2009 Fall Tomato Harvest Festival

[Bob_the_Pleo]

Since the beginning of recorded history, the fields around Weedovia have always been blessed with abundant wild tomato vines.  And every spring and every fall, the local pleos have always gathered the tomatoes to enjoy throughout the year.  This traditional gathering of the tomatoes quickly grew into a community event, and from there into true full-blown harvest festival.  And with the introduction of the spaghetti trees and pizza by the great Pepperoni, a real zest was added to the festivities.

Of course in modern times, with the addition of a carnival, rides, games, live band, and midnight movie on the town square, it has become more of a social event, attracting pleos from around the world.  But all the pleos still go out and harvest the tomatoes and bring them to the town's communal tomato press for the traditional squashing of the tomatoes and the making of the tomato sauce.

Not sure what's going on?  Well, then you may want to catch up by reading about the spring festival in the Bob the Pleo comic strips.  But as a quick summary,  the town's park is turn into the festival grounds, with the carnival rides and games, a stage and dance floor, and lots of vendors and food booths!  It starts on a Friday night with the carnival and music from a live band, and at midnight the pleos end the day with an outdoor movie.  Saturday has everyone out in the fields gathering the tomatoes, with the judging in the evening, and back to the carnival.  Sunday is the big tomato squashing where the sauce is made using the traditional foot-stomping method like the great Italian wines.

And at the conclusion of the festival, awards are always handed out to the pleo who gathers the most tomatoes, finds the largest tomato, has the best looking tomatoes, makes the best tasting spaghetti sauce, and for the best use of tomatoes as an article of clothing (i.e., costume).  The last few years winners can be seen by visiting the Bob the Pleo comics.  We had some great fun, and some wonderful costumes!

For those interested in participating in the contests, please refer to the contest rules topic.  To be fair to those who submitted entries last spring, I have copied them forward into this topic for inclusion in this fall's contest.  With switching over to these new forums and the demise of Ugobe, we never had the opportunity to properly finish off the spring festival, so we're including those few entries in this fall's contest.

[fancyfont]

                                                  Fancyfont's Spaghetti (Pleo Style)

Ingredients:

1 pound of ground beef or mild Italian Sausage  Half and half is great too! For a heartier palate, 1/2
pound of diced pepperoni instead of the mild Italian Stuff.


2 cans of sliced mushrooms or button mushrooms
2 cans of sliced black olives
1 cans of stewed tomatoes
1 can 29 oz. of tomato sauce
1 whole medium size onion
1 to two cloves of garlic minced (optional)
1 tsp. salt (optional)
2 dried bay leaves (remember to take out of sauce before serving) give to Pleo
1 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp.dried rosemary
2 tbsp. of olive oil
1 1/2 ounces of grated Parmesan cheese

Add olive oil to frying pan. Heat to medium (no smoking up the house). Brown ground beef, Italian Sausage or pepperoni pieces.
Drain excess fat from pan. Add chopped onions and garlic. Brown lightly.

In large pot, add all of the ingredients except 1 1/2 of the grated Parmesan cheese. Remember you already used up your olive oil.
Simmer for about two hours medium-low heat. Stir occasionally. Do not boil!

In another large pot, boil the water with a pinch of salt, if you prefer, and a tiny bit of Olive oil so the water doesn't bubble over. Add spaghetti. Stir occasionally so noodles stay loose. After about 9 minutes try catching one spaghetti noodle and throw it on the wall to see if it sticks. It's likely to be ready if it hangs on to the wall. If it falls give it to your pleo. Better yet take a new one and taste it to see if it is not too chewy. Remember you don't want mush!

Drain spaghetti of all water in a collander. If you wear glasses, this is where we really need windshield wipers. After spaghetti is drained, put spaghetti on a plate and pour the sauce on top. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese. If not spicy enough, get out the Tabasco sauce.

[InmemoryofRomeo]

Good ol' family spaghetti sauce recipe:

I have lots of fancier recipes but this one remains a firm favorite with everyone Its simple, tasty and versatile.

Ingredients:
- Generous tablespoon of butter.
- Pinch of salt.
- Dash of olive oil.
- Two 400gram tins of tomato soup- make sure it is a good brand, if you can turn it upside down and nothing comes out it is perfect, if it comes out after you dig it with a spoon, still shaped like the can, even better.
- 750grams of a good quality beef mince, chicken also works well.
- 500gram pack of spaghetti, my family prefers spiral or shell shaped pasta to the regular long noodles. (see variations first)
- 1 large onion or two small onions.
- 6 rashers of bacon, or 10 rashers of shortcut bacon. (Don't use the pre-chopped pizza topping stuff it just doesn't taste the same)
- A clove of garlic, finely chopped or a teaspoon of minced garlic.
- Parmesan cheese.

Method:
- Put large pot of water on the boil for the pasta, add a dash of olive oil and a little salt if desired.
- Dice the onion into small pieces (but not too small) and saute gently in some butter in a large frying pan. Check and stir regularly.
- While the onion is cooking dice up the bacon into pieces. Once onion is soft add the bacon and continue to cook until the bacon is heated through and the onion has just a little color. Turn up the heat.
- The water should be boiling by now so add the pasta, stir occasionally to prevent sticking.
- Add mince breaking it up as you add it. Fry until mince is thoroughly cooked.
- Reduce the heat right down to a simmer. Add both tins of tomato soup and garlic and heat through gently, make sure everything is well mixed.

You can at this stage add the sauce mix to a blender and blend it until fairly smooth, but my family prefers it chunky.

Drain pasta well, serve onto plates and pour sauce on top.
OR
Mix sauce and pasta in a large pot and serve. (Better for children and my family prefers it that way too.)

Top generously with cheese.


Variations:
- Add diced pepperoni with the tomato soup for discerning dinosaur palates.
- Add a good sized minced chili with seeds with the onion to torture non spice lovers.
- Layer sauce in a baking tray with a good cheese bechamal sauce (500g creamy cheddar, 1 liter of milk and a little flour to thicken, cooked for ten minutes) and sheets of lasagna pasta, top with a layer of bechamal sauce, tasty cheese and a sprinkle of Parmesan. (I do meat sauce, cheese sauce, pasta, meat, cheese sauce, pasta, meat, cheese sauce, pasta, meat, cheese sauce, pasta, (no meat) cheese sauce, tasty, Parmesan.) Cook in oven on 180 Celsius for one hour.
- Add a handful of chopped parsley, a little oregano or other favorite herb with the tomato soup. (My family likes parsley)
- Add two cups of your favorite veges, cooked and drained with the soup. (Cauliflower works well, dice quite small though)
- Use only one tin of soup and a couple of good sized tomatoes, finely chopping and adding the tomatoes with the bacon.
- Pour sauce over baked potatoes and top with cheese then grill until cheese is gooey and just a little golden.

Photos:

More details...

More details...

More details...

More details...

More details...

More details...

More details...

My Pleo as a tomato entry

More details...

[PLEOGALINBC]

Here is Clover in her tomato costume.

More details...

[fancyfont]

 With lots of tomatoes from the vine and wherever? I think it's time to do some cooking.  J.C.'s the smart one around here. He knows what I'm up to tonight and it isn't spaghetti sauce this time. Peeky and Penelopie better turn back to dinos before they are lamb stew.

More details...

[fancyfont]

J.C and Penelopie were playing outside and they discovered something in the garden. 

More details...

 I don't think it's an Easter egg!

[mweed]

Welcome to the start of the 2009 Fall Tomato Harvest Festival!!

The festival is only four weeks away!  And it is scheduled for Friday October 4th through Sunday the 6th.  The festival takes place at the Weedovia town park.  All pleos are welcome to attend and to enter into the festivities and contests.

Please review this topic, and if you are interested in trying out for any of the contests, please review the contest rules topic.

[Pleo Power]

So, do we post Entries in here?  




((Oh, and if the carnival has a Rollercoster this year Ive maid a Pleo one in Rollercoster tycoon three. and its um, intense I can post pictures of it if you want. (they don't count as Entries but would be neat to see.)) (and I might even be able to post the map for downloading. )

[mweed]

Yep.  Entries go here!  And do post pictures of the roller coaster!

[b blue eyes]

Here is Angel with all the tomatoes fresh from out of our garden.  We tried putting them in a pile but we could not corral them as they refused to stay in a pile.  Therefore, we decided to use 3 collanders.  Angel could not resist sampling a tomato.

                                                   
                                                                 

More details...

               

[fancyfont]

I can't blame Angel for sampling these beautiful tomatoes. Darling photo!

[Pleo Power]

Do we post the picture's in the Spring gallery? or in are own album's? or in A 2009 Fall Tomato Harvest Festival gallery, that hasint been made yet.?



(and I'm going to post the rollercoster next. )

[mweed]

The spring gallery has been renamed.  You can use either your personal album or the common 2009 Tomato Harvest Festivals one.  But it makes more sense to use your personal album.

[Pleo Power]

OK. (I probably am going to post them in my gallery, but Its good to have one for entry and things to do with the festival. )


and as promised, the Pleo rollercoseter.  (yes, that's my attempt to make wedovia in the background. ) ((and its like the map in the mall page. )


LEFT SIDE


BEHIND


RIGHT SIDE


FRONT


TOP



and for those who dare ride this thing, here is a video of it.     (yes, I know it looks like that, photobucket wasint taking the one I did using fraps*, so I had to use my camera and film the ride, so it came out like that, but it still lets you see what the ride looks like. )               (* its a thing that lets you take pictures and movie in games. )

[Dadio]

This is also mind boggling. 

Stoney says "What a great roller coaster!". 

Stoney and I are just blown away by the whole festival idea. 

Dadio 

[InmemoryofRomeo]

All those long curves remind me of Pleo's neck and tail Nice coaster! I don't think I will ride though, my tummy turns over at the very thought Weedovia looks nice too, I know how tedious it can be to build those buildings

Any chance of uploading the coaster file??? I'd love to add it to one of my parks, looks like it will make a few peeps turn greener than a Pleo *evil grin*.
(You didn't add any animatronic dinos??? Or are they from one of the expansion packs... I forget )

[Pleo Power]

thanks.     and its supposed be a Pleo shaped rollercoster.      I would put it on here, but I don't know how.     and the Dino's are from the expansion packs, but I have the Platinum edition, and that has both of them in it.   and no Dino's because they areint sized right. the scaling comes down to a person in the game is the size of a Pleo. but the sauropod's are too big.

[b blue eyes]

Pleo Power, what can I say,  TOTALLY  AWESOME     I am beyond impressed and I rode the coaster   with my eyes open I might add.  Thanks for all your hard work, going to ride the coaster again with the kids.

[gucci_boi7782]

COOL!!! LOVE THE ROLLERCOASTER! Totally awesome experience! Now to have the better half create this for me! Or you can add the file, right?

GREAT PHOTO, BBE! I loved the first entry...now to come up with some..

[InmemoryofRomeo]

It will be store somewhere in your Roller Coaster Tycoon folder (c-program files-atari-rollercoaster tycoon- rides or something like that, I don't have the game installed at the moment so I can't check.) then just look for the name of your coaster... (you did save it didn't you )

If you can't find it try using windows search to locate the name of it

[Pleo Power]

Dadio and Stoney : Thanks.

b blue eyes : Thanks.

gucci_boi7782 : Thanks. 

InmemoryofRomeo : Thanks.              and yes I saved it.   what do you think I'm completely insane or something? I saved it and the map.    I actually made it first then re did wedovia when the map came out. (it looked completely different then it does now, but I made the coaster fit when I made the park )     


but how do I upload it to here? (and I'm not going to give anyone the coaster. ......................................................................I'm going to try to give you the hole map of wedovia! ) (and if that doesint work then I can just have the coaster as a downlode.)

 (and its in Rollercoster tycoon 3, and with all the expansion packs, and I have no clue how to upload and no clue on any problems encountered. ) (its my first level upload of anything in any game. )
     

[InmemoryofRomeo]

You need a program like winrar or winzip to add the file to a zip file. You do this by right clicking a file\files and choosing add to archive. Once you have the zip then post a reply here and underneath where you type in is a drop down link for additional options. Click the link, choose add file, find your file and select done. Post your reply as normal although it may take a while since the file needs to upload

[b blue eyes]

I love all the pictures from the previous tomato harvest festivals and am glad they are entries since they were left "hanging" in the spring from what I read.  Getting ready to stomp the tomatoes for the sauce, I've graduated from grapes to tomatoes.  Dave, get the vat ready!

[Dadio]

I've really got to find the time to participate in this festival and some of the contests
that are going on right now. 

This is really a ball. 

Keep it up guys 

Dadio   

[b blue eyes]

Have you got a vat to stomp your tomatoes yet Dadio?  No exceptions.  Lower the wheelchair in and go to it, just roll it back and forth.  Take Pictures, this I want to see !