Too Many Tomatoes

Right now in my garden I have an abundance of tomatoes - actually an overabundance if I'm to be truthful. Earlier this summer when I looked at my tomato plants loaded with green tomatoes I found myself sending up a prayer to the tomato gods to please, please ripen my tomatoes. My prayers were answered two weeks ago when it seems that every tomato in the garden ripened on the same day.

Eating that first tomato of the season is always a thrill for me. A ripe tomato just screams "summer" like nothing else can. Now, with an evergrowing pile of tomatoes in my kitchen, I'm still screaming- but it's a different scream now. It's "please tell me what to do with all these tomatoes."

Yes, I've made salsa. I've slapped tomatoes on every sandwich that I make. I've even stooped to having an "LT" sandwich (lettuce and tomato) and even a "T" sandwich (just tomatoes). I've eaten tomatoes with my fried eggs for breakfast (a favorite of my mother's).
I know I should bring some of them to work to give away, but since everyone else with a garden has the same idea I probably can't even give them away. So I keep looking for easy, inventive ways to use my tomato bounty.
This recipe is one that I'd file under "Super Quick, Super Easy and Super Tasty" (if I had a recipe box). It's a nice side dish for burgers, steaks or chicken. I even eat it as a meal with a nice slice of crusty bread.
Tomato Cucumber Salad
2 large tomatoes, chopped
1 small cucumber, chopped
1/4 C chopped red onion
1/4 C Italian salad dressing (sure, I could make my own, but this is easier and cheaper in the long run)
1/4 C shaved Parmesan cheese (I used a paring knife to just shave off small slices)

Mix tomatoes, cucumbers, onion and cheese in a bowl. Pour salad dressing over the vegetables and mix thoroughly. Season to taste with salt and pepper. If you're patient, you can let this salad sit for 15 minutes or so to let the flavors marry, but I can never wait that long and it still tastes great.

Pesto please

I have to admit, up until about three years ago, I was never a fan of pesto. To me, it looked like clippings out of the lawnmower bag so I assumed it would also have the same flavor as a handful of grass clippings (not that I make a habit of eating grass clippings, but you know what I mean). It just looked "green." I don't remember the first occasion when I tried pesto but I do remember that once I tasted it, I was hooked. I fed my addiction with the different varieties of pesto that you can find in the grocery store and that always seemed good enough to me - until the first time I made my own pesto. After that first bite of homemade pesto, there was just no going back to the other stuff.
And it's just so darned easy to make, why would you ever want to go back to the grocery store version? A handful of fresh basil, some Parmesan cheese, pine nuts, garlic and olive oil and whirl in the food processor and there you have it - fresh pesto. If you're a pesto purist, you can always make it using the mortar and pestle method, but I prefer the quicker and easier food processor method to whip up some of that 'green goodness.'
Pesto will keep for up to three weeks in the fridge if you store it properly - a thin layer of olive oil on top and tightly capped. It can also be frozen for up to a year. Just pack it in small enough quantities that you can just thaw what you need. If you have a bumper crop of basil in the garden, as I do this year, but not enough time to whip up endless batches of pesto, trying freezing the plain, chopped basil in olive oil in ice cube trays and then store the blocks of frozen basil in plastic bags. Then you can make a batch of fresh pesto in the dead of winter - when those store bought varieties are calling to you from the grocery store shelves.
I found this recipe for classic pesto in a neat little cookbook called "Very Pesto" by Dorothy Rankin.

Ingredients
2 cups loosely packed basil leaves
2 large garlic cloves
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup pine nuts or walnut halves
1/2 cup good quality olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper

Combined the basil, garlic, cheese and nuts in the bowl of a food processor. Process to mix. With the machine running, slowly add the olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper and process to desired consistency. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving. Makes about 1 cup.