Tomatoes, August

   Have you noticed that August mornings are cooler?  The seasons of life change, as do the seasons of the year.   The school bus has gone by before I get out of bed.   I can sleep as late as I want, one of the joys of this season of life.
   August is tomato month in Indiana.  Thankfully I have good friends who share tomatoes,  so I will share recipes with you.  Fried Green Tomatoes has become a side dish in northern restaurants, after being a staple down south.  If you are a cook, you come home from the restaurant and wonder how they did that. There seems to be two basic methods, I tried both and here are my results.
   From Mastering The Art of Southern Cooking  by Dupree and Graubart  comes these suggestions.   1.  Peel your green tomato (the coating will stick to it better)  and slice, not too thick, not too thin.  Spread on paper towel and salt lightly. (This will draw out the moisture)  .  Combine equal parts of flour and corn  meal with some seasoning.  Either salt and pepper or your choice.  Go light on the salt here.2. Pat the slices dry and coat with flour mixture.  Let rest  3. Prepare a heavy skillet , cast iron is nice, with about ½ inch of oil.  Bring to temperature (about 360.)  4. .  When oil is hot, again dip slices in flour mixture and then in fat.  Brown on one side, then the other.
Don’t crowd the skillet

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    My test sample tasted great but they soon got mushy.

   From Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook  comes this recipe. .
I adjusted the recipe a bit.
 3 firm green tomatoes
1/3 cup milk
2 beaten eggs
¾ cup fine dry bread crumbs
¼ cup cooking oil
I like letting the slices sweat with salt before starting.
1. Dip slices in milk, then flour.
2. Dip in beaten eggs
3.Dip in bread crumbs
4. Place in hot oil.  Don’t crowd the skillet.  This recipe calls for lower temp oil, thus a longer frying time.

These green tomatoes stayed firmer, taste was about the same.

Then I tried  Mario Batall’s Spaghetti  with Green Tomatoes. It was delicious, but took a little time in preparation.
¼ cup fresh mint leaves (spearmint)
¼ cup fresh Basil leaves
¼ cup parsley leaves
¼ cup arugula
5 chopped green tomatoes
2 cloves chopped garlic
1/4cup olive oil plus 2 Tbsp.
Salt and pepper
1 pound spaghetti
¼ cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1. Bring salted water to boil in large pot.  Add spaghetti and cook until tender.
2. In small food processor combine, mint, basil, parsley, arugula (I didn’t have, so omitted this) 1 clove garlic, olive oil and cheese. This is called pesto.

3. Finely chop green tomatoes (I used old fashioned food chopper, worked great) .  In a heavy skillet heat 2 Tbsp. oil, then  combine tomatoes, 1 clove chopped garlic, saute for 3 or 4 minutes.
4. Add pesto to green tomatoes, heat through. Mix in drained spaghetti (May want to add a small amount of spaghetti water to make a nice sauce). Dish up and top with extra cheese.  This dish is very tasty, don’t tell family what you have in it.

If you don't have fresh mint, stop by, mine has spread to the strawberry patch.  Ugh!.  I'll share some plants.

Sunflowers

      Linda Rosenberger smiles a lot.  You would too if you had a row of sunflowers smiling on you from  your kitchen island.  A single bloom in a mason jars, but 7 jars of sunflowers.  Beautiful
   The sunflowers have such lovely names as Lemon Queen, Tall Teddy, Procut Red  and Mexican Sunflower.

                     Linda's grouping

   Linda has been raising these beauties for about  5 years.  Some of them volunteered from last year’s plants, but most were fresh starts from seed she bought from Amazon.  This spring was a challenge due to the weather, some got a late start.  She likes the variety that sunflowers have and the fact that they are easy to grow.

                   Mexican Sunflower

The flower heads follow the sun, that’s how they got their name.
Heliotrpism is the word describing flower heads moving toward the sun.  Once the flower matures and it is not actively photosynthesizing, then it remains stationary It will hang with th weight of the growing seeds.  The seeds are arranged in a Fibonacci Spiral to pack as many seeds as possible in a small space.
   Sunflowers were popular in the Victorian era, then interest was lost.  But in the past few years they have once again climbed in favor with decorators and gardeners.  Some grow over 6 feet high while other varieties have large blossom with 2 to 3 feet plants.  Seeds should be widely spaced at planting, at least 12 inches apart.
   The blooms can be dried using silica gel.  And of course the winter birds love the seeds.

Sunflowers waving in the wind

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