(I'm feeling like a cold-smoked-blonde working 80 hr weeks now)...just now getting my tomatoes at blush. Very exciting. I've been talking about a cold smoke tom for a few of my blondes but oxhearts are my loves and do so well in the elevations of the Catskill Mnts.
I'll try that this weekend me thinks. Cool temps should be perfect for that. Predicted 75 day and 55 nights? Chilly.
Odd year. Always get an abundance of sun gold. First to ripen. But this year have a very thick skin though good flavor. Blendered them to a pulp, then added smoked fresh corn left chunky and some hot peppers cukes and basil. Called it a smoked pickled salsa.

Isn't that interesting?! I was just curious why my tomatoes have such thick skin this year. I always thought thick skin is related to soil and fertilizer, now I suspect it is more weather related. Skin is so thick this year, I have no cracking after heavy rain at all. But I am having to peel the skin to make salads.

Ox hearts are great for sandwiches, BLTs because they are practically seedless and the "Sammys" are less soggy.

I am going to have many blacks coming up. I look forward to smoke those. Black tomatoes naturally have that "smokey" flavor to begin with.

dcarch

Hmmm I might have to find recipes for green tomatoes. I have quite a number of tomatoes, but not one has ripened. :(

Those tomatoes look yummy. I like how the sizes of the cheese slices match up to the tomatoes and the cheer of the festive red baubles. I can't figure out the middle, though. At first I thought it was beans. Then I thought it might be olives, because they make sense, but they're kind of furry (as in visual texture--not physical). If they were beans, I'd think that was sauce/starch. Is it caponata? Or an olive salad with really thick/cold dressing? It's a broccoli floret, right? At first I thought dollop of pesto, but that sounded like it would taste weird. I'm stumped!

If we're making bets, I go for three bean chili and the broccoli.

I made bread using the Panko type recipe just to put tomato on/in. It is a fine crumb but super white bread; basicly a solid version of 'wonderbread' that prevents the mayo from sinking thru. I was always familiar with BLTs but until moving to North Carolina didn't know about the concept of only one appropriately large slice of tomato with mayo in a sandwich. They don't mind soggy down here.

A few days ago on another thread about beans being tough if cooked with salt and acidic ingredients, even cooked for over 10 hours.

So I did a test. I cooked beans with both salt and vinegar in a pressure cooker. In less than an hour the beans were cooked very soft, some too soft. Those are beans from that test, topped with a little brocolli floret.

dcarch

Aha! Beans because there were beans! I can relate.

Thanks for the info on the beans. I just raise the temperature, but pressure works! If they're too soft, mash em 'up and fry 'em. :)