Too Much Fun With Tomatoes

I love good tomatoes! With my garden producing plenty of heirloom and conventional tomatoes this year I’m doing more experimenting than ever. Mind you that the last time I worked on a decent garden it was back in 1992 in Alaska when my room mate decided to grow an Alaskan style garden. Then I moved to Baltimore in 2009,the land of easy gardening, and installed raised bed vegie gardens in the backyard. It’s so easy to garden here you don’t even have to build a moose fence! All though I have had encounters with deer and bunnies they can’t compare to the damage a full grown moose can do to a garden. Here in Baltimore most vegies grow quite well but tomatoes really shine. I had high hopes when I planted about ten different varieties of tomatoes in April and May, but then we got a very cool and rainy spring and early summer. It took quite a while before I knew what the tomatoes would think about all this cool and rainy weather, but by the time August rolled around I could tell it was going to be the best crop of my three years here at our new home.

This presented a challenge to use all these great tomatoes without letting them spoil or have us get sick of eating tomatoes. We have had the following meals so far using the fruits of my garden:

Caprese

Tomato avocado sandwiches

Orechiette tossed with tomatoes and olive oil

Salsa

Lasagne made with fresh tomato sauce

Greek salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, onion, and feta cheese

Heirloom tomato and avocado salad

The last preparation on the list is the favorite due to the amazing taste of the Cherokee Purple, Mr Stripey, and Marmonde heirloom tomatoes I put in it. I took a sample of this salad to my favorite taste testers across the street today and both gave it two thumbs up. I know most of you don’t have heirloom tomatoes in you backyard, but you can find them in many places these days such as:

local farm stands

farmer’s markets

Whole Foods grocery stores

Trader Joe’s grocery stores

After you manage to get ahold of some give this recipe a try. It’s a great one for a summer salad with lunch or dinner.

Just for fun, if any of my readers can get five of their friends, or family to signup for my newsletter at www.fastandfuriouscook.com I’ll overnight two of my heirlooms to that one lucky reader. This is available to the first one to comply, and valid until the end of tomato season which ever comes first. I’ll post the lucky winner’s name on my blog. In case of a tie, well they both get tomatoes from my garden. However this is only available to those  who have a shipping address in the 50 US states. It would be a bit much to ship tomatoes to another country!

Heirloom Tomato and Avocado Salad

2 cups one inch cubes of fresh heirloom tomato

1 small or medium sized avocado cut into one inch cubes

1 tablespoon good olive oil

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

2 tablespoons fresh basil cut thin,(chiffonade)

salt to taste

optional, 1 fresh jalapeno deseeded and sliced thin

Cut tomatoes and put into a medium sized mixing bowl.

Cut avocados and add to mixing bowl.

add jalapeno if using

Cut basil and add to bowl.

Pour olive oil and lime juice over the mix, and stir gently.

Refrigerate for 1/2 hour and serve as is or on a bed of shredded romaine lettuce.

Note:

You can serve this at room temperature, or chill for 1/2 to 4 hours.