September 30, 2008
harvest time
it is that time of year when it gets dark earlier, the weather gets sharper even when it's still warm, and we get inundated with season-end produce that needs to be eaten immediately lest it perish.
so i'm playing catch-up in the kitchen these days, figuring out how to use as many tomatoes as possible -- and i'm finally resorting to cooking them, which is how i know that autumn is nigh. Under normal circumstances I would never allow heat to touch a garden tomato -- they must be eaten raw, with salt and pepper and oil, or possibly in a sandwich with mayonnaise and toast.
but i just cut a particularly vulnerable specimen into my bean-corn-beef stew, and i am drying bread cubes for scalloped tomatoes. and I have to tell you, scalloped tomatoes actually do ease the sting of oncoming winter, because they are just so darn tasty: roasty tomatoes, toasted bread cubes, Lawry's seasoned salt, hot from the oven. Yum.
then i have to figure out what to do with the last few watermelons now that it's cold enough that we don't actually feel like eating watermelon any more. i am thinking agua fresca...
[for Christi: this is the recipe i liked best when testing versions for the drink we had at the wedding: Watermelon Agua Fresca]
Oh foodnerd, please post an agua fresca recipe! I've been dying to make some and haven't found a recipe that I trust. I know that one from you would be great, though.
Posted by: Christi at October 1, 2008 11:56 AM