and pushing at the edges, all while I’m rushing out the door for an engineering meeting.

The cat has since disappeared, the futon has been completely repaired, and the apartment fix-it dude scratched his head about the backed up drains and blamed the city’s street construction project a block away.

A non-skeptic would blame a poltergeist, but really, what would a poltergeist achieve by harassing in this manner? I’m not afraid of the cat, I knew the futon would need fixing soon, and living in a low-level apartment means plumbing issues on occasion, even if it regulates temperature nicely. Perhaps the coincidences merely push me away from musing about going for the first-time homeowner tax credit…it’s nice to call a dude when your bathroom floods and you have to go to a meeting ASAP. So if a poltergeist exists, it’d have to be a liberatarian conservative, annoyed by swedish furniture, energy efficient sublevel apartments and governments handing out tax credits for simply buying a home. Hmm. I think I’ve strayed further from the believable with this plan. Maybe “stuff breaks” is a more accurate theory.