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Friday, August 7, 2009

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

7 comments:

Anne Marie said...

YUM! and what an absolutely perfect gift for you! it's like that giveaway was meant for you.........

Chrissy...The Apothecary Shop said...

I dare say you did get spoiled young lady!! This post made me hungry just looking at it,the photos are lovely!! Hope you have a good weekend,we are not doing too much,I am knackered from a long week at work,we had a huge skincare event on all week,sold a ton of it!! Anyway,talk to you soon,Chrissy

Joan@anythinsggoeshere said...

All I can say is YUM and my husband, Mt. Anything Goes Here just passed by and he says YUM, too! What a nice prize to win in a giveaway! I just saw that Anne Marie said YUM, too!

Julie@beingRUBY said...

Wow... they do look like they were compiled 'just for you'. How sweet a gift and like everyone else, I'm now craving tomatoes!! hahaha Well just running off to the greengrocers now.. have fun. x Julie

Mitt hvite hus said...

Hello O=)

Wow what a gift you get...Wonderful pictures... and it`s looking good...
Wish you a great weekend...
Hugs Kerstin

vicki archer said...

That parcel was tomato heaven, I think. Have a wonderful weekend, xv.

Tracie~MyPetiteMaison said...

Hi Carole!
What a nice post. I'm so happy you liked your petite parcel with goodies. I want to make that tomato bisque so bad and did you see the soup with melon and tomato? Sounds kind of strange... but I think on a really hot day (like today) it would be good. Carrie at the Jim Town Store makes it, so it must be good. Thank you for letting me know you posted this - you are a sweetheart for sure ;)
I really think my hubby would like your tofu, tomato, peppers recipe since he's a veg head (well, I would like it too!). For some reason, we have no luck whatsoever growing peppers here... you'll have to let me on the secret. Our tomatoes are doing great - we're tossing some in a skillet this evening with olive oil and herbs (the Sweets 100s). Okay, now that I wrote a book, I'd better say Happy Sunday! Off to the store to grab some Nicoise olives. Talk soon.
xo~Tracie