The summertime growing season here in Kentucky is coming to an end. The tomatoes are smaller now and not coming on as quickly. Fewer to harvest and smaller in size, their flavor seems concentrated and better than ever, at least for a few more days - I hope. Then we will start in on that old southern dish of fried green ones.
How many ways do we enjoy fresh tomatoes, let me see:
*stuffed with tuna salad or chicken salad
*sliced for bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches
*sliced for bologna, tomato and sweet onion sandwiches
*stuffed and topped with cottage cheese
*sliced in soft butter/margarine sandwiches
*sliced to put inside a hot buttered American biscuit
*cut into chunks then added to mixed lettuce salads and
*cut into chunks or sliced and served as a side dish.
But the one way that astonishes people is a longtime favorite in my birth family. It is peanut butter and tomato sandwiches.
Back home it was typically prepared thus:
Spread one slice of bread with Miracle Whip Salad Dressing or you could use mayonnaise.
Spread the other slice of bread with your favorite brand of peanut butter.
Place a thick slice of tomato on the peanut butter.
Sprinkle liberally with ground black pepper.
Top with the other slice of bread spread with dressing. Yummm, I never get tired of that one.
Try it, you might like it.
Heirloom Tomatoes
21 comments:
All the ways you suggested sound pretty good Barbee. Except I'm not sure about the peanut butter & tomato, lol. That might be an acquired taste. I like peanut butter & banana. That's pretty good. :)
pgl (Virginia, U.S.A.): Awww, come on... try it! :)
We used to eat peanut butter and pickle sandwiches when we were kids. So that tomato concoction does not sound too strange to me.
Our favorite was bacon and tomato sandwiches, with Hellman's mayo on, hmmm, some local Nashville-area brand of bread and, of course, lots of salt. I loved them so much that when I got my first apartment in grad school (at UK in Lexington!), I used to make them for lunch and pile 8 slices of bacon on a single sandwich! Ah, those were the days. We ate bananas or marshmallow cream with our peanut butter, though. Ironically, I've heard of folks who eat peanut butter and bacon sandwiches, but you're the first I've heard of who eats peanut butter and tomato sandwiches! Maybe you should try a peanut butter, bacon and tomato sandwich. I hate to admit it, but it actually doesn't sound bad...
Now you've gone and done it... BLT's for lunch tomorrrow!! YUMM!! Don't know about the peanut butter and tomato sandwich though. Heck, we'll try anything once...
Aunt Debbi/kurts mom (Texas, U.S.A.): I ate peanut butter and dill pickle sandwiches when I was in college :) Sodium on top of sodium, but mmmmm where they good!
ourfriendben (Pennsylvania, U.S.A.): Yep, already done it... all of the above... banana + pnb, marshmallow cream + pnb, pnb + bacon, and yep, I've done it... pnb + bacon and tomato. Mmm Mmm good! Hope Silence isn't seeing these; she'd probably throw up her hands and give up on us :)
Shibaguyz (Washington, U.S.A.): Sure, try it, but don't forget the black pepper! It isn't the same without the black pepper which brings out the flavor. After writing that post, I took a break to eat lunch, and guess what I had. That's right! After writing about it, I just had to have a pnb and tomato sandwich.
Wow. That's one of the most disgusting sounding sammiches I've ever heard of. Now I'll have to try it :P
My Mom put peanut butter on everything. It was her way of enticing us to eat veggies......we went the route of Peanut butter and celery, and carrots, bananas and ice cream (we were "INTO" it by this time, lol). The peanut butter and tomato avenue is new, I admit, but promising.
My bro' has a bazillion yellow grape tomatoes this season. Man, are they tasty!
mrtumnas (Louisiana, U.S.A.): The yuckier, the better, Huh?! It came from my dad who was actually a rather picky eater. I never knew where he got the idea. Maybe his mom was trying to get him to eat tomatoes. (See Steve's comment below.)
Steve (Oregon, U.S.A.): A mom after my own heart. I reared four children and our house always smelled of peanut butter; I bought it in four pound buckets. I feel sorry for the kids who are allergic to peanuts! And, would you believe I have a grandchild who doesn't like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, nor peanut butter and chocolate combos! First time she came to spend the day with me and said no p b & j, my mouth dropped open and I thought: "What am I going to do if no p b & j!" Cosmic aliens must have dropped that one in the nest. Maybe I should check with Esther and see if she is missing anyone.
We've had a really good tomatoe year sofar. Hope to harvest atleast one more month. Your tomatoes look great and thanks for the "cooking tips". But I have to admit that I'm not in to majo or peanut butter. :D
I like to slice tomatoes and eat with mozarella cheece. Some pepper on the top and maybe oil, vinageare and salt...
Karin A (Sweden): Mmmmm, your tomato and cheese combination sounds delicious! I guess if we had good home grown tomatoes the year around, I would finally get my fill of them. As it is, they are a very special treat. I am glad to hear you have had a good year for them. Some gardeners in North America have had a cool summer and didn't get as many tomatoes as usual. One said she isn't going to try growing the large ones any more and will just focus on the small ones that do not take so long to ripen.
I think I will try that sandwich - sounds delicious...and unusaual!
/Katarina
What? No salsa? That's what I've done with ours so far this summer. I don't like fresh tomatoes, although I do love salsa.
We've got so many here, as do the neighbors, we can't give them away! The Brandywines are just huge! This is our first year to grow them and I'll grow them again next year. My husband loves fresh tomatoes!
hmmm, thinking about the sandwich. It's an interesting combination, I'll give you that! But I'll never know if I'll like it or not unless I try it right? At least I'm more adventurous in the food dept as an adult....
I grew up on tomato and mayo sandwiches and still love them to this day. Will have to try the peanut butter someday, sounds odd :)Thanks for the welcome on Blotanist, I'm still trying to figure it all out.
Your gardens are beautiful!
Karrita
Roses and stuff (Sweden): Hope you like it. I would hate to be the cause of you wasting good fresh tomatoes. Thank you for stopping by. I always love hearing from you!
kylee (Ohio, U.S.A.): Salsa is a good way to make use of available tomatoes if you do not like them plain. For me, to make salsa of them would be a waste of fresh tomatoes. Don't get me wrong, I do like salsa, but I like them plain better. Seems you had a good growing year there in Ohio. I think Brandywine is my favorite (so far). I bet your husband got his fill this year!
Kathleen (Colorado, U.S.A.): Don't forget the black pepper; it brings out the flavor of the combination. Start with a half sandwich... just one slice of bread. Then if you have to compost it, there won't be too much wasted :)
My Mother's Garden (Florida, U.S.A.): Hi there! Thank you for visiting and leaving a comment. If you need help, or have questions, over on Blotanical, I might be able to help; just let me know. Stuart is having big technical problems there right now. I noticed that everything is very slow. He is aware of the problem and is trying to find someone who can give him answers to his problems and questions. Don't give up on him. I just want to let you know the current condition is not the usual, and I am sure he will get it corrected eventually. I am not doing much over there until pages start loading faster. Also, there is a problem with blogs from Blogger.com not feeding into the Picks server. You can read about it by clicking on the "News" tab. Oh, and Thank You for the compliment. :)
Oh! I wish I had an abundance of tomatoes.
I wish I had some sun.
I wish it weren't the third wettest August here in fifty years.
If only tomatoes liked cold, wet, not-enough-sun summers and very windy autumns.
Thanks, Barbee, for the enormously helpful note about html you left on my blog LOOSE AND LEAFY .
I'm still in my 'busy season' at present but once I get back into blogging proper, I'll follow through your instructions, let you know how I get on and follow up your kind offer for extra advice if I get stuck.
(I too have a 'practice' blog.)
Lucy
Hi,
Come over to my blog...there's an award for you. :)
Lucy Corrander (England): Oh! How I wish I could hand you some of these! How I wish I could share a goodly portion of this bearing-down sunshine with you, and you could share some of your rain with me! Then, maybe you could grow tomatoes for peanut butter and tomato sandwiches (?), and I could grow peas and lettuce till we had our fill for once. But, you can keep your wind, thank you, we get enough of that. Lucy, we visited England in early spring 1988, and saw much of the damage from the big storm the year before. Sad. One of the things I enjoyed most while there, was the huge old trees... the ones that were left. And, now you have had more of those storms. I wonder if any of the gorgeous old things are left. And, I loved the Cedar of Lebanon trees. (You are welcome for the thoughts regarding HTML code. Sounds like a plan... have fun :)
Balisha (Illinois, U.S.A.): Hi, I'll be right over!
Wouldn't that be great?
Rarely do winds here cause the kind of large scale destruction wreeked by those two big storms - but they still aren't very good for gardens!
More serious has been flooding in some areas. Yesterday and the day before hundreds of people in Wales and in the North of England lost their posessions when rivers went through the downstairs of their homes. And some people still haven't been able to move home after the floods of last summer.
On Thursday we are warned there will be high winds because the tail end of hurricane Ike catches Britain. But, whatever it's like, it won't be anything approaching what happens in parts of the U.S.A. - where, judging from some of the blogs, people seem to cope with extraordinary equinimity.
Around here, we don't have many of the big old trees you mention. It's too exposed to salty winds coming off the sea.
They aren't far away though and I look forward to trundling in their direction with my camera!
Lucy
What a newsy, interesting message, Lucy.
Strong wind in the garden is such a nuisance. I have finally learned that any vining thing needs substantial support... no flimsy little sticks and twigs if it is going to make much foliage and growth that will catch the wind like a sail. For if they do, over they go! Once during discussion about weather my Husband/Best Friend/Chief Photographer made the comment, "I guess we don't have much wind." I popped back with, "Oh, yes we do! He isn't a gardener.
I am sorry to learn of the flooding in Wales and Northern England. During that trip to England (my one and only), we did spend a weekend in Wales. I remember the deep valleys and high hills. I surely can see how there could be flooding in the low areas that get all that run-off from the hills.
We live in the state of Kentucky which is long from East to West and has 3 or 4 sections of obvious geologic differences. Eastern Kentucky is mountainous and they have frequent flooding. Every time we have much rain, we see the scrolling message going across the bottom of the TV screen about potential flooding in (here they list all the counties affected), and warning people to go to higher ground. It is so sad.
I will be thinking of you Thursday, and do hope the lashing winds will not be too bad. Thank you for the visit and chat.
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