Garden Tomatoes

I LOVE HOME GROWN TOMATOES. I want to shout it from on high. There is nothing like them. When I was a kid we would visit my grandparents on Ohio where they had a killer "garden." I wish I could remember everything they grew but I remember green beans because we had to snap their ends and pull their stings and I didn't really want to do that. I didn't like green beans. That was until grandma cooked them with smoked pork. The reality is I only liked and really still only like grandma's green beans. They grew corn. Not a lot but enough for us to spend lots of time husking ears on the back porch. Too bad I didn't pay attention to how she cooked them to make them so sweet. Now I'm sure it wasn't the cooking method but the fact it grew in their backyard where my grandpa lovingly tended to every plant. But the thing that stands out most of all were the tomatoes. Oh those tomatoes. Grandma would walk us out to the plot of soil all lined up with different plants and tell us how to look for tomato worms. Then she'd try to get us to pluck them off the branches and squish them underfoot. I wanted to do this but I couldn't stand the green juicy stuff they squirted on my fingers. Instead I would pop tomatoes in my mouth. They were warm from the sun and so sweet. Grandma had a salt shaker in the pocket of her apron for her tomatoes but I was a purest. These days I enjoy a little sprinkling of salt on my vine ripened tomatoes. I better understand how our taste buds work and how they begin to diminish with age so I fully get that shaker in the apron. (She always wore an apron.)
You couldn't call where my tomatoes much of a plot but I've got tomatoes. Lots of sun ripened fruit, warm waiting for me to eat them. I go out several times a day and just pick a few and pop them in my mouth right there in the yard. I wipe them a little on my night gown first of course. Wanting to use my tomatoes in a creative way I've found a recipe I'm excited to try. Tomato Tart with Mascarpone. Everyone knows I like cheese and that I like to make cheese. Mascarpone is the first cheese I ever made. It's easy. Did you read that? It is easy. It's probably cheater cheese or make-believe mascarpone but it is cheese to me and I'm the one eating it. This recipe has a tart crust baked then topped with mascarpone mixed with lemon juice with sliced tomatoes on top and drizzled with a basil oil atop that. The hard part now is waiting form my mascarpone to be ready tomorrow. I'll keep you posted on how delicious this tart will be.