You say tomato...

 In honor of the East Nashville Tomato Festival that occurred this past weekend, I am focusing on tomatoes for a spell. Vance and I went to Marche a few days ago and I had a lovely watermelon and tomato salad. So light light and delicious! Select a ripe tomato and cube along with some sweet watermelon. My salad had a yummy slab of goat cheese on top and a sprinkle of fresh basil.

Easy and fast!

My parents are coming at the end of the month and I am going to make this salad and put on a few drops of this great balsamic glaze my mom gave me. It is great on fresh tomatoes and mozzarella, salads, etc.

We had dinner last night with friends Liz and Brian at Germantown Cafe. The menu is amazing - fresh and simple dishes and of course they have fried green tomatoes. I love these!

Fried Green Tomatoes Recipe

If you can find it, use fine white cornmeal, which is the primary cornmeal used in the South. Buttermilk adds flavor and tang, but is not strictly necessary.

Ingredients

• 3 medium, firm green tomatoes
• Salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp Cajun seasoning (optional)
• 1/2 cup milk or buttermilk*
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup cornmeal
• 1/2 cup fine dry bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup peanut oil or other vegetable oil

Method

1 Cut unpeeled tomatoes into 1/2 inch slices. Sprinkle slices with salt. Let tomato slices stand for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, place in separate shallow bowls: the flour and Cajun seasoning (if using), buttermilk and egg, and bread crumbs and cornmeal.
2 Heat the peanut oil in a skillet on medium heat. Beat the egg and the buttermilk together. Dip tomato slices in the flour-seasoning mix, then buttermilk-egg mixture, then the cornmeal-bread crumb mix. In the skillet, fry half of the coated tomato slices at a time, for 3-5 minutes on each side or until brown. Set the cooked tomatoes on paper towels to drain. These are fantastic with a little Tabasco sauce or remoulade.
Yield: Serves 4 as a side dish.

*You can freeze leftover buttermilk - my mom told me so. :)
 I would serve these with either a remoulade as suggested or perhaps a greek yogurt based dip.

After scoring a bundle of yellow and red grape tomatoes, I made this easy dish with fresh herbs. I also added zucchini from the farmer's market.

Real Simple gets it right again!

 Enjoy the season and throw a few cherry tomatoes or slices of tomato in everything! I made a beef stir fry a few weeks ago and in addition to the traditional Asian vegetables like bok choi and snow peas, I also used about a handful of cherry tomatoes. It lightened the dish and made it feel more summery.

Hopefully more tomato inspiration to come this week. Happy Monday!