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Post by Clipper on Aug 31, 2016 12:12:44 GMT -5
No new recipe to be seen here. Just a little tribute to mother nature and one of her greatest foods. Tomato sandwiches are the order of business this time of year. Our 12 plants in containers outside the back door are heavy with fruit, our kitchen windowsill is lined with tomatoes in various states of ripeness, and we are eating tomato sandwiches almost daily and savoring every last bite. Today's lunch was BLT's with good slab bacon laid across slices of beautifully ripe beefsteak tomato and a couple of leaves of romaine, on toasted Sarah Lee artisan bread, slathered with Hellman's mayo, and sprinkled with fresh ground black pepper. My Southern friends call their tomatoes "maters." Whatever a person chooses to call them, homegrown tomatoes are a luscious and delectable seasonal treat that I look forward to from the time the first tomato blossom appears on the plants until we are picking and eating red ripe tomatoes at every meal.
Kathy is also picking, slicing, vacuum packing, and freezing an abundant crop of bell peppers for winter consumption. The other produce item that I sorely miss is the sweet corn that we always bought from farm stands along Herkimer Road in Schuyler every summer. There is very little locally grown corn available here and it has been selling for 3 ears for a dollar. The season for local corn at the farmer's market and local produce markets here is very short and fresh corn is hard to find.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 31, 2016 15:35:03 GMT -5
 YUM< YUM< YUM> Thursday I need to buy some bacon. I bought four fresh tomatoes at farmers market today. |
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Post by kit on Sept 1, 2016 10:50:05 GMT -5
I'd wager that Hellmann's Mayonnaise sales skyrocket when summer gets here what with potato, macaroni and chicken salads, as well as 'mater sammiches'. I love BLTs with toasted whole wheat bread, lettuce, crisp bacon and a few thick slices of homegrown maters and slathered with Hellmann's, but will settle for just maters and Hellmann's on whole wheat. The rest is just frosting on the cake. There's just something about homegrown tomatoes that satisfy. They're the whole reason for the sammich in the first place.
Notice that I'm a 'dyed-in-the-wool' Hellmann's fan. Our family never acquired the taste for Kraft Salad Dressing... but to each his own.
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Post by Clipper on Sept 1, 2016 12:28:38 GMT -5
I have eaten Hellman's for my entire life. I have tried others. Duke's is a popular brand here in the Southeast but I find it to have a rather acidic vinegary taste. I have NEVER liked salad dressing such as Kraft or Miracle Whip. I just bought 4 quarts of Hellman's the other day. It was on sale for $3 a jar. We have to keep stocked up, lol.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 2, 2016 8:49:08 GMT -5
I am using the Hellman's Mayo made with Olive Oil. Tastes exactly the same as the original
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Post by Deleted on Sept 2, 2016 9:55:09 GMT -5
SUMMER TOMATO SALAD  |
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Post by Clipper on Sept 2, 2016 12:05:40 GMT -5
That salad looks delicious Alan. I assume that the green leaves are fresh basil.
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Post by Clipper on Sept 20, 2016 12:42:46 GMT -5
We are having BLT's made with some more of our homegrown tomatoes today for lunch. I just picked the tomatoes. I was reminiscing about days gone by when my paternal grandparents grew a huge veggie garden behind their garages on Main St in Whitesboro. With all we have heard and been taught all of our lives about keeping mayonaise and anything with mayonaise in it in a refrigerated environment, I am shocked that we never got sick on my grandmother's wonderful macaroni salad. She kept her Hellman's mayo in the kitchen cupboard, even after it was opened. She did that until the day she died, and I loved her macaroni salad right up until she was too old and feeble to make it herself anymore. I am amazed that I ever ate anything made with the unrefrigerated mayo. Today, I am very careful to keep anything with mayo on it in the refrigerator and throw away any of it left over after about 3 days. It is amazing how such things are brought about. I have heard that mayo has enough vinegar in it to prevent bacterial growth but I am not one that wants to take that gamble. I had food poisoning once in basic training, caused by whipped cream on the jello being left out too long. It left the sick bay personnel dealing with about 800 puking sailors in the middle of the night and a fire truck being called in to hose off the sidewalk outside the hospital building. Bed linens, floors, waste baskets, sinks, and toilets were all inundated with vomit. It was a true "emisis emergency", worthy of mass hazardous waste cleanup with squeegees, mops, and gallons of pinesol. To this day I am wary about ordering anything with whipped cream when we are out. Whether it be mayonaise, meat or dairy products, shelf dates are my friend, and left overs are carefully monitored for freshness and tossed in an expedient manner. BLT's were great and the Hellman's was fresh and cold from the fridge.  It is amazing how much more flavorful homegrown tomatoes are when compared to even the best quality vine ripened tomatoes available in the supermarket. Unless one is able to get to one of the farmer's market events, there simply aren't the number of produce stands here that we are used to seeing in NY. I always loved buying from Juliano's stand in the parking lot on the corner of Leland Ave and Herkimer Road. The produce on the stand was picked that very morning and was always fresh and delicious. Our farmer's market here is limited to 1/2 a day, two days a week, and the selection is limited. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2016 9:00:40 GMT -5
Juliano's is still in that same spot. I am lucky because we have a farmers market every Wednesday across the street in Chancellor Park. It always looks like the middle east with the women dressed in their black long dresses with faces covered up. The Somali women at least wear colorful long dresses. Maybe to distract the wild animals.
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Post by Clipper on Sept 21, 2016 10:13:49 GMT -5
I worked with both Joe Juliano Sr and Joe Jr at Griffiss. My office was adjacent to the base roads and grounds section and both of them were heavy equipment operators/snowplow operators at the base. Joe Jr's wife's family were good friends with Kathy's mom. Papa Joe passed away a few years ago, but his wife is still alive and well at last report, and she and Joey's wife run the stand in the summer while Joey hauls produce to the regional market for sale and runs the farm. They are a very nice family.
When I operated my carpet cleaning business after the base closed, I did carpet and upholstery cleaning for Joey and his wife. I had a frequent order to come and remove red stains from their white carpets and white upholstery. They had two beautiful little girls that were both toddlers at the time and they always carried around a sippy cup full of Hi C fruit punch. I had a special system for removing red dyes from fabric that involved soaking the spots with a patented formula chemical, placing a white towel over the spot, and then using a hot iron to draw the red stain out of the carpet and into the towel. I always thought it rather silly to have white furniture and carpets with small children, but their home was beautiful and they didn't seem to mind the frequent cleaning bill to keep everything sparkling white.
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It is amazing how much more flavorful homegrown tomatoes are when compared to even the best quality vine ripened tomatoes available in the supermarket. Unless one is able to get to one of the farmer's market events, there simply aren't the number of produce stands here that we are used to seeing in NY. I always loved buying from Juliano's stand in the parking lot on the corner of Leland Ave and Herkimer Road. The produce on the stand was picked that very morning and was always fresh and delicious. Our farmer's market here is limited to 1/2 a day, two days a week, and the selection is limited.