The Normanator's Handiwork...is he a KEEPER or is he a KEEPER?
Whether you call them tomatoes or tomAHtoes; whether you eat them fresh or preserve them all luscious in jars that sparkle with their red goodness-it all means great eating year round.
So many tomatoes! So little time! So how can we present them to our families so they do not groan and complain, “Oh, no! Not tomatoes AGAIN!”
Mom used to stuff tomatoes with tuna or chicken salad on little beds of lettuce. We always thought that was the chi-chi poo-poo version and that must be what people ate who had servants.
SIDEBAR: Most who find their way to this blog do not have servants! We are the uber thrifty; we use EBT cards from public assistance like SNAP or WIC. We might have food from a food pantry or we might use food commodities. Farmers Markets coupons could get us some tomatoes. We might even use Angel Food Ministries. Servants are not an option. END SIDEBAR.
My mom also made a brine for chopped tomatoes. She would use vinegar, salt, pepper and a little sugar. Sometimes there were cucumbers and/or onions swimming in a bowl of that. She reused that brine, adding tomatoes as we ate them. This was a summertime staple on the table for lunch and dinner.
My dad taught me how to love tomato sammies for breakfast. He would slice some of Mom’s home made bread, lather it with butter and pile on slices of tomatoes from the garden. This was comfort food for me as I was growing up. Sometimes when I’m hungry and don’t know what I want, I still settle on tomato sammies!
Mom’s best friend, Helen, used to make a concoction using quartered tomatoes, garlic buds, onions and oil. She would spread it out over a baking sheet, drizzle the oil over all of it and pop it into the oven. When it came out, Helen would chop it up and pour it over cooked spaghetti noodles. She toasted garlic bread for us, too. We thought it was absolute luxury. And so it was!
Myra, our landlady, used to treat us to fried green tomatoes. As I recall, she dredged quarters of the green fruit in corn meal and fried them in oil. I can still remember sitting at her kitchen table, watching her work, and having her present me with a plate full of the beauties. Such delicious memories…
We eat breakfast at the ungodly hour of 1:30 AM. One of our faves is to stir up a few eggs and add chopped tomatoes to the pan. It makes for a flavorful and filling breakfast with lots of nourishment. Better yet; it is cost effective.
Call them tomatoes or call them tomAHtoes. They are delicious and nutritious whether they are fresh, cooked, canned or pickled. Even better than that, they are easy on the food budget!
What do YOU do with these beauties? I can’t wait to hear from you!
We appreciate you! Please consider yourselves hugged. Now I’m going to enjoy a tomato the way you might enjoy an apple: just with a shake of salt AND A NAPKIN TO CATCH THE JUICE DRIZZLES!
PS/There is a link below that will transport you to a website offering a healthy, cost effective way to clean your teeth. Please check it out. It’s important to save money any way we can and if we eat well and wisely and can keep our medical care costs low we have won TWICE!
Connie Baum
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