Everyone knows bacon.
Almost everyone knows that bacon comes from a pig (turkey bacon is not bacon).
Fewer people know that bacon is cured pork belly (know where your food comes from!).
And not many at all have experienced the magic that is a roasted slab of fresh, uncured pork belly, before it undergoes that transformation into bacon. But we’re going to remedy that situation right now.
Tomatillos grow really well around here. I’m guessing they probably grow really well anywhere, since northeast Ohio isn’t really prime tomatillo climate and they still go crazy in these parts. And they reseed really, really easily. They’re practically weeds. Just saying, if you’re thinking about growing them sometime.
I planted four last year and found out the hard way how wild they become. I planted two this year (and switched to a purple variety). But I was also inundated with many hundreds of volunteers, so I ended up with four again. Since they produce prolifically, and I don’t know of very many ways to use tomatillos (though this chili is good), I just make lots of salsa verde (“green sauce”).
There’s a chill in the air, and the nights are crisp and cool (when they’re not rainy). Perfect weather for cozying up around a fire, which means fall is the perfect s’more-making weather. You’ve made the marshmallows, picked up some good dark chocolate (sadly, no cacao trees grow in Ohio, so that’s kinda hard to make at home), and now all you need are the graham crackers. Yes, you could go buy that blue box, but where’s the fun in that? So grab a bowl and your mixer, and let’s get started!
Graham crackers are kind of part cracker, part cookie. They’re traditionally made with graham flour, which is a coarsely ground whole wheat flour, so if you were really stretching, you could almost call them healthy-ish. They have a unique flavor that can be tough to replicate (although if you’re trying to reproduce store-bought flavor, maybe you shouldn’t be). But you don’t have to search anymore – this graham cracker recipe, with its graham flour and a hit of molasses, creates something pretty delicious.
Summer may be winding down, but tomatoes are still coming on strong. Which is a bummer, because the frost will do them in shortly. But while you have them, might as well enjoy them. And if you’re tired of Caprese salads (heresy, I know) or slicing them up for sandwiches, then do I have a treat for you: tomato pie.
I believe it’s one of Newton’s laws which states that almost everything is better tucked inside a flaky pie crust. If not him, then I’m gonna claim it.
Tomatoes are no exception – there’s almost nothing better than that first bite of a tomato, just picked and still warm from the sun, but when you put that same tomato into a crust with fresh basil, and top it with cheese and your homemade mayo, I think the tomato pie wins in most cases. The tomatoes cook down a bit, which concentrates their flavor and sweetness, plus you have the added creaminess of mayo and a light crunch from the crust. Summer perfection.
Mayonnaise is easy to come by. Conveniently packaged and sitting on the grocery shelf proclaiming to be some kind of miracle, it’s hard to miss.
But (of course you knew there was a “but” coming) like many convenience foods, that convenience comes with a price, and not just dollars. Take a look at the ingredients the next time you see a jar of mayo – notice some funny stuff that you don’t usually have in your kitchen, like xantham gum, modified food starch, or cellulose gel? They’re also usually laden with preservatives (how else could it have a shelf life so long?), and most of the volume comes from soybean (most commonly) and canola oil, both of which are almost always GMO.
Okay, so now that the scare-mongering is out of the way, how about I just tell you that homemade mayo is easy to make, cheaper than anything you could buy, and tastes a Hellman’s of a lot better (did I just do that?) than, uh, Kraft.
