Tomato Time

Quite some time ago I won a give away. This one from the lovely Tracie of My Petite Maison. I wanted to share it with you all right away but soon after Tracie took a well deserved blog break and I wanted to wait til she got back to show you all the things that were in the parcel I received. The gift was an heirloom tomato recipe book but so much more.


A classical music CD~ love classical music and knowing Tracie she probably looked at my profile and saw that. A jar of french sel gris (gray salt) with the most adorable wooden spoon to scoop it with. How did she know I love salt. I haven't bought Morton type salt in ages......well since I realized it wasn't really salt at all.

Organic golden peach tea (again always look for organic when I can).

I'm much more a tea drinker than coffee drinker.

Shea butter lip balm from Pre de Provence which I immediately tried on. Bit of a lip balm addict I'm afraid. I lick my lips all the time when I'm stressed and get horrible chapped lips. Tracie and I laughed about our little "addiction" to lip balm. We never go anywhere without it.

This book is so much better than I even imaged. It's got the most beautiful pictures and recipes and even history of the Tomato.

I knew that when they were brought to North America they were thought to be poisonous but I never knew why. They are in the Solanaceae family which also includes petunias,peppers,eggplant and potatoes as kissing kin. The deadly Nightshade is also in this family hence why they were thought dangerous to eat.

It wasn't until the 1820's that they made their way into the cookbooks and at last on to becoming a staple of American cuisine.

These are but some of the wonderful pictures in the book. Recipes I know I will make over and over again.

~Fried green tomatoes

with arugula pesto and cherry tomato relish

~Tomato Bisque Soup
~ Tomato Avocado Salad

with garlic toast and chevre cream

just to name a couple.

Finally it's August and we have TOMATOES!!! We grew a lot of heirlooms this year. Too numerous to mention. I'd would love to know which tomatoes are your favorites to grow and why and if you grew any heirlooms.

This morning while I was taken a picture of some of our these red, plump, juicy fruit and other veggies I was preparing our lunch.

***Chicken stir fry with vegetables and couscous. ***Yummy !!!

No not really..... it's Tofu with peppers, tomatoes, carrots, onions, garlic and couscous just "sans le poulet." Just add lots of parsley and basil and you'll never miss it. I of course added my sel gris from Tracie and Voila

perfect lunch for two.

What did you have for Lunch?????

Thanks again Tracie for everything....

you spoiled me rotten but I love it!

xo

Carole