it is that time of year when it gets dark earlier, the weather gets sharper even when it’s still warm, and we get inundated with season-end produce that needs to be eaten immediately lest it perish.
so i’m playing catch-up in the kitchen these days, figuring out how to use as many tomatoes as possible — and i’m finally resorting to cooking them, which is how i know that autumn is nigh. Under normal circumstances I would never allow heat to touch a garden tomato — they must be eaten raw, with salt and pepper and oil, or possibly in a sandwich with mayonnaise and toast.
but i just cut a particularly vulnerable specimen into my bean-corn-beef stew, and i am drying bread cubes for scalloped tomatoes. and I have to tell you, scalloped tomatoes actually do ease the sting of oncoming winter, because they are just so darn tasty: roasty tomatoes, toasted bread cubes, Lawry’s seasoned salt, hot from the oven. Yum.
then i have to figure out what to do with the last few watermelons now that it’s cold enough that we don’t actually feel like eating watermelon any more. i am thinking agua fresca…
[for Christi: this is the recipe i liked best when testing versions for the drink we had at the wedding: Watermelon Agua Fresca]
Oh foodnerd, please post an agua fresca recipe! I’ve been dying to make some and haven’t found a recipe that I trust. I know that one from you would be great, though.