Tomatoes, Baked, Gazpacho, Pesto BLT's...

Me behind on things to do at the house?  To the best of my knowledge I've never gotten to the point of having three loads of scrunchies to wash.  There must've been eight full loads of wash.  When you're talking about two people that's a lot of clothes, folks.  My excuse?  Well, we're still dealing with the tsunami of paperwork in the office.  AND, we've been fringing and going to Indians baseball games and going to wine tastings and various sundry fun things. 

Fringing, you say?  Yup.  Indianapolis is lucky enough to have our own Fringe Festival.  It runs for eleven days in several venues on or near Mass Ave downtown.  The first evening we saw Phil Van Hest's new show, "What Biscuits."  When he first started doing Fringe, Phil lived in LA.  Then, he met a lovely lady named Noelle and moved to Indy.  This time his nine month old son, Gray, came to his show for his first time.  And, his last until he's old enough to not do the monkey hear, monkey say thing.  Just saying.  Phil does know a few four letter words, ya know.  And, they do show up in his show.  We ran into Phil on the Avenue later and he confirmed that Gray will not be attending in the near future.  After that we saw a show that's played to rave reviews at other Fringe Festivals - "Under the Lintel."  It was very good but a bit deep for us.  We prefer the straight comedy shows.  Along the way we saw five more shows.  Our favorite this year was Act of Foo.  Those guys were an amazing improv troupe.  We laughed until our sides hurt.  Our second favorite was a fellow we loved a couple of years ago.  Paul Strickland was back with a new show - Ain't True and Uncle False.  Again, we laughed until our sides hurt.  There we ran into my friend, Dave Andrichick who owns the Chatterbox Tavern.  Dave said he'd been to a dozen shows.  We had at least that many we wanted to see but just didn't have the time to spend.  At 50 minutes and $10 a person per show, it's bargain entertainment!  Finally, last night we went to a Fringe reprise at the Fringe Theatre.  A parody of Walt Disney shows and one about an auction called Going, Going, Gone.  Two more side-splitters!

We've been existing on tomatoes.  Tomatoes and cottage cheese.  Caprese salads

Baked stuffed tomatoes.  BLT's, plain and with pesto. 

Tomatoes sautéed with other veggies.  I am going to turn into a tomato.  We've got easily a dozen varieties in our garden.  Two different cherries.  One red and one gold.  Two yellow tomatoes.  Three kinds of romas.  Three different Brandywines.  And, three or four other heirlooms.  I totally forgot to take a photo of the finished dish of one of my favorites - gazpacho.

Baked Stuffed Tomatoes

Large tomatoes
Olive oil
Panko bread crumbs
Garlic, minced
Fresh herbs (I used rosemary, thyme, sage, parsley and basil)
Freshly grated romano cheese

Brown the panko and garlic in the olive oil. 

While they're browning, core the tomatoes and scoop out some of the interior. 

Chop the tomato interiors and add those plus the cheese and herbs to the panko. 

Gently stuff the tomatoes and bake or grill on a grill pan.

Gazpacho

Ingredients:

6 c tomato juice (I typically use V8 instead)
2 T olive oil
2-3 T lemon juice
1 c beef broth
1/2 c minced onion
4-5 tomatoes, finely minced
2 c finely minced celery
1/2 green pepper, finely minced
2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded and finely minced
1 t salt
1/4 t freshly ground pepper
1/4 t Tabasco

Directions:

Divide each of the veggies in half.  Put half of each in a food processor.  Process until liquefied.  Pour them into a bowl.  Add the V8 and beef broth and mix well.  Add the other ingredients.  Chill overnight before serving. 

adapted from Indianapolis Collects and Cooks



We've also got about two dozen basil plants.  So, I've been fixing a LOT of pesto (my friend Monica's is the BEST.)  Like the recipe I made up last night.  Pesto fish with pesto rice.  The pesto coating kept the fish really moist.  And, the bit of pesto in the rice really carried the flavor through.