How Do YOU Eat'em?

Okay all- with gardens busting at the seams all over and our favorite goodies coming into season, what are some of the "strange" ways you all eat your fav morsels- including tomatos?

I am pretty straight-foward with juicy, ripe red 'maters- I slice'm, salt'em and down'em! But my Dad has to peel'em and then he sugars them. My Dad's wife slices'em and slather's each slice in Miracle Whip. Of course we all love BLT's on white toast.

Cucumbers? I love'm simply peeled, sliced into spears and salted... my partner used to sprinkle them w/ salt and Tobasco... Sis peels and slices'em and tosses w/ a tiny bit of OJ Concentrate, Dad likes'em peeled and sliced with onions and sprinkled w/ apple cider vinegar and sugar.

What about you?

I love tomatoes about any way I can get them.
On crackers, sandwiches, roasted and raw. I even eat them for breakfast when they are in season. Jon says if you cut me in the summer I would bleed tomato juice.
I really love a sandwich with colby cheese and fresh tomato topped off with a little mayo.
Cucumbers I like with salt and pepper or in apple cider vinegar with salt/pepper. I like cucumbers when they are smaller. I hate them when they get bigger with the seeds inside.
Im looking forward to next week. The green beans should be ready to pick.

The bestest way to eat either of those is right there in the garden, all warm from the sun and oozing flavor. Maybe with just a tad of salt to bring out the goodness.

Waddayamean you don't carry a salt shaker to the garden? For shame!

Coincidentally, tomatoes and cukes are the components of a basic salad, versions of which are found all over the world. Lately I've been making it a little differently. Instead of overlapping slices, I cut the veggies into sticks. These get tossed together, and sprinkled with a little chopped red onion. Some roasted cumin is sprinkled on top, followed by coarse salt. Then a squeeze of lemon juice, and a drizzle of evoo to finish it off.

I could eat that at every meal.

Nice, KYH...

Anyone ever heard Garrison Keillor's "Tomato Butt" tale from his "Prairie Home Companion", "Tales From Lake Wobegon"? Story about teenage brother and his prissy sister forced to work together in the garden one nice weekend. Brother is miffed by his ruined Saturday and frustrated, so to bust-up the monotony and get a laugh outta the situation he glances at his siter's brand new white shorts as she bends over to grab a weed. He happens to be holding a huge water-balloon of a ripe red tomato in his pitching hand, and.... whatd'ya think he does with it? (hee-hee!) Keillor's SUCH a master story-teller!)

It's all in the telling, Chubby. That's what makes a great storyteller.

Try tape recording one of his routines and have somebody else deliver it. What a yawn!

It's like the old story about the Fryers Club (an association of comedians). Being as there's no such thing as a new joke, they have them all classified and numbered. When performing for each other they just use the numbers.

So, one night, a guy gets up. "41" he intones. And they crack up. "12" he says. And they're guffawing all over the place. "105," he says with a frown. And they're popping their buttons.

Next guy gets up. "93," he slurs. Tears are running down their faces. "59" he goes on, and they're holding onto their stomachs. So he hits 'em with "15," and they're rolling in the aisles.

Next guy gets up. "72" he says. Nothing. Not a sound. Omigosh. He brings out "13," which is a pretty funny story if I say so myself. Not even a chuckle, nor even a smile. This is terrible.

Now, the funniest joke ever told is 201. And it's rarely used. But he figures he's dying there, and has no choice. "Two hundred and one," he all but screams. Not a single reaction. And two guys in the front row are heading for the bathroom.

All of which goes to show: Some people can tell a story, and some people can't.

Garrison Keillor is one of the ones who can---even if his children are all above average.

Good story, KYH! (and GREAT delivery!)

Yep- Garrison is a special man... His tales are so average- so every man/everyday.... but his intonation & inflection, his phrasing, his spaces of silence... He's a true talent, that's for sure!

One of my favs, since it's nearly the 4th of July, is "The Living Flag". If anyone finds one of his books on tape at the library or at a garage sale, give yourself a treat and listen to "The Living Flag" and if you can get through it without falling to the ground and rolling around like a Baptist speaking in tongues I'll mail you a quarter!

Back to tomatoes and cukes...

...although I do love a good story too.

With a summer glut of cukes I mix up a pitcher of cucumber water...slice 'em longwise, leaving out the seedy glop, and throw 'em in a big pitcher of ice water with some squeezed lime quarters and maybe a bunch of mint leaves.

Refreshing!

My favorite way to eat tomatoes is with fresh-picked basil, some fresh mozzarella, all drizzled with olive oil. Coarse salt and FG pepper. Yum!!!

Another way to enjoy cukes as a drink is with white gazpacho---basically a cold cucumber soup.

And, it goes without saying, that real gazpacho is one of the best ways to enjoy tomatoes.

For a fun small bite, combine the two. Make small cups by hollowing out short sections of cucumber (maybe 1 1/2"), and fill them with a sip of gaspacho.

KYHeirloomer said:

For a fun small bite, combine the two. Make small cups by hollowing out short sections of cucumber (maybe 1 1/2"), and fill them with a sip of gaspacho.

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Ahhh there are easy to prepare small bites

I am with KYH on eating the veggies straight away as soon as they are picked, if it were only myself many of my veggies would never darken the door to the kitchen! FRESH CORN OH MY, WARM TASTY TOMATOES OH ME OH MY!!! And forget about the strawberries, blueberries, and fruit it never stood a chance!! Asparagus, sugar snap peas, and.......................FRESH AND RAW IS BEST for my tatse buds YUMMY, and my body must crave the vitamins and nutritional value as it is very hard to resist not chowing it all down standing right there in the garden!!! O-o-o-weee

Actually, Cathy, there are lots of easy ones. The trick is to learn basic techniques, rather than recipes.

You remember when we were doing the what's for dinner threads? That every one of my menus included starters. They wouldn't have if producing small bites was all that difficult.

Those cucumber cups, for example. They can be filled with sips. Or with more substantial fillings. Why not smoked salmon with dill and creme fraiche, for instance. Or go a step further. Make the same sort of cups out of zucchini, steam them, and then fill with a couscous & lamb filling. Or.....

While I hate to say it, cuz I dislike the lady so strongly, Martha Stewart's Hors D'Oeuvres Handbook is the best book on the subject. In it she teaches you how to create bases and assemblages---which to my mind are more important than the recipes themselves, because they spark your own creativity.

Granted its a little out of date. But not enough to matter.

Here's one example. Martha shows you how to make breadboxes. These are nothing more nor less than 1-inch cubes of bread, toasted, and hollowed out. They then become packages for whatever you wish to stuff inside.

Sure, she has suggestions for fillings. But, once you have the technique down, the world is your oyster. Hmmmmmm? Speaking of which......

KYHeirloomer said:

the world is your oyster. Hmmmmmm? Speaking of which......

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Yes.......

of-course these are not the "R" months and oysters are really safer to eat then.

But please DO elaborate on your thoughts on oysters

Howdy, SP! Your pitcher of cuke elixir sounds yummy! And your caprese sounds even yummier! I remember the first time I ever "discovered" fresh basil. I had not been exposed to it growing up as a midwestern kid on the prairie. I was 17 and working at my first fancy place and when I happened onto the bags of beautiful broad basil leaves it was like I found a prox-badge to the pearly gates and was able to slip in and out of heaven for quick visits without St. Peter even bein' the wiser! I felt like I had found this incredible secret!

Yeah, I didn't grow up with fresh basil either but now I MUST have it. I'm with you...one whiff and it's instantly heavenly summer.

I love cucumber water. Last summer on a steamy hot day our wonderful green-thumbed neighbor handed us a big bag of cukes over the fence. My sister and I ran inside and mixed up an icy pitcher of the stuff and handed it back over the fence. That was fun.

Waddayatalkin', Cathy. Jureye has a "r."

Of course, the R thing is oudated. Turns out it had to do with the difficulties of shipping the wee darlin's during the warm summer months. Nowadays we can, thank God, enjoy them 12 months of the year.

First thing that popped into my head, re: oysters and breadboxes, was a miniaturized version of the colonial oyster loaves. A 2-penny loaf (good luck figuring out what that was) was hollowed out. The crumb, and oysters, butter, Sherry and black peppers are cooked together then returned to the hollow bread loaf.

I've done that in the past using small Sally Lunn muffins, and it's made a super first course.

What I'm thinking is refilling each bread-box with one oyster and some of the sauce. What a great single-bite that would make.

You could take almost any in-the-shell oyster dish and use one of these breadboxes in lieu of the shell for a different presentation. But, frankly, the shells make such great platforms that it might be guilding the lilly.

Anyway, so as to not threadjack Chubby any more than we have, why not move this discussion back to your small-bites thread?

We did this for summer cocktail parties at a country club I worked at years ago- it was all the rage there- the members loved it. Sometimes we would top each cuke cup of gazpacho with a pretty, curled spicy-bbq shrimp.

Cathy and Brook got the right idea!

Remember back in the 70's on the groundbreaking "Roots" mini-series? I remember the character "Kizzy" used to work in the plantation garden and early every spring the lady of the house would approach Kizzy and ask after the season's first tender sweet peas and Kizzy would say, "The blasted coons done got'em, ma'am!"... meanwhile, Kizzy had secreted those first delcicious peas away tucked in her apron and cooked them back home for her own family on the sly! Kizzy wasn't about to surrender this once-a-year joy to no master and his undeserving family! I liked the way she thought!

Oh, yeah! A great variation.

But that's why I say it's more important to learn the techniques and basics. After that, only your imagination holds you back.

Don't go dissing Martha now, KYH! She's on my list of top kitchen divas! But you're right- there's absolutely nothing as joyful as pumping-out fun morsels without feeling the drudgery of turning on the oven or following a recipe. One can prepare a whole platter, or table of platters of such items for a couple friends or a crowd and using colorful, flavorful summer stuff- nothing is more impressive!

(speaking of platters and party foods, I worked at a trendy restaurant once that was in an historic old bank building. there was wainscoting of gray marble in the lobby of the building and they tried to carefully move it to another area of what was to be the dining room- alas, the contractors dropped the marble and it broke into shards! The chef salvaged several large pieces of the beautiful marble and we used it as "trays" to hold arranged chilled appetizers for Sunday Brunch! People always remarked on this bit of fun, inventive ingenuity!)

CAG,

There was an ice cream shop down in Alabama that was called the "Marble Slab" they have a frozen marble slab that they take and place the ice cream on and then they proceed to soften your choice of ice cream on it and add any ingredients you request and that is what your marble story reminded me of! Marble will most definetely hold the chill for a while!

We have a chain in Illinois and there's also one up in Anchorage called "Cold Stone Creamery" and they do something similar, Cath- it's a cool place to go- very pricey but a really yummy/neat novelty! My fav is banana ice-cream with broken Reese's PB Cups smashed into it and placed in a dark choc. waffle cone!

Also, a woman whose kids I grew up with used to hold a huge house party every Thanksgiving weekend and the whole gang would make "Stained Glass Candy" (or rock candy). We'd all take 5lb. bags of sugar to contribute. She had a huge marble slab on her kitchen table and she'd sit on a stool at the stove the whole afternoon bringing several pots of sugar, corn syrup and various food-colorings and flavored oils (cinnamon, cherry, licorice, sour apple, rootbeer, peppermint, etc) to a rolling boil. Her strong husband would then heave the hot kettle to the table and pour the molten liquid onto the cool marble surface, where we'd all be seated/positioned around the table each holding a pair of scissors and we'd work all speedy-like before the candy cooled and hardened to cut the candy into tiny bits. By the time we got down to the last few clips the candy would already be nearly hard and completely cooled. We then dusted it with powdered sugar and filled the reserved emptied sugar bags, and at the end of the day, the crowd of 12-15 people would each have 3-4 sugar bags full of candy for the holidays to take home to treat their family and friends with. This was a wonderful tradition that we took part in- we all knew not to plan any shopping for that Sunday after turkey-day 'cause "Candy Day" was just too fun and important! ...and the slab of marble was the star of the show!