Missing: Tomatoes. A lot of tomatoes.
Suspect: The usual suspects.
Due to some rather draconian firearm laws in my town, I can’t deal with the tomato thieves the way I’d like. So far, the squirrels have out-consumed the family to a ratio of about 3 to 1.
However, if I lived in the city I’d be dealing with a whole other class of thieves.
Too many tomatoes, what a chore! NOT!
Primo and The Principessa made this wonderful tart on Saturday
Arrived home from a week at the lake to discover complete devastation of the tomatoes. Not really sure what kind of varmint we’re dealing with but a varmint for sure. Half-eaten tomatoes strewn around the back yard, both beautifully ripe and green. I guess the varmint ran out of ripe tomatoes mid-week.
This tomato was the only one left undamaged and close to ripe. But it needed at least another day (and probably two) so I left it on the vine. Came out this morning to find one tiny bite taken out of it. Curses! Foiled!
And so far it’s the heavyweight winner, even with a we bit removed. 2 lbs. 5/8 ounces.
Tonight we’ll have our first pasta sauce of the season from our own tomatoes. A simple Pomodoro I think.
After having the driveway repaved and the turnaround in back ripped up I discoverd I had room for a new bed. Raised bed, of course. And this one gets the best sun of all. So of course it will be the home for the bulk of out tomato plants.
Of course a lot of tilling was involved but since I caved-in and gave up on the old Mantis and bought a new tiller, everyone wanted to get in on the act. Primo was dying to till, and till he did.
Seen here, tilling the squash patch.
Fortunately we’ve got an eager 13 year old to help. But some folks don’t have the help at hand. Here’s a story Mom sent:
An old maan lived alone in New Jersey . He wanted to plant his annual tomato garden, but it was very difficult work, as the ground was hard.
His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament:
Dear Vincent,
I am feeling pretty sad, because it looks like I won’t be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I’m just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over.. I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me, like in the old days.
Love, Papa
A few days later he received a letter from his son.
Dear Pop,
Don’t dig up that garden. That’s where the bodies are buried.
Love,
Vinnie
At 4 a.m. the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left.
That same day the old man received another letter from his son.
Dear Pop,
Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That’s the best I could do under the circumstances.
Love you,
Vinnie
The recent cold weather in Florida has caused a major shortage of tomatoes in the rest of the country. This has caused some fast food restaurants to stop using tomatoes in their food unless specifically asked to. Not that this is a bad thing based on how bad those tomatoes usually are.
On the bright side, I’ve ordered my seedlings rather than starting seeds this year. With so many varities available as live plants it seemed like too much trouble to start my own. But the snow had better melt soon as I asked for a “first half of April” delivery.
What was I thinking?
After a wonderful Christmas in Colorado which found the Principessa conquering high-altitude Yorkshire Pudding, (which turned out great at an altitude of 8500 ft. I might add) and Segundo and TB making a gingerbread village we returned to a mailbox stuffed with seed catalogs. I promised The Principessa I would only grow 2 kinds of tomatoes this year. The red kind and the not-red kind.
So, while this blog has devolved into a few really lame posts about tomatoes over the course of this summer I keep thinking about our other aspect, that is, food. While toiling over the grill this summer, I more than once though “I should share this dish with my loyal readers (well, both of them)” But , I’ve often been reluctant since better than half of what we cook every weekend is whatever ideas Mark Bittman had. So it always seemed somewhat derivative to just fluff somebody else’s blog which is why I have resisted. But for god’s sake, the recipes usually work. As published.
But then I figured what the hell, I’m not doing anything else. And besides, since the tomato season has ended a bit early (thank you cool and rainy summer) there’s not much else to write about so here goes with our initial “WWALW”
Firs off, I should point out that due to the crazy schedule I work, I rarely get the chance to do much cooking during the week. Between driving to football practice, picking up at aftercare and whatever activities the Principessa has going on it’s usually a miracle if anything home cooked gets put on the table that’s not leftovers. So the weekend is when we let hair down. So to speak.
This past weekend we kicked off with (‘natch) a Bittman recipefor mussels and pasta. Whenever Bittman posts something involving seafood be it in Bitten or The Minimalist (or both) there’s a good chance we’re going to cook it on Friday night. Not that we’re religious fanatics or anything, it just works out that way. Anyway, killer recipe, will do again.
Saturday was an Indian feast, Jerzeetomato style. Steve Raichlen’s “Tandoori Style Beer Can Chicken” but instead of beer we used some wine from the packing crate in the fridge. The Principessa made raita, some wonderful cauliflower and a pilaf from Julie Sahni’s “Classic Indian Cooking” and we also did some chapatis on the grill from (you guessed it) Bittman. Lots of work for this meal and lots of clean up, which prompted the Principessa to refer to it as “Fricking Indian Thanksgiving”
Sunday, keeping it simple since it was the kickoff for the NFL season and we wanted to spend quality time with the flat screen, we grilled bison steaks we got at the Montclair farmer’s market and made a version of “Ass the Potatoes” from Mom’s first book. (someday we’ll share the story of how that dish was named, but for now, buy the book) Potatoes were fingerlings from the “organic guy” at the farmer’s market.
And one more Bittman on Monday. We managed to crank out the Pork Skewers with Peanut Basil Sauce and had them with some leftover pilaf. Good stuff and we realized that the peanut basil marinade/sauce would be good on just about any kind of skewer. Or just eaten from the bowl with a spoon for that matter.
Some of you have asked if we’ve had any problems with the fungus that is affecting tomato growers up and down the east coast. Well, it’s good news/bad news….While we haven’t had any evidence of the Late Blight that is grabbing the headlines, we’ve been battling our usual problem with Early Blight that always affects us during particularly wet summers.
Excuse me, I need to go fire up the sprayer. Again.
