Our tomato season seems to be drawing to an early close due to rampant blight (the picture below is from a few weeks ago -- today all the lower leaves are brown and crispy.) It's necessary to enjoy our Cherokee Purples and other ripe fresh beauties while we still have them. All too soon we'll be in tomato withdrawal.
So I did what any right-thinking tomato fanatic would do -- had a tomato sandwich for breakfast...
And for lunch, the ultimate pimento cheese sandwich -- made sublime by the addition of basil and tomato. (First suggested to me last year by Vagabonde.) Totally amazing flavors.
All afternoon a big pot of tomato sauce simmered on the stove -- the rest of the current batch of ripe tomatoes, peppers and basil from the garden, onions and garlic. Some went on pasta for supper and the rest went into the freezer, to bring a bit of summer to our winter fare.
A hint of Fall is in the air. It's time to clean up some of the garden beds that are done and make room for fall planting -- lettuce, chard, beets, kale, and collards.
And time for a few more tomato sandwiches. Plus, Sam over at My Carolina Kitchen has just posted some really tantalizing recipes for heirloom tomato tarts...
Gather ye tomatoes while you may, as the poet (almost) said.
19 comments:
We like tomatoes on tuna salad sandwiches! I've never tried it on pimento cheese.
I'm reading this, pre-breakfast. Now I'm just about ready start eating.
Oh Vicki, that looks delicious! Tomatoes are very wholesome and can be eaten with any meal as you have shown to us!
ha had tomato sandwiches for dinner last night....have never tried that trick with the pimento cheese though...hmm....
That looks wonderful! Our plants are covered with fruit but nothing's getting ripe except the grape tomatoes. Tough to make sauce from those little suckers!
I am really dreading the tomato withdrawal. The tomatoes, as well as the peaches, have been spectacular this summer and I can't seem to get my fill. Glad you liked my tomato tart, but nothing beats a good ole tomato sandwich.
Sam
Tomatoes make almost anything better. What a GREAT idea for breakfast! Maybe a scrambled egg, tomato, and bread of choice. YUM!!
Can you tell I'm trying to diet? Which means I'm eating with my eyes with your delicious blogs! Thank you.
It always seems a pity to me that tomatoes are available all year round if one wishes. Summer ripr tomatoes are perfect and worth waiting for. Spring is coming in NZ and tomato season will come again. I'm ready and waiting!
Ahhhhh but we are just about to come into tomato season!!!!! My mouth waters at the thought of home grown tomatoes, fresh bread with lashings of butter, salt and pepper!!!!!
If you have to rescue the green tomatoes before the vine gives out completely, add some cabbage, onions and peppers for chow chow. I did that two summers ago when a friend blessed us with late summer gleanings and it was fabulous.
Nothing like a tomato and mayo sandwich! Life can't get any better!
@ Joan: Tomatoes are nominally available all year round, but they only actually taste like tomatoes in the summer; most of the rest of the year, they taste like plastic. And, depending on your grocery store, they taste like plastic always. :(
@ June: but you can do other things with grape tomatoes. For example (assuming you do not abstain from alcohol), there's "Merry Tomatoes". Take your grape (or other similarly very small, bite-size) tomatoes and prick a small hole in the stem end of each. Place in bowl and pour in enough vodka to cover. Let them sit for at least a few hours -- all day is just fine. Better, even. Just before the party starts, drain (but reserve the vodka) and serve with toothpicks and a dipping bowl with pepper salt, or lemon pepper, or other pepper / salt / flavouring of your choice. These things disappear like nobody's business, I tell ya! The drained-off vodka is great for bloody marys (maries?), or even just on its own, iced.
@ Vicki: Your family is so tremendously lucky: fresh food, and you to cook it. If your meals taste anywhere near as good as they look ... ohhhh, my! --Mario
I know what treat we'll be having at out next party. Now does one post a warning sign? I suppose that would be best, realizing that some folks avoid alcohol. How many Cheery tomatoes would it take to get a bit elevated? "Oh, can you imagine a sorrier sight/Than folks eating maters until they get tight?"
OH...yum...fresh tomatoes. :-) I love tomatoes on toast! Weird to read comments about fall being in the air; we're not even close to fall in Arizona! LOL
Tomatoes on whole-grain toast with a smidge of butter, salt and pepper, the last of dinner's sauteed mushrooms...divine.
Ohhh ... "Cheery tomatoes" ... an even better name for them than "Merry tomatoes", Vicki, thanks! And, yes, you do make sure everyone there knows what they're getting into. It's quite possible to become thoroughly perschnockered on these things. --Mario R.
grilled pimento cheese with tomato is my fav...awesome
grilled pimento cheese with tomato is my fav...awesome
Homegrown tomatoes, surely one of summer's greatest gifts. Except for that darn blight...
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