I'm guessing the tomato haters have never eaten a garden fresh tomato. They are completely different from what you get at the grocery store. They do not taste at all alike.

This is exactly what I was thinking. The stuff from the stores is often mushy, sometimes even mealy, and flavorless. I don't blame people for not liking them. Fresh grown ones are completely different. Some, for instance, are so strongly flavored and aromatic that they can actually be harsh. And they don't have that yucky texture.

The way lots of people don't like tomatoes reminds me of what I used to think of spinach. Where I grew up, there was no such thing as fresh spinach. Just that sour, soft stuff, goopy but still stringy at the same time, packed in yucky green water in a can. Blecch. The first time I saw spinach in the produce section of a market was when I moved to Hawaii at about 16 years old. I didn't even know what it was. I was still convinced, even though it looked so different from the stuff in cans, that I hated it, though. When I finally ate some, I was amazed that it could possibly be the same plant I was used to hating the taste of. And now I love it. I just never knew any better.

I love the intensity of raw onion.

you guess incorrectly. I've tried oodles of fresh tomatoes. they just don't do it for me.

I prefer chunky. I use this recipe for Salsa Fresca and love it:

http://smittenkitchen.com/2006/08/th...t-on-my-shirt/
(this link also contains a very tasty and very simple shredded chicken for tacos recipe)

2 large fresh ripe tomatoes, chopped
1/2 large white onion, peeled and minced
1/4 teaspoon minced raw garlic, or to taste
1 habanero or jalapeno pepper, stemmed, seeded and minced, or to taste
1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice or 1 teaspoon red-wine vinegar (I prefer vinegar)
Salt and freshly ground pepper.

Combine all ingredients, taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.
Let the flavors marry for 15 minutes or so before serving, but serve within a couple of hours.

This is un-American. Why do you hate freedom?

1.chop tomatoes into large chunks with chopped onions and whole cloves of garlic. toss in olive oil and salt and pepper. roast in oven till browned. when done blend all of this with a little fresh basil and oregano.

2.Slice tomatoes thick... toss in flour.... dip in egg wash.... breading ... deep fry.
3. put blended sauce on top of fried tomatoes.. cover each with mozzarella cheese and put in broiler till golden brown..

good stuff.

Interesting. Tomatoes with a roasted tomato sauce.

Sorry to digress from the love/hate fest of fresh tomatoes (love, by the way), but I am in the process of cooking up a huge batch of meat sauce. It will be frozen into single use containers and lasts longer in the freezer than it will take to eat it all.

Ingredients:
3 lb ground beef
3-4 med/large onions
1-2 heads garlic
3-4 medium carrots
4 cans whole tomatoes (in juice, not in puree)
Tomato paste

white wine
wine vinegar

dried oregano, basil
salt
pepper
crushed red pepper
olive oil
sugar

First, put all the tomatoes in a strainer inside a big bowl and crush them by hand (careful for the splashing). Strain out the juice and put it in a saucepan with a big splash of vinegar (I had champagne vinegar, but pretty much any wine vinegar would be fine - not balsalmic, and I probably wouldn't use plain white vinegar). Bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer and let it reduce.

Brown the meat in a big skillet, drain the fat and reserve the meat.

Saute the garlic, onions and carrots in olive oil. (Do this in the pot you will be making the sauce in - you probably could have browned the meat in here also).

Add the meat, tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, white wine, oregano, basil, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper to the big pot. You should underseason the sauce here, you can always add more later. I like to add some sugar here as well.

Check the reducing tomato juice. Is it down to about 1/2 - 1/3 of where it started? Is it nice and thick? OK, add it to the sauce. Now, simmer over low heat for a long time, stirring occasionally. Taste as you go, add some more salt/pepper/red pepper as you like.

When you decide it is done, cool it down. Fill up a sink with ice water and set the pot down in the middle. Stir the sauce to cool and add more ice if needed. When it is cooled to near room temperature, ladle it into your storage containers and freeze. I find that the sauce tends to need more salt after thawing, so taste it again before serving.


The directions here are deliberately vague. Add more or less of whatever you like. Make it a few times and you'll start to get your proportions and cooking times down. This is a messy, somewhat laborious process, but it is a great way for me to relax for a few hours in the kitchen. Also, if you are just getting started with cooking, there are a few good techniques here - prepping vegetables, sauteing, reducing.

I made this soup on Wednesday and I highly recommend it. It's easy to make and is sooooo delicious! I added some chicken sausage (Blarg's original post #14 has suggestions on substitutions and extras) and I think it was the perfect addition.

Glad you liked it! It's definitely pretty flexible on the additions. I like that you can really mess around with the ingredients and amounts and you'll still usually wind up just fine. And that it freezes so well that you never feel there's no point in making a big batch.

Blarg, I was not fully prepared with how big the soup was going to get! I ended up moving it mid-recipe into to a huge soup pot that I normally use to cook large batches of mashed potatoes or whatever. I'm thrilled that I have enough to freeze for many meals in the future.

So, I love to prepare recipes that are delicious and made with simple and very few ingredients. I made this Wilted Spinach Salad tonight and it definitely fits the bill. It took about 15 minutes to prepare and got rave reviews from both me and my guy:

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2...ng-recipe.html

Wilted Spinach Salad with Warm Feta Dressing
- serves 4 - (or 2, if you eat like I do)

Ingredients
1 9-ounce bag of fresh spinach leaves (I used an 11oz box)
5 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, cut into wedges
1 7-ounce package feta, crumbled
2 tablespoons Sherry wine vinegar

Procedure
1. Dump the spinach in a large bowl.

2. Pour 2 tablespoons of the olive oil into a large skillet over high heat. Toss in the onion, and cook until nicely browned, about 7 minutes. Remove the onion and set atop the spinach in the bowl. Turn off the heat.

3. Add the rest of the olive oil and all of the feta to the skillet. Stir until thoroughly melted—the residual heat should be enough heat. Slowly stir in the vinegar. Season with salt and pepper. Pour on top of the spinach and serve.

Heheh, cool. Yeah I love making things in big batches like that. And I love those giant soup pots! The kind you wonder if you could actually boil a turkey in.

The lentils and beans and potatoes will absorb some of the soup liquid when you fridge or freeze the leftovers, so you'll find yourself adding water when cooking it so that it isn't too dense. This can change the spice balance a tiny bit, so adding extra pepper or spice and drizzling some olive oil when serving (sesame is good too!) can help keep the soup from losing its richness when you add water and reheat.

Also, making it or refreshing it with some chicken stock works well.

Hint to make one batch spread even further and take up less room in the freezer: Make the soup without potatoes, adding them later. You can do the same with the addition of things like shredded chicken. This soup is really good for just treating as a base you can manipulate a lot that way.

Final tip: Adding a teaspoon or so of soy sauce when wilting/caramelizing the onions helps the caramelization. Both salt and sugar assist in caramelization, which develops that yummy sticky fond on the bottom of the pot that adds so much flavor to the soup.

That does look very simple and tasty. I'm kind of surprised that with nearly half a pound of cheese, you only needed that many spinach leaves. Usually cooking spinach shrinks it so much.

You don't actually cook the spinach, you just dump the cooked onions on top of it while you're making the dressing, and that wilts it slightly. The spinach wilts even more when you toss it with the dressing. I would say it wilts to about 65% of the original size.

And yeah, it's a lot of cheese.

Doh I was tired I guess. Read through it and spaced. Yeah, never cooked.

Gotta love cheese. I've given up meat before, but giving up cheese is harder.

Ohhh...I'm definitely going to have to try this. I have a serious feta cheese addiction - it's really the only reason to ever eat a Greek salad...

You don't like kalamata olives? Go back to Russia!

Blech - I've never been able to eat any kind of olive, but do I get points for liking olive oil?

That's something I guess.

You know I've never actually made anything with feta cheese in it, even though I like it well enough. I guess the way it looks at the supermarket scares me off. I should try using it sometime.

Yeah, it's good and salty but I think it's also one of the fattest cheeses around....

Why does everything that tastes so good have to be so bad?

how fattening could a little bit of feta sprinkled over wilted spinach be? relax about it.

A little bit? How do you eat just a little bit of feta?

I've never been able to accomplish this feat.

hm, that's odd. I always found feta to be super salty. Only a little bit is required because it has such a strong flavor. It's not like we're talking something delicious like Jarlsberg or a good sharp cheddar which, let's face it, are impossible to eat in small quantities.