Lets have a Toast to Toast - Bruschetta is summer

What do you do when you want to kick up your summer platters? Make some fancy toast. Brushcetta is exactly the answer.

With summer bounty in full swing we have access to some beautiful produce and what better way to use it then on a piece of simple toast. Here I have some fresh mozzarella, still warm and soft, with some heirloom cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes and grape tomatoes right off the vine tossed with a little herbed salt that I mix up and a splash of olive oil layered on a crispy and toasted on only one side slice of a bastone loaf that was rubbed with fresh garlic then drizzled with a little extra virgin olive oil then its flecked with a little chiffonade of green and purple basil and finished with some slivers of radish and some nasturtium petals and if you want drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil on it before serving. 

Planting The Tomatoes

An old Italian man lived alone in the country. He wanted to dig his tomato garden, but it was very hard work as the ground was hard. His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament:

Dear Vincent,
I am feeling pretty bad because it looks like I won't be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. If you were here, my troubles would be over. I know you would dig the plot for me.
Love, Dad.

A few days later, he received a letter from his son.

Dear Dad,
Don't dig up that garden. That's where I buried the BODIES.
Love, Vinnie.

At 4 a.m. the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left. That same day the old man received another letter from his son.

Dear Dad,
Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That's the best I could do under the circumstances.
Love, Vinnie.

Fried Green Tomatoes

When you have way too many what do you do?




I forgot to photograph the napoleans I made with these by layering them with basil and mozzarella and ricota cheese mixed with nasturtium flowers and then drizzled with marinara sauce.

1 tomato, 2 tomatoes..

First off my profile picture keeps disappearing so I replace it and it disappears again. Secondly I will post in not so greater detail as to who the occasional woman is in my posts. Thirdly its hotter than pistols. Fourthly its feeding time. Everyone, at least I think everyone, likes tomatoes, mozzarella and basil and this is how I like it. I have posted this version before but here it is again. Why make one when you can make three, after all what good is sharing when you can be a little piggy and have one to yourself? I scattered some balsamic vinager and some extra virgin olive oil along with fresh ground pepper and sea salt to liven it up a little more.



There were also deep fried smelts with a tomato, white peach, parsley and blueberry vinager salsa, followed by some gumbo.

This pot was seriously chock full. It had salmon, tilapia, whole smelts, crabs, shrimp, and mussels as well as okra summer peas carrots and potatoes and one jalapeno sliced in half for that little tiny kick. Why eat such a hot dish in this weather? I dunno.