They are abundantly ripe right now here in GA. Jesse wanted to make dinner tonight for the first time ever and I was so glad that the recipe he chose was pasta with fresh tomato sauce. We collected the eight tomatoes off of the kitchen windowsill where Nicolas had placed them yesterday, dipped them in boiling water in order to easily peel off their skins (x-ing their bottoms with a knife first), chopped them up into a pot with lots of garlic and a bit of olive oil and cooked it for 15 minutes. Jesse ripped up some basil from the farm and sprinkled that over the sauce on each plate and we all added parmesan cheese to finish. That and a tossed green salad with homemade dressing made up our first Jesse meal. It was simple, delicious and made up mostly of vegetables from the farm - our favorite kind of meal. The cook was inspired by having seen "Ratatouille" earlier in the week. It's great. And I have a rat phobia. So that's saying a lot.
Tomorrow - Jesse has planned to make tomatoes and mozarella with basil. Last week we had tomato sandwiches and BLTs. Next week I want to put up tomato sauce and salsa.
Nicolas has been asked to lead an hour-long cooking demo. on heirloom tomatoes at Harry's Farmer's Market (expensive chain grocery store) in Alpharetta - this Sat. He had thought he'd be the side-kick to a chef. He found out yesterday that he is the main man. I heard his shocked response to this update when he was talking to the person from Harry's on the phone -
"How will I demonstrate cooking heirloom tomatoes for a whole hour? There is only 5-10 minutes of talking I can do about this - you slice them, add salt and eat them. You can add some cheese or basil or bread, but you don't need to... I'll give you 15 minutes."
He is so right. An heirloom tomato, when in season, doesn't need embellishment. It is perfect on it's own. We would never even use it in a sauce. I'll have to take some pictures of these big old ugly, lush fruits in the next few days. I hope you're getting to sample some this summer and if you have any clever ideas for the Alpharetta shoppers, please let me know.
About Me
- Madeline Rains
- GA, United States
- I am an unschooling mom of two boys who are now 12 and 15. I have been married for seventeen years to Nicolas who is from Belgium and is an organic vegetable farmer. We love to travel but farming doesn't always make that really easy. Fortunately, we have close family in Holland, Montana, NY, MA and Australia so in order to see them we hope to be forced to occasionally take a big trip... in the meantime, we farm, play yu-gi-oh, play baseball, make up games, watch movies, play world of warcraft and hang out with friends.
Awards
6 comments:
Tomatoes!!! I love 'em!
I bought some at the farmer's market a couple of weeks ago... Scotty wanted to chop them for salad - I almost went ballistic (luckily I remembered I was at his mother's house!) - they're for eating whole! with Salt! like an apple!! He gave me *that look* (I'm getting used to it now) and put down the tomatoes :)
I want a recording of Nicolas talking Tomatoes... I just want to hear that most sexy voice speaking on my most favorite foods! Does your super camera do videos with sound?
He should do his 15 minute talk a couple of times, so all who want to get a chance to hear him... Me? I'd SO be there for the whole hour :D probably with juice and seeds running down the front of me!
LOL!!! You are so fabulous. I would grant your wish and record him, absolutely, if I didn't have to take Jesse to a birthday party far far away from Harry's Market.
Awesome pictures! Isn't a new camera fun?
And now I'm hungry for good tomatoes. I'll have to wait a couple weeks I think to get them up here in the north. Planning on canning too so if you have to die for recipes...
Yummy, I would love to see the demo, too. I love tomatos sooo much, last year, I ate so many I have unfortunately developed an allergy :(
How do you like your new camera so far? I'm looking for a new one, ours is broken.
I love the new camera! Nikon D70 - they don't make them anymore but you can buy them used. You should check it out. My sister prefers cannons. A lot of people are either Cannon peope or Nikon people, apparently. I had Nikon lenses from my Nikon FG so I am now and forever a Nikon person!
I can't eat too many tomatoes or I get reactions to the acidity. The yellow tomatoes have less acidity so I trade off eating those and the red.
Mmmmm, tomatoes. I didn't appreciate them as child (unless they were pureed and poured into a jar with a heinz or hunts label), but once I got into my 2o's...
we have a tomoto plant outside our backdoor it has the cutest tomatoes on it...soon, Kimba, soon!
enjoy your new camera!!
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