Tomatoes - Fried Green Tomates - a little humor!

Having grown up on a farm, I still grow vegetables. For years it was tomatoes, beans, corn, broccoli, cauliflower and whatever else I had room for (I don't have acerage, just your average size lot (8900 sq. ft. - for California anymore, that is a large lot!!). But the last few years it has only been tomatoes.

Now, if you did not know, you NEVER refrigerate tomatoes! It depletes the flavor. The best way to eat a tomato is right off the vine, warmed by the sun. Nothing on earth like it!


Being married to an Italian, I make a mean sauce. Most times I just serve it over pasta. But my preference is to make Manicotti or Lasagna.

My favorite way to cook tomatoes is Fried Green Tomatoes.


FRIED GREEN TOMATOES
1 large green tomato (one just starting to ripen will do, as long as it is very firm)
1/2 cup flour
3 eggs
1 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs (my preference is Progresso - brands do make a difference!)
1 cup Kraft Parmesan Cheese

Combine the parmesan cheese and bread crumbs in a shallow dish (for all three, I like to use pie tins).

Put flour in a shallow dish and beat the eggs and place in a separate shallow dish.

Peel the tomato. Cut out the top core of the tomato. Place it top down and slice 1/2 - 3/4" thick. You want to slice across so that you are slicing across the narrow part of the tomato, not the widest part.

Coat each slice with flour. Shake off excess flour and coat with egg. Making sure that you have allowed all the excess egg to drip off, then place in the dish with the bread crumb/cheese mix. Coat well, pressing the crumbs well on both sides. On a firm paper plate, sprinkle the bread crumb/cheese mix to coat the bottom of the plate. Take the coated tomato and place on the plate. As you have covered the bottom of the plate with tomatoes, before you place extra tomatoes on top, sprinkle the top of the tomatoes on the plate with more crumbs. Contine as above.

Set the tomatoes aside for 1 hour.

To fry, put 1 to 1-1/2 cup of vegetable oil in a skillet. Allow to heat so that when you sprinkle a few crumbs in the oil, it really fries good. Place just enough tomatoes in the skillet so that there is room between each one.

Here is where you want to watch because they are going to fry quickly.

As soon as you see the outer bottom edges of the tomatoes brown, turn over and continue to fry. At this point, you won't be able to judge when the other side is brown. You will just need to watch closely, picking each piece up until you see that they are LIGHT brown. You do not want them to get really brown, or they will be overdone.

I have ready aluminum foil laid on the counter beside the stovetop with a cookie rack placed on top.

As you remove the tomatoes from the pan, place on the rack to drain. When you have finished frying all the tomatoes, put a double layer of paper towels on a firm paper plate. Place the tomatoes, single layer, on the paper towel to soak up any excess oil.

IF there are any still on the plate by the time you are done, then they can be served with a little of your homemade spaghetti sauce on it. Or refrigerate any remaining tomatoes.

The next day, you can pre-heat your oven to 425. Place tomatoes on a cookie sheet. Place a slice of provolone or mozzarella cheese on top of each one. Place in the oven long enough to melt the cheese. Remove and enjoy.

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Someone sent me this funny about tomatoes I wanted to share with you.

A beautiful woman loved growing tomatoes, but couldn't seem to get her tomatoes to turn red.

One day, while taking a stroll, she came upon a gentleman neighbor who had the most beautiful garden full of huge red tomatoes. The woman asked the gentlemen, "What do you do to get your tomatoes so red?"

The gentlemen responded, "Well, twice a day I stand in front of my tomato garden naked in my trench coat and flash. My tomatoes turn red from blushing so much."

Well, the woman was so impressed, she decided to try doing the same thing to her tomato garden to see if it would work. So twice a day for two weeks she flashed her garden hoping for the best.

One day the gentleman was passing by and asked the woman, "By The way, how did you
make out? Did your tomatoes turn red?"


"No," she replied, "but my cucumbers are enormous!"

Rarest of the rare

A rare ghost orchid has been found growing high in an old cypress tree in a southwest Florida nature preserve.

Daylilies like you have never seen before

If you like color in your flower beds, you might want to purchase these unusual lilies. They are quite different from the ones you see in commercial landscaping. The petals are very thick, almost waxy. I hve only seen them in a store once (at Lowe's). I think the reason they are not sold in stores or nurserys is that the flower is only in bloom for one day.

But when the bulbs have spread of a couple of years where they fill in nicely in the beds, they put on quite a show.

You can find them at Blue Ridge Daylilies. They have a large variety of colors so be sure to check them out.

Canterbury Bells

If you have never seen one of these, try to find a nursery that sells them. They are Canterbury Bells (Campanula medium) and when they bloom, you cannot see the stem for the flowers covering the plant from top to bottom. As long as you keep the dead/dying flowers picked off, it will bloom for a very long time. If you watch, sometimes you can see the pods where new seeds have developed. Remove them and dry completely out. Store in a cool dry place until the next spring and plant the seeds for that year.

They comes in many colors - white, pink, rose, purple, lilac, and various shades of blue, from very light to very dark. But I prefer the color of the one picture or the dark blue.

They like full sun to light shade, but in the hotter regions, you might want to plant them where they will be gently shaded from noon on.

Try them - you will want to have them in your garden every year!

The heat is on

Ah, good ol So Cal summers. Gonna be another scorcher. Means finding refuge inside anywhere, the house, the malls, theaters, wherever there is air conditioning.

But, the nice thing about So Cal hot summer days - about 7 pm it cools off. We can shut the a/c off, open our doors and enjoy the evenings.

This is usually the time I go out and do yard work, which is what I have been doing all weekend. Pulling weeds from the flower beds and, at last, putting bark down to control the weeds.

Where I live, we are fortunate to have very sandy soil. Makes pulling weeds so easy. Just water a day or two before and then the weeds just pull right out without having to use any tools or effort.

My daylilies that I put in several years ago have filled in very nicely and when they bloom, it is just gorgeous. I bought them on eBay. These are lilies that you can't get at any store. The flowers petals are very thick and the flowers are somewhat doubles. They resemble a large orchid, the kind that was used in corsages. But the bloom only last for just the one day. So I am sure that is why they are not sold in stores.

I took out several oleandar bushes and put in hibiscus in their place. They are very small bushes, but already are loaded with blooms. So Cal is the ideal place for the hibiscus. Along the coastal areas, they are used for landscaping in businesses and really go crazy blooming. The John Wayne Airport in Orange County has them all along the roadway leading into the airport and they are just gorgeous.