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Archive for the ‘Tomatoes’ Category

Grow Tomatoes Review: Knowns and Unknowns About Mamie Eisenhower’s Tomato Pudding

July 24th, 2009 | Author: Dot

Tomato "Huh?"

DoT’s Thot: “As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don’t know we don’t know.” – Donald Rumsfeld

I came across this celebrity tomato-related recipe (looked interesting) and felt kind of curious. I have been trying to imagine what this dish should look like and smell like coming out of the oven. If someone has a picture or has made it, I would consider it a kindness to find out vicariously what this tomato recipe yields. I do suspect that it is more than my quota of indulgence for the day. My guess is that it’s a brown, fruity, but not creamy, version of bread pudding. I can’t afford the calories (this is the known known). I don’t know what this looks like nor tastes like (these are known unknowns). I wonder what my unknown unknowns might be.

Mamie Eisenhower’s Tomato Pudding

1 (24 or 29 ounce) can tomato puree
1 1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
Pinch of salt
1/3 cup boiling water
8 slices bread
1/2 pound butter

In buttered casserole cube the 8 slices of bread. Slice the butter over the bread. Add the tomato puree, brown sugar, salt and boiling water that have been mixed together. Bake at 350 degrees F, uncovered, for 1 hour.

Nevertheless, thanks to two Washington, D.C., celebrities, this tomato recipe was fun to think about. I put this recipe in the — “maybe I’ll try it some time” pile.

Aloha, DoT

Cultivate and Fertilize the Heirloom Tomatoes

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Recipe Goldmine: Mamie Eisenhower’s Tomato Pudding

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Grow Tomatoes Review: Follow-Up Photo of Golden Pineapple Beefsteak Tomato

July 23rd, 2009 | Author: Dot

Slices of Golden Pineapple Beefstea Tomato With Whole Tomato

“A cooked tomato is like a cooked oyster: ruined.” – Andre Simon, The Concise Encyclopedia of Gastronomy

DoT’s Thot: If you subscribe to the thinking above, then you are the kind of gardener who will eat a ripe tomato while standing among the tomato plants, with no added embellishments — just the warmth from the sun heating up the sweet internal juices of the tomato.

If you subscribe to this thnking and do not garden, you are picky when you buy tomatoes and will judge carefully the tomatoes best suited to serve plain, maybe with the salt and pepper grinders or shakers on the table. However, you probably would not try to eat one of the large Golden Pineapple heirloom beefsteak tomatoes in the garden, saving it to savor at the dining table.

Tomato Journal Entry: Early July 2009 — Golden Pineapple Beefsteak Tomato

Early in July, we picked a couple of much awaited bicolor heirloom Golden Pineapple Beefsteak tomatoes. They were the anticipated golden yellow with red streaks on the skin. I was remiss and forgot to photograph the large tomato that was sliced for lunch, but did recover my senses enough to photograph slices of the other half we ate for dinner.

Here is the photograph showing some large moon-shaped slices. You can clearly see that the golden yellow and pale yellow internal flesh is streaked and mottled with pink . Toward the center, the pink darkens to a reddish hue. There are few seeds in the meaty flesh and it is a firm, creamy texture, not mushy, not watery, not crunchy. The tomato to the right of the plate is much smaller, as can be seen, yet clearly shows the distinctive red striping overlaying the golden yellow skin.

This tomato has had a tendency to produce some cracking on the tomato tops as the weather turns super hot in our garden and if we are not fast enough in readjusting the watering times with the soaker hose, but the beauty, texture, and taste (mild, but flavorful) of the tomato makes me look for the Golden Pineapple Beefsteak heirloom tomato seedlings every March. If I cannot find this one, I will opt for a related tomato, perhaps Pineapple or even Green Pineapple. Certainly, it does not hurt that these remind of home and the pineapples from Hawaii.

Aloha, DoT

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Review Basic Canning Tips for Beginners: An Inexpensive Reference

July 22nd, 2009 | Author: Dot

DoT’s Thot: Not being a canning guru, I did not give any instructions in any of my posts about canning tomatoes or tomato recipes. Thinking about it, if you are a tomato enthusiast and new to canning, you might want to get a reference. I paid $20 or so for a book, then decided to look for something you might be able to use, without having to pay as much as I did (think I should have shopped around).

I don’t usually do this, but think that this one is pretty reasonable in price (under $5), so that you might want to check it out. It apparently compiles a lot of government pamphlets for you, so you don’t have to look around and we know that the government food specialists do a lot of testing. Another alternative is if the canner you buy includes a number of free recipes, you might find that that suffices. In the best of all worlds, you might know someone who can help you get started. Aloha, DoT

Basic Canning Tips For Complete Newbies - What You Must Know To Get Started In Canning!

Author: K. Gegeben
List Price: $4.44

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Grow Tomatoes Review: Vintage Wine and Black Brandywine Heirlooms

July 22nd, 2009 | Author: Dot

“All of life is a dispute over taste and tasting.” – Friedrich Nietzsche (German classical Scholar, Philosopher and Critic of culture, 1844-1900.)

Vintage Wine Heirloom Tomato and Black Brandywine Heirloom Tomato

DoT’s Thot: I have struggled with deciding what should go in the garden each tomato season. I admit to being greedily curious about heirloom tomatoes. While I am all in favor of preserving the diversity of the horticultural gene pool, I also am just plain interested in the colors, shapes, sizes, aroma, and tastes of the varieties of tomatoes as well as the growing habits, different flowers and vining habits of the tomato plants. Vintage Wine attracted me this year, because of its name, description, and pretty picture. Black Brandywine was bought, because I somehow did not find the usual pink nor yellow brandywine in the nurseries.

Select Heirloom Tomatoes Because They Are Interesting and Taste Good

As for selecting tomatoes in general, not being a trained horticulturist, I do some reading, internet surfing, and take my chances every year, trying to find the ones I have liked from years past and trying new ones. Vintage Wine tomato and Black Brandywine tomato are two new heirloom trials for me. Some of the ones I have missed this year that were grand in past years have been New Zealand Pink Paste (grew that for 2 years and then it disappeared on me — nice paste tomato that tastes grand out of hand), Anna Russian (prolific lovely pink oxheart tomatoes that remind me a little of Dinner Plate — planted that last year, found none this year), and Orange Santa Grape tomato (wonderful for growing in super large pot). I did note that there is some dispute about which tomatoes are truly heirloom or heritage, but it does not matter to me. I will take the broader definition to be tomatoes that people like so much that they keep the seeds, wish to see them propagated forward, and pass on from some number of generations to the next.

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Grow Tomatoes Review: Todd County Amish Beefsteak Tomato Heavyweight

July 21st, 2009 | Author: Dot

Removing the Protective Netting from the Todd Amish County Beefsteak Tomato

Removing the Protective Netting from the Todd Amish County Heirloom Beefsteak Tomato

Dot’s Thot: I’ll let the pictures tell most of the harvest day story when I had to use both hands to hold the largest tomato of the day.

Journal Entry: 10 July 09 — Largest Tomato of the Day — Todd County Amish Beefsteak Heirloom Tomato

This is an indeterminate tomato (I), which means the tomato plant does not have a limited growing height, but keeps growing longer or taller during the growing season. Determinate tomatoes are restricted in size and stop growing after after a while. Some of the Todd County Amish Beefsteak heirloom tomato characteristics are the large size, rich, yet sweet fruit that are meaty and plentiful. It is considered a wonderful heirloom tomato and yields 1 to 2 pound pink tomatoes. This tomato will be set on the windowsill to ripen to a deeper rosy pink before eating.

The tomato plant itself is a potato leaf variety of tomato and this is the first year of planting this tomato for me. I did not find one of my favorite tomatoes, the Amish Paste Tomato, so decided to take this one instead, simply based on the fact that it was another Amish tomato. It looks like a winner.

Aloha, DoT

Top View of the Two-Hander Todd Amish County Beefsteak Tomato Harvested on 7 July 20090

Todd County Amish Beefsteak Tomato Fills Two Hands

Note: We netted the larger, riper tomatoes, since some critters took bites out of some tomatoes. It’s either some bird or some nocturnal critter, maybe a possom? We then went and netted the whole row with bird netting as well. Worried aboutt hindering pollination, we might remove the bird netting and take my chances….