Locavoracious

What follows is purely self indulgent ramblings lauding my own culinary resourcefulness... okay, you've been warned...

I've noticed that a lot of attention has been given to all the local Farmer's Markets, local produce in general, eating local... both in the media and blogs and whatnot. I spend a fair amount of time in the Oregon hill area, so both K and I were delighted when the Byrd Market took root, and flourished. Who wouldn't want to support the local economy, and especially local farmers, and have easy access to fresh locally grown produce and goodies? One or both of us manage to do a little shopping there nearly every week.

That said, my primary goal, when I am in the kitchen, is to please the palate of the lovely K. When she handed me a bag of fresh local tomatoes last week, my mental gears started turning. What to make? I wanted something that would be a nice light summer meal... something that would really highlight the taste of the tomato. I resisted the impulse to do my own 'battle tomato' ala Iron Chef, and honed in on one idea: the tomato sandwich.

These tomatoes were everything you could want in a tomato: texture- they didn't have that weird gritty thing that supermarket tomatoes often have... and they were bursting with flavor.

To assemble my sandwich- and I use the term 'sandwich' pretty loosely, I started with a good french style crusty bread. I sliced it (after it had been warmed in the oven) and arranged the slices on each plate. I also procured some fresh mozzarella and sliced that on top of the bread. Follow that with the sliced tomatoes, fresh basil and a drizzle of oil and vinegar. Total perfection. K likes her tomato sandwiches with mayonnaise, so I whipped up some fresh mayo and spiked it with extra lemon juice, pepper and hot sauce.

I like to garnish with edibles that complement the main ingredient, so this time I went for sundried tomatoes and small piquillo peppers that I stuffed with artichoke hearts and balsamic. they had such a nice bite and crunch that complemented the sandwiches.

It made for a really satisfying fresh evening meal, and was a great way to enjoy our local tomatoes.

This week K handed me an eggplant. It was the most beautiful big purple eggplant. the kids were fighting over who got to hold it (I won). So now I have to come up with some kind of yummy eggplant dish.

So, in conclusion, everybody eat your vegetablers and support your local economy!