Foodie Friday - Nothing in the world like homegrown tomatoes

My awesome friend went picking tomatoes and shared her bounty with me.  What a gift!

She knows I could eat tomatoes for breakfast, lunch, & dinner and knew they wouldn't go to waste.

{Warning: there are about to be a lot of RED pictures!}

Did you ever hear this obscure John Denver song?  I once bought a "cut out" album in the dollar bin when I worked at Camelot.  I figured how bad could it be, it was still John Denver.  I was right and this little nugget has always stuck with me after all these years.

It was, of course, stuck in my head as I looked at the harvest of tomatoes before me!

So here are a few of the dishes I created using these fresh from the farm {literally} beauties.

• Devouring them quartered with cottage cheese for breakfast or lunch with lots of Salt & Pepper.
• Enjoying a juicy, sliced tomato with an over-easy egg and toast.  Bacon makes everything better, too.
• Obviously, GREAT salads! 
• This is a marinated salad my family has always done as far back as I can remember.  Some of it varies depending on what we have on hand.  But generally it is a sweet onion, preferably Vidalia, fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, S & P, and italian dressing.  As a nod to a caprese style salad, I often add fresh basil, when I have it, and fresh mozzarella.  This particular time, I added in a few grinds from my herb blend, too.  

Eat as is or serve over romaine for a loaded marinated salad topping.

 
This particular day, I had boiled eggs in the fridge so I diced those up into the salad for my hubby.

•  I often roast my grape or cherry tomatoes with some garlic & onion when I let them get wrinkly and go a bit too far for eating fresh.  Then I blend them with some fresh basil and warm slightly over just-cooked pasta.  So yummy!
• With the big ones, I decided to quarter up some of the tomatoes to make a quick fresh pasta sauce.  I caramelized some onions and then garlic before adding the tomatoes.

Isn't that beautiful.  You can see the chunky salt on the top if you click on the picture.  Makes me hungry again.

After I left them cook down for quite a while, skins and all, I mashed them in the pan with a potato masher.  Chunky and lumpy and lovely.

• This is that sauce mixed with penne and ready to serve with some fresh grated parm.

Thanks for stopping by!  "Follow me" and stay awhile! 

Pretty please?  With a tomato on top!

Thank you Jennifer for the gift of these wonderful tomatoes!

What do you like to do with tomatoes?