Ode to Tomatoes and the Open Face Tomato Sandwich

One of my favorite Pablo Neruda poems is Ode to Tomatoes. There is hardly a month when I'm not thinking about tomatoes, and this poem often comes to mind as well. I've included it at the end of this post, if you've never read it, or if you, like me, don't get tired of reading it.  These prolific summer tomato months started for me last November when I fawned over seed catalogs and chose tomato varieties for the coming year. MLK Day marks the time I like to get the seeds planted in the greenhouse and then fuss over them while they grow through to April and May, when they are big enough and the ground is warm enough for them to be planted out.  The next few months involves staking, pruning, fertilizing, and dreaming... then tomatoes everywhere, always for a couple months that only seem precious when they are over. Just thinking about the end of tomato season makes me wax nostalgic. Luckily we're still wading in tomatoes! Rejoice! 

Heirloom Kiwi Tomatoes

Today I don't have an elaborate recipe. I have my own ode to tomatoes of sorts: photos and a suggestion for a  go-to, every day, throw-together meal that I could (and do) eat for days on end. 

Tamarind Sorbet or Agua Fresca

Yay tamarind! Before you skip over this, thinking tamarind is an exotic and strange thing that you have never heard of, don't know where to find, or don't care about...give tamarind a chance. It is an extraordinary fruit pulp that is quite delicious and surprisingly nutritious. This sweet-sour fruit (officially a legume), contains high amounts of potassium, calcium, iron, selenium, zinc and magnesium, as well as vitamins C and B and antioxidants. Quite a powerhouse of a fruit -- it's especially unusual to see a fruit with such high levels of iron and Vitamin B. And it is really delicious -- sweet, sour, tangy, addictive. I've used it in savory Indian dishes, as well as in sweet drinks and dessert. I've also seen tamarind candies at the Latino market coated with chili -- sweet and spicy. This recipe is an adaptable summer winner -- it can be churned into a refreshing sorbet or mixed with additional water and ice for sipping in the sun. It's sweet, yet not cloyingly so.

tamarind still in their pods

Blackberry Slump

It's berry time again! As we headed over the Santa Cruz Mountains to our go-to you-pick berry patch, we tried to remember when it was that we made this trip last year. Of course I track dates and time by the food I ate or the recipes I made, so I looked back in the blog. Sure enough, it was the same weekend last year that we hauled home many pounds of blackberries and strawberries. The Daiquiris,  Blackberry Ice Cream and Blackberry Swirl Frozen Yogurt posts tell the tale of last year's excursion.


So what to make with this year's bounty? A slump, of course. What the heck is a slump?! In short, it's stove top fruit dumplings. Unlike a cobbler or a grunt (or other strangely-named fruit desserts), a slump is made on the stove top. It's lovely not to have to turn on the oven in the summer! I like to use a big cast iron pan with a heavy lid. The fruit goes in the pot and a biscuit-mixture is dropped on top of the fruit. The pan lid goes on and the magic happens: the fruit bubbles away while the biscuits steam, making fluffy, fruit-covered dumplings.   You can use whatever berry you have -- blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries -- or other fruit (stone fruit works great). Sugar amounts may have to be altered for different types of fruit.  It's a brilliant idea. And absolutely delicious.

Triple A Salad

Well, it's back to blogging! After many months of wedding planning, celebrating, and then honeymooning, Bill and I spent our first weekend back at home, reveling in the simple pleasure of being married, and relaxing, cleaning out the garage, doing three weeks worth of laundry, making short work of a dozen pounds of ripe plums, vacuuming and hosting friends. Another great opportunity to reflect back on Jack Kornfield's Buddhist book, After the Ecstasy, the Laundry.

I really enjoyed planning our wedding weekend, and I absolutely LOVED every minute of the celebration. Now it's also strangely enjoyable to be doing household tasks. Even while dusting and lugging bags to the Goodwill, little wedding memories click through my mind and make me smile.

Here's a sneak peek:

I'll do a post with more photos and details soon, and (hopefully) have a recipe for our wedding cake -- a banana cake that is out of this world. But today's post is a recipe that came to me during a sweet bridal shower hosted by a most creative, generous and resilient friend. She hosted a beautiful brunch, and collected recipes on index cards from all my friends (I'll be posting more of those in the weeks to come -- there are some real winners... everything from savory Bulgarian pastries to Texas sheet cake to Grandma Paddy's ricotta pancakes).

This was the recipe she passed on to me, from Cynthia Lair, a professor at Bastyr University. I frequently make salads, but this is a favorite. The Triple A is named for the primary ingredients = Avocado, Almonds and Arame (a nutrient-rich seaweed, a relative of kelp. Make it with mixed greens, a nice butter lettuce, baby spinach or arugula (to make it a Quadruple A!). I usually like to dress my salad separately, as I'm picky about what constitutes just the right amount of dressing, but this salad is an exception -- I love this dressing and the amount always seems perfect. I didn't do much cooking over the past couple months, but I did make this salad quite a few times -- and that is saying a lot (it was this salad and take out for the last two month rush before the wedding)! On more than one occasion this salad served as a meal in itself.

Multi-Grain Pancake & Waffle Mix

I've gotten a lot of mileage out of this recipe lately! It's one I adapted from this cookbook (the same cookbook I got the ideas for this and this recipe) and to-date my favorite multi-grain pancake mix. I love that this mix has so many great grains in it, yet still makes fluffy, light pancakes. The cornmeal gives it a nice texture, too. They are filling, but not too heavy or dense. One batch has made quite a few occasions:

I packaged some up to send to MK, as a part of the Send Something Good blogger pen-pal swap. I whipped up a birthday brunch for two colleagues. And I celebrated Memorial Day with a leisurely peach-pancake breakfast with Bill.

Preparing this mix in larger quantities makes it easy to use on a whim, or to give as gifts -- I mix up a batch and have it for a couple months, sealed, in the fridge. It's also good packaged in Ball jars with a ribbon for holiday gifts.

This mix is great for adding variations -- Peaches are piling up at the farmers' market, so these had peaches cooked inside, and piled on top. YUM. I'm a fan of the smaller, silver-dollar sized cakes, but you can make them any size you want.

Send Something Good Package Pals - Part 2

pink strawflower

The whole goal of the Send Something Good project was to connect with other bloggers you may not otherwise find. I have to admit, I'm in my own little food blog bubble. When I have a spare second, I scroll through food blogs... and wedding sites. So checking out the sites of the bloggers in the Send Something Good project was a lot of fun, and a new perspective. How interesting to get a view into someone else's life, interests, relationships -- to get to know other people in other places in the world so easily.

I received Mary Kate's contact, the author of the blog From the Guest Room, as the person I'd be getting to know (via her blog), and then surprising with a package. Mary Kate lives in Nashville. The south is close to my heart (I was born and lived for years in North Carolina), and I loved looking through Mary Kate's blog -- she has beautiful photos, great style, and she is always posting about something interesting (book clubs, recipes, photography pointers, DIY, guest posts, fashion ideas). It was fun to put together a package for her, and also strange sending a stranger a gift -- trying to imagine who she was, what she'd like. I wanted to send something from California, something personal, something unusual, and of course to have it all be something she'd like.

Mango Parfaits (by way of Mango Memories)

Twelve years ago, I traveled around the world for 9 months on a field study program called International Honors Program. It was an awesome, inspiring, crazy experience. The friends I made on that trip are like family, and it's always so sweet to see them. What an exceptional treat to see five of them in the last two weeks (plus their significant others and little ones)!