I've decided there are very few things that are best done alone. Ok maybe not a very few but mostly things are better when done with someone else. For me and food that is completely true. Food is to be shared. The experience is enhanced when you can talk about it, share over it and enjoy every bite with someone.
Today I got to do a few of my favorite things. I cooked with friends. Pounds of tomatoes inspired all this cooking. A friend posted pictures of all her tomato abundance and a few of us commented on what to do with them. That quickly spurred us to making a giant batch of pasta sauce. A special recipe handed down to my friend. After a tasty lunch and silly girl chatting we began the fun of chopping and dicing vegetables to stew with peeled tomatoes. Good thing we weren't in a hurry 'cause we were on cruise mode and IT WAS AWESOME. We talked about food, kids, husbands, herbs, kids, fire pits, empty nests, food and did I mention kids? We also took pictures. Isn't it funny how we take pictures of everything these days? I remember when....never mind.
Until I get permission to post the recipe I'll tell you this much. It has fresh peeled tomatoes, chopped, diced bell pepper, fresh diced onion and garlic, evoo, sugar, s&p, fresh basil, oregano, thyme, and red pepper. Slow cooked down and tasted repeatedly.
You should cook with people you love, like and want to eat with. It will make your life richer. I promise.
Go forth and cook.
(There is one food thing I like to do alone but I'm not inclined to share that with you if you don't already know about it.)
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.)
