All things tomato

Earlier this summer, we were up north at my sisters, bringing the little’s to stay for the week, and her and her husband, who are both wonderful cooks, made us a wonderful meal which included Bruschetta. It was so yummy, as is anything either of them make.

There is no way I could ever compete with any of my  3 older sisters in all their talents of cooking, baking, decorating their homes, crafting, sewing, gardening, photography and an endless list of their talents. Am I jealous? Sometimes. Am I proud of these super women and all they accomplish? Your damn right I am.

I wasted way too many years of my life trying to be like these super women and have come to accept that I don’t have to be them to be okay.

Now I’m not saying I don’t do alright doing some of these things but I do say that by the time I was born most of the talents had already been handed out and I got the leftovers. Hey, left over's are good too. :)

Nonetheless I love cooking and  baking and do most of these things from scratch and try to use fresh ingredients. It’s the way I was brought up. We grew and raised everything that we ate. We drank milk from the cows that we milked. I don’t remember eating too many things that came from a box or a can. As I recall this time in my life, the only thing I remember struggling with was my moms homemade catsup.

There have been times in my life that I just ate what I could in order to survive but for the most part I have eaten like I was brought up.  Honestly, when I am eating this way I feel the best. I like to feed my family now in much the same way as when I grew up so we eat mostly whole foods, and very little processed foods. If I cannot pronounce an ingredient listed or if there are too many ingredients listed it is very unlikely that we will not eat it very often, if at all. 

Anyways, back to the bruschetta…as soon as my husband and I got home the next day, we went and purchased the ingredients and made it ourselves. I hadn’t written down their recipe so had to go on my memory which isn’t all that good. :)

So I made it but with a few changes of my own and we loved it!

Our good friends were coming this past weekend so on Saturday morning, I made whole wheat French bread so that I would have it for making this appetizer later in the day. They loved it! Since we had another loaf just laying around, my husband talked me into making it again the next day. 

I chopped up tomato from our garden and onion from a friends garden and threw in some fresh garlic and then I squeezed a half of a fresh lime in and then drizzled some olive oil in. Sprinkled in some sea salt and pepper. Stirred it up a bit, had a taste(so far so good) and put it in the refrigerator to chill. If I would have had fresh basil I would have thrown that in too.

I then sliced up the  French bread and brushed it with olive oil and garlic.

I had a little helper that loves to cook.

  I then, put it on the grill. I love the smell of garlic on the grill.

We topped the toasted bread with the tomato mixture and some feta cheese.

It is so light and fresh tasting. It is suppose to be an appetizer but we’ve almost eaten it as a meal.

This little girl had such a big smile about eating it. Don’t you just love her wild hair? :)

Both of the little’s LOVE tomatoes and other veggies which is a good thing except when I am trying to cook and their little hands are stealing my ingredients.

Thankfully our garden has done pretty well in spite of all the rain and the little’s help which consists of watering it  and picking things they are not suppose to pick yet.

We planted only one cherry tomato plant and so far not one tomato has made it into our home. Any guesses as to why? :)

I guess next year we will be planting more of those. 

Does the way you eat now differ from the way you grew up? Do you have a garden? Do you go to farmers markets? Do you enjoy cooking with fresh veggies?

Until next time, love & hugs, Lori