A Plethora of Tomatoes-easy and quick meal

Hello.  You have found the blog mmm-yoso!!! -it's about food.  On this hot day, Kirk and ed (from Yuma) are doing things other than blogging.  Cathy is your blogger du jour.

It's getting close to Autumn and our garden, which started from seed, has begun to ripen at an alarming rate.  We planted a few different varieties of tomatoes:

These French cherry tomatoes have produced more than 25 stems like this one.

These are Genovese tomatoes, before changing color; six hidden in this maze of leaves. The plants are taller than me! 

We planted strawberries in three hanging pots this year, and picked whenever we wanted a snack.

Sweet peppers and Purple German tomatoes (that's how the seed packet was labeled) are in a total of five regular and hanging pots in our front yard. 

These are Japanese Momotoro tomatoes.  A 6 inch plant was being sold for $1.99 in front of Nijiya Market in April.  The plant is now more than 7 feet tall and has produced 24 of these extra large-egg size tomatoes. 

We've also planted eggplant, yellow squash, green beans and peas which have already been picked and enjoyed. 

There are also eight more ears of corn which will be ready this weekend.  Fortunately, we spaced the planting of those. We also planted basil, dill, sage, tarragon and mint which are regularly used when we cook. There are also 6 artichoke plants and 3 cardoon which have not done much but produce silvery leaves.

For a long while, we'd have two or three tomatoes ripe and ready to eat each morning.  Then it got to about six a day...then last Monday morning, and almost every day since, this happened:

The International Tomato Festival began: French, Italian, German and Japanese tomatoes, ripe and ready to eat each morning. What to do? 

Some shredded Mozzarella, a bit of onion, basil and tarragon are always used. This recipe can vary depending on what else is available.

You can make this with no added ingredients, starting out with olive oil and onion along with the tomatoes in the pan...

Or put some olive oil in a hot pan with the onion and tomatoes (and in this case spinach, sometimes chopped peppers, sometimes squash) and leave on medium heat, uncovered.

The above photo is what the only tomatoes look like when they have cooked down, after about ten minutes on medium.

I remove some of the juice, making small 'wells' in the tomatoes, and put an egg in each well.  Cover the pan.

After about a minute (and less than two minutes) the eggs are almost cooked.

Sprinkle the shredded cheese over the eggs (you can also put fresh herbs on top now) and cover the pan.  Turn off the heat.   The cheese will melt and eggs will finish cooking.

Pretty easy and the results are wonderful.  The concentrated tomato flavor is simple and complex at the same time.  We've had variations of this recipe for breakfast, lunch and dinner and it never gets old.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend.  Stay cool!

 

Comments

[Dennis]

Wow those look fantastic! And thanks for the veggies the other day! Now I know where they came from.. :)

[santos.]

gorgeous! i have a black thumb, even with things that are supposed to be fool-proof :P

[Cathy]

Thanks and you're welcome, Dennis. I need to take photos of the whole garden as it is growing, but tending to it is a priority.
Hi santos! In prior years, tomatoes weren't great and so we tried different types, planting the seedlings in different locations around the yard so as to figure out if it's our inland weather, fertilizing or type of tomato. Ironically, the only type that didn't turn out great are the Japanese-an already started plant.

[ken]

We put our extra tomatoes in the food dehydrator to dry them out, then stored them in the freezer. Then, in the winter months, you can rehydrate them in water or oil and have extra tasty sun dried tomatoes for cooking. Great in pasta. Just a thought.....

[Cathy]

Ken- usually I do cook up a batch (with no olive oil and no onion) then put into freezer bags and freeze flat, which can then be stacked in the freezer. Dehdrating can happen also;I think there will be plenty of tomatoes to be able to experiment. Thanks for the idea.

[Ed (from Yuma)]

great post. Wonderful looking tomatoes.

[Cathy]

Thank you, ed. The Genovese are more acidic and flavorful; like what we grew up eating. I'm saving seeds for next year.

[Carls]

I'll bet those red red scrunched up tomatoes with all those cheeks taste the best. Here in Fl you can get a hot pepper plant going bush like and lasting 3-4 years. You can prolly get the same lifespan. Just buy a plant at a garden center, some are sold as ornamentals

[Cathy]

Those Genovese tomatoes do have the boldest, acidic, tomato from the vine flavor, Carls. I've seen those hot pepper ornamentals and need some color in my yard for autumn. Landscaping with edibles-great idea!

[Carol]

Hi Cathy! Your tomatoes and peppers were delicious. Thank you again for sharing your bounty. I've never had much luck with those topsy turvy planters, certainly not like what they advertise or what you're getting. I've done much better with conventional cages although no tomato plants for me this year due to laziness. hehe.