I Heart Tomatoes

I love tomatoes. Even more, I love tomatoes that I grew myself. Just going out to the garden and collecting ripe, plump, red/yellow/pink/orange tomatoes, gently putting them in your basket, and tearing off several sprigs of fragrant basil is a summer event that I try to imprint in my mind to recall when the cold Maryland winters roll around. Tomatoes rule the recesses of my culinary mind. Every summer day, I think of the endless possibilities of adding its sweet/tart/tangy taste to whatever I eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. It is the time of year when we cannot wait for a BLT, add fresh tomatoes to the morning omelet, grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches, tuna salad filled tomatoes, baked tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, homemade pasta sauce....the possibilities are endless.

Here are two of our favorites. Almost every night we artifully arrange tomatoes on a platter, tuck in basil leaves, crumble feta cheese, sprinkle dry oregano and cracked pepper, and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and a touch of red wine vinegar. It is a meal in and of itself.

We also enjoy making a fresh pasta sauce right from the garden. Just saute 1 small chopped onion and 3 cloves of minced garlic in olive oil. Add 6-8(or more) ripes plum-type tomatoes that have been peeled. Saute altogether for about 10 minutes, breaking up the tomatoes until chunky. Add about 1 cup white wine and one small can of tomato paste. Add a sprig or 2 of fresh basil, 1 teas dried oregano and 1/2 teas celery salt. Simmer about 15 more minutes. Add to your favorite pasta. This amount serves 2-3 people easily. Enjoy the season. Hopefully stinkbugs have not taken residence in your garden as they have in mine. There is always the local farmer's market to fill your summer tomato fancies. Eat them now-they are in season. Make that culinary summer memory.

Heads Up on Cabbage

I cannot believe it has been over a month since I last blogged. Since my last post, my son, Dave got married (yay!!!) to his lovely bride, Jen. And now with her son, Riley (in the picture), they make the perfect family! But in the meantime, my garden went downhill (boo). The stinkbug invaded and destroyed much of my garden. Nevertheless, over that month, we have enjoyed many a fantastic meal. Luckily, I had the presence of mind to photograph the food so that I can blog about them at a later date.

The subject of this blog is cabbage. I grow three varieties each year: regular, red, and savoy. Cabbage has many health benefits. It has cholesterol-reducing benefit, especially when lightly steamed making the fiber components easier to bind to bile acids.This makes it easier to excrete, lowering cholesterol. Cabbage also contains sinigrin which converts into compounds that is know to have cancer preventive qualities. Cabbage is chock full of vitamins K and C. It also contains dietary fiber, manganese, vitamins B6, B1, B2, and A, calcium, potassium, tryptophan, folate, magnesium, and protein. And if you are looking for a big bang in antioxidant value, eat the red variety. It contains 6 to 8 times the antioxidants than the green varieties.

So I LOVE cabbage. It is a staple in our household, adding it to stir-fry recipes and soups. But my most FAVORITE way to use cabbage is to stuff the leaves to make the family Polish favorite --Golabki

Golabki Recipe (Our family pronounced this dish ‘gawumpki’)

1 lb ground beef

1/2 lb ground pork

1/2 cup rice

1 egg

1 onion chopped fine

2 TBSP butter

Salt and pepper

1 whole head cabbage

1 32 oz can tomato puree

4 strips bacon

1 teas vinegar

Remove core from whole head cabbage. Scald the cabbage in boiling water. Remove a few leaves at a time as they wilt. Cool before using.

Wash rice in cold water and stir into 2 quarts of rapidly boiling salt water. Boil 10 minutes and strain. Run cold water through rice in strainer. This rice is only half cooked now.

Saute onion in butter only until it becomes transparent. Do not let it turn yellow. Combine the meat, egg, rice, and seasoning and mix well. Spread each leaf with meat, about half inch thick, fold in the two opposite sides in and roll, starting with one of the open ends. Stack each cabbage roll in large sauce pot with fold face down.

Pour in tomato puree and vinegar and place uncooked bacon on top. Add water if necessary to cover cabbage rolls. Bring to boil and simmer 1 to 2 hours.

My Babcia (Grandmother) always added peeled potatoes in the same pot.

Yum!!!!!