Making Light :: A recipe for tomato season :: comments

A recipe for tomato season

It's that time of year when fresh ripe tomatoes used to be really cheap. Maybe they still are somewhere, but...

A recipe for tomato season -- comment #1 from Scott Janssens

Sat, 15 Jun 2002 20:26:56 -0500

Went to the grocery store and indeed there were many tomatos on hand at $.99 per lb. Bought bunches and made your recipe... Dear God, that's tasty!

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Posted June 15, 2002 8:26 PM by Scott Janssens

A recipe for tomato season -- comment #2 from Erik V. Olson

Sat, 15 Jun 2002 22:34:05 -0500

Hmm. To me, it seems too much work. I'll just use the exact same ingredients to make my fave summer treat.

Tomato Sandwiches. Mmmmmm. Basil good on that, too. Mmmmm.

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Posted June 15, 2002 10:34 PM by Erik V. Olson

A recipe for tomato season -- comment #3 from Christopher Hatton

Sun, 16 Jun 2002 00:41:45 -0500

It doesn't sound weird to me: it sounds marvelous. I'm a big fan of tomato sandwiches, too, and it sounds like a great way of getting the soggy-bread effect (a big plus in my book) without having the sandwich drip all over your hands, face, and shirtfront (or bodice if you're wearing 19C clothes--and why are you eating a tomato sandwich in your fancy garb? For shame).

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Posted June 16, 2002 12:41 AM by Christopher Hatton

A recipe for tomato season -- comment #4 from Patrick Nielsen Hayden

Sun, 16 Jun 2002 16:16:12 -0500

As someone who can be relied upon to wear his food, I testify to the truth of Christopher Hatton's observation.

Any way you combine them, tomatoes, mayonnaise, and fresh bread are an Alchymical Marriage. Yum.

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Posted June 16, 2002 4:16 PM by Patrick Nielsen Hayden

A recipe for tomato season -- comment #5 from Teresa Nielsen Hayden

Sun, 16 Jun 2002 21:39:32 -0500

Right all round. I love tomato sandwiches, but I also like my white bread chewy. The force it takes to bite through two layers of it exceeds the force it takes to squeeze mayonnaise-laden tomato slices out the other end of the sandwich. And while it's true that you can avoid wearing your sandwich by wrapping the lower half of it in a paper towel and adjusting the wrappings as you eat, ending up with a sodden pink paper towel and a clean shirt, I'd just as soon have the tomato juice sopped up by the bread.

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Posted June 16, 2002 9:39 PM by Teresa Nielsen Hayden

A recipe for tomato season -- comment #6 from Teresa Nielsen Hayden

Sun, 16 Jun 2002 21:42:08 -0500

And may I add: Erik, this is less work, not more.

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Posted June 16, 2002 9:42 PM by Teresa Nielsen Hayden

A recipe for tomato season -- comment #7 from Mary Kay Kare

Sun, 16 Jun 2002 21:47:09 -0500

Well, I don't know. I'm very unfond of mayonnaise though I use it in making things like chicken or tuna or egg salad. I might try it with the olive oil. And basil and shallots. Of course, first I have to find a place in Seattle to get both good tomatoes and good bread. It was pretty pitiful yesterday when I was standing in the bread aisle of Safeway whimpering, "No sourdough," over and over. I'm not sure I can live without sourdough baguettes. And then of course, there's simply slicing the tomatoes and sprinkling them with salt and eating until they're all gone. You can still use slices of good bread to sop up the juice. God, I love tomatoes.

MKK

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Posted June 16, 2002 9:47 PM by Mary Kay Kare

A recipe for tomato season -- comment #8 from Janet Lafler

Mon, 17 Jun 2002 00:06:47 -0500

Mary Kay, what you need is a recipe for panzanella, a Tuscan bread-and-tomato-and-basil salad with olive oil and vinegar. I think it also includes cucumbers or celery -- something green and crunchy, anyway. Panzanella is good.

And tomato sandwiches always make me think of Harriet M. Welsh.

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Posted June 17, 2002 12:06 AM by Janet Lafler

A recipe for tomato season -- comment #9 from Fran Wolber

Mon, 17 Jun 2002 23:05:21 -0500

Oh, sure. Make me drool. It's the middle of winter here, and not a fresh tomato in sight. I'll just have to copy your recipe and save it till November or so.

Meanwhile: brrrr! Now, whose idea was it to move to New Zealand?

(Oh, yeah. It was mine, actually. Never mind.)

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Posted June 17, 2002 11:05 PM by Fran Wolber

A recipe for tomato season -- comment #10 from Teresa Nielsen Hayden

Tue, 18 Jun 2002 00:13:26 -0500

You mean the weather's cool where you are? Oh, man. Swap you for some tomatoes.

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Posted June 18, 2002 12:13 AM by Teresa Nielsen Hayden

A recipe for tomato season -- comment #11 from Fran Wolber

Tue, 18 Jun 2002 00:52:39 -0500

Cold and rainy. Ick. We moved from Indiana to New Zealand in May, so I'm getting two winters in a row, which I consider to be totally Not Fair.

You're welcome to all the cool we've got. And as soon as L-J and I buy a house (pleasepleaseplease, may it be soon!), we'll dig a garden and plant some tomatoes with your name on them. Come visit them sometime around Xmas :-)

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Posted June 18, 2002 12:52 AM by Fran Wolber

A recipe for tomato season -- comment #12 from Teresa Nielsen Hayden

Tue, 18 Jun 2002 08:16:21 -0500

Cold and rainy doesn't sound bad at the moment. Our bedroom AC died weekend before last, and they've had to order a replacement part for it.

I promise to freeload shamelessly on you guys if I ever get to New Zealand. My picture of the place is entirely drawn from tourist board ads, watching The Fellowship of the Ring, and reading a complete run of Footrot Flats.

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Posted June 18, 2002 8:16 AM by Teresa Nielsen Hayden

A recipe for tomato season -- comment #13 from Fran Wolber

Tue, 18 Jun 2002 17:02:16 -0500

I have to admit, for midwinter, cold and rainy is a whole lot better than frigid and snowy. Now I just have to explain the concept of central heating to them here....Climate control is not a strength here.

It's actually quite gorgeous in NZ. We've got a mountain range like the Smokies just outside of town, beaches within a 20 minute drive, and snow-covered volcanos within a few hours' drive. Then of course there's the fjiords in the South Island, the glowworm caves, the surfing beaches at the top of the South Island...I can't wait till I have some vacation time! (Standard here is 4 weeks per year, plus a week at Xmas. Very civilized.)

LOTR really did show a pretty realistic picture of the type and range of geography NZ has. Once we have a house, you and Patrick will be more than welcome to come visit. Heck, I might even let you feed the chickens! :-)

Meanwhile: I hate to impose, but a lot of our mail has gone astray recently. In April/May-ish, L-J sent you one of those please-return-this-postcard thingies to check and see if you'd received her two mss, and the postcard never made its way back to us. Will it drive your office staff mad if we send another one?

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Posted June 18, 2002 5:02 PM by Fran Wolber

A recipe for tomato season -- comment #14 from Jennie

Mon, 22 Jul 2002 13:20:48 -0500

Speaking from experience as a greenhouse labourer in the Tomato Capital of Canada (Leamington, Ontario), I would urge you to visit the farmers' market, and buy from the first purveyor of organically-grown tomatoes you can find. If you _must_ have your greenhouse-grown tomatoes in winter, then do, but take advantage of the summer harvest to get the proper love apples. I KNOW what goes into those things they sell as "vine tomatoes", and I know about how they grow under a cellophane sky, rooted in "rock-wool" plastic tubes, fed water and chemicals at appointed times, and pollinized by bored bees who spend their entire insectoid lives among the tomatoes, and never know what it is to pollinate a rose or a daisy, an apple blossom or a skunk-cabbage (o.k., neither do I, but I'm not a bee). Oh, yeah, and when it says "no chemical pesticides used", your vegetable grower is telling a bold-faced lie. Wash those fruits with soap! Organo-phosphates, dipel, pyramite, and whatever-that-icky-stuff-they-sprayed-to-kill-the-whiteflies-was should probably not be ingested in any trace quantities.

I don't harbour any illusions about other veggies, but tomatoes are my sole first-hand agri-business experience, and under the burning greenhouse sun, that was sufficiently chilling.

Our balcony-grown heritage varieties are just starting to ripen (it was a late planting), and I am feeling quite positive about these.

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Posted July 22, 2002 1:20 PM by Jennie