The Coalition of the Swilling has introduced me to this nice little game, Escapa!, and I have been killing some time with it ever since. My personal best, so far, is in the 20 second range.
I also suggest giving them a visit to see the wonderful pictures from Mr. Bingley’s Alaskan cruise. So far, parts 1, 2, and 3 have been posted.
Leave it to me to wait until after I both polled you all and cooked all my tomatoes to refer to the cookbook that sits on my shelf. [The phrase "sits on my shelf" is highly sensitive to the location of that "h".] From my America’s Test Kitchen Test Kitchen Favorites - The 2007 Companion Cookbook to the Hit TV Show:
When it comes to cooking, we prefer to go with good canned tomatoes. Juice-drenched seasonal tomatoes, available only a few weeks a year, are reserved for eating raw on mayonnaise-slathered bread or straight off the cutting board.
They tested 10 brands of whole tomatoes and found the the 4 Italian brands were quite horrible.
For decades, Italy has been synonymous with superior tomato quality, so these results were puzzling. First, we checked the tomato variety used for each brand, in case the difference was as simple as plum versus round. All of the Italian samples were plums, while the American samples (our top five brands) were split down the middle between plum and round. but tomato variety proved to have little to do with our preference.
The stale taste of the Italian brands in our lineup, it turns out, has more to do with trade laws than crop differences. In 1989, the United States imposed debilitating punitive tariffs on imported European fruits and vegetable–from 13.6 percent to an exorbitant 100 percent. Unsurprisingly, Italian tomato prices went through the roof, and sales of imported tomatoes dropped off dramatically. To avoid paying the steep duty, Italian tomato canners eventually began packing their tomatoes in tomato puree rather than juice. The loophole? When packed in juice, tomatoes are considered a “vegetable”; when packed in puree, they’re a “sauce,” which carries a much lower customs duty. Sure enough, the Italian brands were all packed in a thick puree (even though two brands inaccurately call it “juice” on the label).
Last night I put all my tomatoes to use. What did I do with them?
Well I did not use them for bruschetta. As I mentioned before, I had already had too much so far this year. (BTW, I make mine by putting the chopped tomatoes on top of Texas Toast with some Italian seasoning, Parmesan cheese, and maybe a little olive oil; you can probably find the recipe on the side of the Texas Toast box).
I did not make any sandwiches. Not that y’all’s suggestions didn’t sound good. It’s just that Rachel and I are departing Friday afternoon for a weekend trip. Combined with my schedule for the end of the week, I didn’t have time for sandwiches.
So what did I do?
First I made a big pot of marinara sauce. I found the basic recipe here, but I skipped the Italian sausage part. And instead of basil and oregano, I just used some Italian seasoning. It turned out pretty well and my roommates were impressed. The fennel seed, something I’ve never used before, may be the key ingredient (after all the tomatoes).
Then, since I still had a bunch of tomatoes left, I attempted to make a salsa… or maybe it was more a pico de gallo. My attempt was something of a combination of 3 different recipes I found.
I ended up using:
I intended to put in some garlic, but I forgot.
The end result wasn’t bad, but it was not salsa as I usually eat it. The big difference, I think, was the use of the citrus. Apparently I’m used to salsa that is more salty and vinegary.
Thank you all for your input. Hopefully by this time next week I’ll have a bunch more tomatoes in need of consumption.
My tomato plants are doing quite well, and I couldn’t be more pleased (with myself). It’s certainly nice to be able to pick a few tomatoes of the vines every day. However, there’s a problem. I have only one recipe that calls for fresh tomatoes. Let me ask you, my loyal readers, what would you do with a bunch of fresh tomatoes?
