Tuesday, January 31, 2012

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http://southernbite.com/2011/07/20/papas-lemon-icebox-pie/#comment-4554


Because deep down, past all the health food stuff ?  I am  southern in my heart.





This is the process. When the tomatoes are ripe in the gardens here?  I eat the first real tomato "sandmich"  Yes, "sandmich".  Out comes the whole wheat bread (toasted), the bacon (fried), the mayo, and finally the un refrigerated, vine ripe tomato. The closest you can get to it is Campari green house tomatoes but that's as close as you can get. My dad used to have a garden in back of his house. It was huge. Alot of tomatoes. They'd can them and have them on the table in the kitchen. THE best thing in the world was to sit and eat tomatoes (with just alittle salt and pepper). The Sweet One Hundreds were like candy.  In the winter? You'd open a quart jar of tomatoes add diced bell peppers and onions and salt, pepper, garlic. Simmer in a skillet. Pour over pasta and eat.  The simmer changes things in the tomatoes. Heaven on Earth.

Warm and sweet on the tongue like a kiss.
Juicy.
Too bad Valentine's Day is in February.
Tomatoes, fresh from the garden, are the perfect fruit of love.


I'd eat a "tomayta samich" with this lemon ice box pie and a glass of tea.

Look out the window of my mom and dads kitchen. Be sitting there looking outside at the heat of the day. The grass green. The sky blue. Hot outside but cool under the airconditioning. :)


Nothing better on a hot day in July. I'm glad that I had that experience. Can still taste it.


"...Only two things that money can't buy and that's true love and home grown tomatoes..."






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3 comments:

  1. ,

    Oh ya'll, I just can't.

    I'm a southerner. Have traveled in other parts of the world and over 40 of the 50 states but I've spent most of my adult live in the Deep South. Whenever we go to another part of the country, as soon as I open my mouth, people ask where I'm from. I drink sweet tea and -yes- I do love the first tomato sandwich of the year.

    But.

    LOL, I just can't.

    Was reading a cooking blog about southern food (not SouthernBite) when it dawned on me that the quaint small southern town the writer was refering to was neither quaint nor small. Prattville, Alabama has been one of the fastest growing areas in the country. The small area that used to be Pratville is there. You can find Fat Boy's BBQ and the old Pratt Gin.

    But small town southern. Ah no.

    The funny thing about the Deep South is that even the small towns aren't. I'm in the Dollar General of the small town up the road. This town is small. No traffic lights and one road straight through town in this place but it's far from isolated. The guy at the hardware is from California and I'd say a hipster (nice guy). The automechanic spends quality time on his smart phone. We have Twitter and the Internet.

    "...I'm in the Dollar General of the small town up the road..." (Sorry got side tracked.) I'm in the Dollar General and I looked down at the feet of the girl in front of me. Tom's shoes on her feet and the rest looks like something you'd see in Elle.

    So I just can't do the quaint, Mayberry patter.

    ...

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  2. Gloom because those "Aw shucks. Here in the Deep South everything we cook has at least 4 sticks of butter (the real kind, not the "I Can NOT Believe that this's Not Butter" kind" blogs are very popular. If I could write like that I might could make some money. LOL.

    True there are fantastic cooks here. Food's good. It's not all gluey and over cooked.

    The biscuits and cornbread are good. Drizzled with local honey and oozing with butter, those biscuits and chunks of cornbread are phenomenal. Thing is folks here have their own teeth and alot of them are on the healthy, low salt, low fat, count your calories band wagon. The blackeyed peas are recognizable and so are the greens. We live in a farm area. People have gardens. We've got letuce and brussel sprouts.

    Eat in moderation? it's good.


    I eat fried chicken just about every Sunday. Skin and all. The people where I eat it are lovely and it lowers my stress level soon as I walk in the restaurant. When the weather's good? We get take out and then eat outside in the Zen garden.

    Note:

    There's an private airport within 5 miles of the best fried chicken ever. The restaurant is It Don't Matter restaurant on Highway 331 South in the tiny town of Highland Home, Alabama. I've eatten there and can vouch for the food.

    In Highland Home? The people are nice, the food's good, and the tea is sweet.

    Hugs ya'll.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  3. Small town? Here in the South.

    More like the old CBS show Northern Exposure than Mayberry.

    :D

    ReplyDelete