you say tomato...

One of my favorite things about summer is the food! I do love good food (unfortunately). I could eat this veggie sandwich every day. Here's my recipe (yes, a recipe for a sandwich ;)
:: sprouted wheat bread
:: hummus
:: Swiss cheese (the part that's not so good for me)
:: lemon cucumbers (from my garden)
:: tomatoes (from my garden)
:: avocado if I have them (the other part that's not so good for me)
And sometimes I throw in lettuce or spinach if I'm in the mood (read, if I'm not being lazy.)

Home-grown tomatoes in the summer is probably my all time favorite food. I just can't get enough! And there's nothing that compliments a tomato better than basil. Mmmmm.....

For most of the summer, I was running up and down the stairs and into the backyard to pick basil for something we were cooking (I use the word "we" lightly.) Then I had an idea. A grand idea! (OK, I stole it from my older German neighbor.) I gave her basil, along with tomatoes and she put it in a jar, on her counter, to keep it fresh. Now this is not a new idea by any means, but I am so happy with my basil on the counter idea that I just had to share. It looks good, smells good and is ready for the taking. AND I only need to cut and bring basil in a couple times a week, instead of daily.

Jerry really is the cook in our family, and he makes me tomatoes baked in the oven. My mouth is watering just looking at the picture. A little salt, pepper, basil (of course), mozzarella and some parmesan cheese. Oh. my. yumm. The oven dries out the tomatoes so it has an intense flavor. And another thing that I love to accompany my maters is fresh motz.

Tomato, cucumber, basil, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar (plus salt and pepper) is pretty much a staple with every dinner around here. The other variation that I love is minus the cucumbers and add fresh mozzarella. Hungry yet?

They say you can never have too much of a good thing (that's exactly how I feel about tomatoes.) But "they" also say, "everything in moderation." Oops.

And as a side note, I've been dreaming about Italy as of late. I want to vacation there... I wonder why?