We’ve been waiting and waiting for our Celebrity tomatoes to ripen, so I finally decided to pick some and make fried green tomatoes with them.

Celebrity Tomatoes

Cut tomatoes into 1/4″ slices.

Sliced Green Tomatoes

Put 1/4 cup milk in a bowl. In separate bowl, combine 1/4 cup flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and a dash or two of cayenne. Heat about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet.

When oil is hot, dip tomato slices in milk, then in flour mixture. Add to skillet and fry on each side for 4-5 minutes.

Frying Green Tomatoes

Drain on paper towels and eat while they’re still hot.

Fried Green Tomatoes

For dinner last night we had Spaghetti with Basil Pesto and Tomato Salad, made with freshly picked sweet basil and Matt’s wild cherry tomatoes. They are the tiniest cherry tomatoes I’ve every seen, but they’re juicy, flavorful, and abundant.

Bowl full of cherry tomatoes

It was a wonderful summer meal, complete with homemade sourdough bread, Holy Cow chardonnay, and peach crisp made with farmers market peaches from nearby Caskey Orchards.

Spaghetti with pesto and tomato salad

Sourdough Bread

The  April 2009 issue of Vegetarian Times had a recipe for Thai Red Curry with Green Beans and Eggplant that I’ve been anxiously waiting to make with produce from our garden. This week, everything I needed was ready to pick:  Japanese long eggplant, snap bush beans, 1015 onions (used instead of the red onion called for in the recipe), and Thai basil.

Eggplants, Green Beans, Onions, Thai Basil

We served this with jasmine rice, and it was delicious.  Made tasty leftovers for lunch today, too.  The full recipe is available here.

Thai Red Curry with Green Beans and Eggplant

For a quick and easy snack, I sliced some carrots, lemon cucumbers, and marketmore cucumbers from the garden to eat with a freshly made batch of hummus.

Lemon Cucumber, Marketmore Cucumber

Hummus Recipe:

2 cups cooked chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup tahini
juice of one lemon
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt
1/4 cup yogurt or water
1 serrano pepper, finely diced
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
cayenne

Puree chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, and salt in food processor. Add yogurt or water and puree for a smoother consistency. Add serrano and pulse a few times until mixed in. Pour into serving bowl, stir in cumin and a dash of cayenne.

Lemon Cucumbers, Nantes Coreless Carrots, Marketmore Cucumber

Dinner from the garden tonight:

Roasted Red Potatoes with Fresh Rosemary  (Tossed potato wedges with just enough olive oil to coat. Added chopped rosemary, salt, and pepper. Baked in covered dish for 25-30 minutes (375 degrees), stirring occasionally. Removed cover and baked 10 more minutes. ) and Dramatically Seared Green Beans with Garlic and Chili. (Recipe from Mollie Katzen.)

I made my own yogurt today. It was so easy; I can’t believe I hadn’t done this before! There are several different ways to make it—I used the oven method described in The Backyard Homestead as my guide.

Step 1: Heat one quart of milk and 1/3 cup dry milk in saucepan until it reaches 100-110 degrees. I used whole milk but have read that any will work.

Step 2: Pour warmed milk into covered casserole dish.
Step 3: Add three tablespoons plain yogurt to the milk and stir well. (Make sure the yogurt has live active cultures in it – check the label. In the future, I’ll use yogurt from my last homemade batch.)

Step 4: Place in warm oven (heat to 100 degrees, then turn off) and let sit for six to eight hours. (Oven too dirty to post a picture.)
Step 5: Remove from oven and store in refrigerator.

Step 6: Eat topped with fresh fruit or homemade granola. Yum!