The Five-Day Tomato Salad...

One of the most depressing parts of winter is the farmers market. During the winter months, there are less than half a dozen venders. During the other three seasons, there are six rows of bustling shoppers. If you are not at the market by seven a.m. all the good produce is gone.

 

I am a faithful market shopper; during the winter months, I typically only get eggs and pork sausage. The market has farmers, wholesale and reseller venders. Saturday morning, my husband mentioned he wanted a BLT for lunch. I reminded him that I would have to visit the grocery store to get them. I then complained that some of the reseller venders should have been at the market, since Florida tomatoes and strawberries were showing up in the grocery store.

 

The farmers market god must have been smiling down at me this morning. When I arrived, there was a resale vender with tomatoes. Thank goodness, the tomatoes were green house and not imported tomatoes treated with gas to make them ripen.

 

Now if my two partners in crime, Debbe from Windy Hill Orchards and Linda from Marshall Farms would magically show up with peaches, potatoes, tomatoes and apples the farmers market would be my favorite place again. Hurry up Spring!!!

 

My mother gave the five-day tomato salad recipe to me years ago. The only problem I have with this salad is I can never make it past day one.

 

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Seven Layer Casserole...

We have all heard of and maybe even consumed seven layer dip, but what about seven layer casserole? I saw on Southern Food while looking for a tamale pie recipe and thought it was interesting. I would suggest adding a taco seasoning, omitting the bacon and changing the tomato sauce with a can of Rotel. Before serving top with salsa, sour cream and guacamole. I would serve with refried beans and tortillas.

Ingredients:

·         1 cup uncooked rice, washed and drained

·         1 cup whole kernel corn, drained

·         dash salt and pepper

·         1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce and 1/2 cup water

·         1/2 cup chopped onion

·         1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper

·         3/4 to 1 pound extra lean ground beef, uncooked and broken up

·         dash salt and pepper

·         1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained

·         4 strips bacon, cut in half

·         1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese or Cheddar Jack blend

Preparation:

Layer the ingredients in a buttered 1 1/2- to 2-quart casserole in the order given. Cover and bake at 350° for 1 hour. Uncover and cook 30 minutes longer, until bacon is crisp. Top the casserole with the shredded cheese the last 10 to 15 minutes.
Seven layer casserole serves 4.

La Madeline’s Tomato Basil Soup...

When I worked in downtown Fort Worth, once a month, I would take my employees out to lunch at La Madeline. La Madeline’s is a French Country Café, which has locations in Texas, Louisiana, Virginia, Maryland, Washington DC and Georgia.

One of my favorite items to order was the Tomato Basil Soup. Before tasting this soup, I did not know tomato soup could taste so wonderful!

This soup is so popular; in 1994, the Fort Worth Star Telegram food editor said she would get a minimum of 10 calls per week from people looking for this recipe. Oh yeah, you take a spoonful of this cream red soup in your mouth, and sigh with satisfaction it is that good.

You can use canned tomatoes for this soup, but if you have fresh, it will make a big difference. Make sure you also have a good fresh French Bread to eat along with the soup!

Ingredients:

4 cups fresh tomatoes, cored, peeled, and chopped (8-10) or canned whole tomatoes, crushed
4 cups tomato juice (or part vegetable or part chicken stock)
12-14 basil leaves, washed fresh
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 lb sweet unsalted butter
salt
1/4 teaspoon cracked black pepper
lemon juice (optional)

Directions:

Combine tomatoes, juice/and or stock in saucepan.

 Simmer 30 minutes.

 Purees, along with the basil leaves, in small batches, in blender, food processor or use an immersion hand blenders. Return to saucepan and add cream and butter, while stirring, over low heat. Garnish with basil leaves and serve with your favorite bread.

Tomatoes…

I know you are saying, “It is the end of the summer, why are you writing about tomatoes?”

Last fall we moved new part of the country, and the planting season starts later here. By the time, spring came around my son and I were craving to get our hands into the soil and plant a garden. We were not sure how much shade the trees surrounding the yard were going to give us. We settled on planting in buckets in case we had to rearrange for sunlight.

Every Saturday morning, I get up way to early and visit the local farmers market. One of the venders sells plants and during the spring has tomatoes. My son and I went a little wild and bought eight different varieties.

The tomatoes did ok, but with too much rain this year, a good percentage of the fruit rotted on the vine. We had one powerhouse producer called Jellybean. These little tomatoes look like red jellybeans and have a wonderful taste. Most of them did not make into the house; we would pop them in our mouth between swimming in the pool. 

Daily harvest of Jellybean tomatoes

Here we are now at the end of September, and my tomato plants have decided to go bonkers pumping out fruit. One plant produced three tomatoes the entire summer, now it has close to thirty good size green tomatoes.

So what should I do with them? I could fry them, but my family is not big on fried tomatoes. I cannot process them; I do not have a pressure cooker. I have made salsa; but I do not have a way to process it. I could be freeze them, but the freezer is bursting now with freezer jam and other tasty foodstuffs.

My only option is hope the tomatoes will a get a chance to ripen. Then, I can make the lovely Tomato Pie recipe I found over on Christy Jordan’s Southern Plate this summer. I have made this and it is good as written, but my family would not touch it.

If you would like the recipe here is the link http://www.southernplate.com/2012/06/tomato-pie.html

I personally did not care for the mayonnaise on top. Christy states you could not taste it, I did.  For my family to eat this I would follow the step of salting the tomatoes and letting them sit, delete the mayo, double the fresh basil and balsamic vinegar. Increase the layering while using Italian cheeses, like Mozzarella, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and a Smokey Provolone. This way would be making it more of a sauce less tomato pizza.

This is what makes cooking is so much fun, you get to tinker and adjust recipes to your preferences.

As always, pass this along to your friends!

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Stew or Soup? You Decide...

My parents were born in raised in Kentucky, my husband’s in Texas. Here lies the base to an eighteen-year long debate over is it stew or soup.

Growing up when mom made stew it was a thick gravy sauce, with beef, potatoes, peas and a single bay leaf that always managed to end up in some ones bowl. Mom served it with bread and butter.

My husband grew up with stew that was broth based, beef, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes and one onion. He eats it with crackers.

Can you see where the debate comes from?

My loving husband states it is because he is from the south and they put tomatoes in everything. I have been deemed a Yankee. Well I hate to break this to my husband, but his father's side of the family was not even American's during the Civil War! When the namesake did immigrate to America, he went to Kentucky. Therefore, if I am a Yankee, he is too!

I will leave each of you to decide which label you would like to classify this recipe, in our house it is called "Oh, that’s good!" 

If you have a picky eater like mine. Try a ladle full with only a small bit of broth and top with shredded cheddar jack cheese.

Paddy's Beef Stew (Soup)

1 ½ to 2 lbs of beef stew meat or roast cut into 2 inch pieces

1 yellow onion, coarsely chopped

3 carrots sliced

4 large potatoes, chopped to bite size pieces

2 large (28-30 oz) cans of whole tomatoes

Ground pepper

1 Tablespoon of vegetable oil

In soup pot, add oil and brown stew meat (personally, I add crushed garlic or garlic powder to the meat at this point.) Add enough water to cover meat, cover pot and let simmer until meat is tender. (If you have meat tenderizer go ahead and sprinkle some in) Simmer until almost all of the water has evaporated from pot, usually takes 1 ½ hours.

Add potatoes, onion and carrots.  Crush tomatoes while adding to pot along with the juice.

Cover pot and simmer until vegetables are done, season with pepper to taste.

Crock-pot version – Yes, you can make stew in a crock-pot!

Place meat tenderizer, stew meat, pepper, (garlic,) onion and enough water to reach almost halfway of crock-pot. Set to highest setting, replace lid and let simmer for 6 hours.

After six hours, water should be mostly gone. Place carrots and potatoes in a microwavable dish (I prefer an 8-cup Pyrex measuring cup) cover with water and microwave on high for ten minutes. The vegetables should fork tender but not completely cooked. Add tomatoes, potatoes and carrots to crock-pot and let cook for an hour on high temperature.