You say toe-may-toe, I say toe-mah-toe
Aug. 31st, 2002 10:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mik3capTonight, I am attempting to make another one of my family recipes - stuffed tomatoes. I haven't had these in years. As of right now, they're still baking in the oven, and I can see a trail of steam billowing up from the oven door. Those of you I will see in New Hampshire tomorrow will be treated to these delightfully savory morsels.
I grew up with my paternal grandfather and grandmother; I lived with them from about age 8 to age 17 (counting up to when my grandfather died). My grandparents spent nearly every day of those nine years cooking, and I got to watch their preparations and consume their products. They would always go to the store and buy massive quantities of food. Whatever was on sale - frozen OJ, tomato products, vegetables, and so forth - and they would stock up their standing freezer and pantry with, literally, a ton of food. They would prepare large batches of sauces, lasagnas, parmaigians, and all kinds of other stuff and stick it in the deep freeze to pull out and use at their leisure.
Summers were especially busy times for food preparation; and since I was home from school, I could hang around and watch more. Whenever chicken or eggplants were on sale, my grandfather would buy pounds and pounds of them and spend the day making cutlets... breading the patties and frying them over low, slow heat all day long. Whenever tomatoes were on sale, or coming from the garden, he would make pickled tomatoes and stuffed tomatoes.
I have such amazing fondness for these times, and I strongly associate my youth with the particular foods that my grandparents prepared in the summertime and at holidays. It's been somewhat depressing over the last couple of years that I haven't been able to have meat pies and stuffed tomatoes and meatballs and cutlets and apizza a carne like my grandfather used to make... my grandmother doesn't cook any more, and my parents like to do their own things and try new stuff all the time. So I've been coercing recipes out of my grandmother and parents, and I've been making a little online collection of them (if you want the URL, you'll have to ask me!). I figure if nobody else is going to make this stuff, I'm going to figure out how to make it and do it myself, damn it!
The meat pies were a raging success, and were damn close to how I remember them. The stuffed tomato recipe still needs a little work (I actually changed it slightly to suit my own tastes a little more), but I guessed pretty well at how much of each of the ingredients I needed. I'm also going to have to put some notes in there about not overfilling the cookie sheets, as things tend to move around and squish together a bit as they cook down.
I can't wait to try one of these bad boys out for breakfast tomorrow!
I grew up with my paternal grandfather and grandmother; I lived with them from about age 8 to age 17 (counting up to when my grandfather died). My grandparents spent nearly every day of those nine years cooking, and I got to watch their preparations and consume their products. They would always go to the store and buy massive quantities of food. Whatever was on sale - frozen OJ, tomato products, vegetables, and so forth - and they would stock up their standing freezer and pantry with, literally, a ton of food. They would prepare large batches of sauces, lasagnas, parmaigians, and all kinds of other stuff and stick it in the deep freeze to pull out and use at their leisure.
Summers were especially busy times for food preparation; and since I was home from school, I could hang around and watch more. Whenever chicken or eggplants were on sale, my grandfather would buy pounds and pounds of them and spend the day making cutlets... breading the patties and frying them over low, slow heat all day long. Whenever tomatoes were on sale, or coming from the garden, he would make pickled tomatoes and stuffed tomatoes.
I have such amazing fondness for these times, and I strongly associate my youth with the particular foods that my grandparents prepared in the summertime and at holidays. It's been somewhat depressing over the last couple of years that I haven't been able to have meat pies and stuffed tomatoes and meatballs and cutlets and apizza a carne like my grandfather used to make... my grandmother doesn't cook any more, and my parents like to do their own things and try new stuff all the time. So I've been coercing recipes out of my grandmother and parents, and I've been making a little online collection of them (if you want the URL, you'll have to ask me!). I figure if nobody else is going to make this stuff, I'm going to figure out how to make it and do it myself, damn it!
The meat pies were a raging success, and were damn close to how I remember them. The stuffed tomato recipe still needs a little work (I actually changed it slightly to suit my own tastes a little more), but I guessed pretty well at how much of each of the ingredients I needed. I'm also going to have to put some notes in there about not overfilling the cookie sheets, as things tend to move around and squish together a bit as they cook down.
I can't wait to try one of these bad boys out for breakfast tomorrow!