Fried green tomatoes came into being as a way to use tomatoes that had not yet fully ripened by the end of summer. As you can probably guess, this makes them more common in the Upper South, because in the Deep South the growing season is both very warm and continues into early autumn. I never even heard of them until my twenties, and since I’ve never grown my own tomatoes before I’ve never had enough tomatoes around to experiment. So it’s only recently that I perfected my recipe, and I’m happy to share it with y’all if you’d like to try it yourself; this is for about 3-4 average size tomatoes (fewer if they’re huge). First, you want to pick tomatoes that are just starting to turn yellow; deep-green tomatoes not only have some growing left to do, but are too bitter to eat. Use a very sharp knife and cut slices about 1/4″ (6-7 mm) thick; a lot of recipes call for two or even three times as thick, which makes them too gooshy on the inside. The frying works best in a deep fryer; shallow pans do not sear the outside as quickly, resulting in a greasier, soggier product. While the oil is preheating, dip each slice in flour, then beaten egg, then the breadcrumb mixture, turning to coat both sides at each step; I like to coat all the pieces before frying any, so I’m not distracted while frying. For the breadcrumb mixture, thoroughly combine 1/4 cup (60 ml) of plain breadcrumbs with 1/4 cup (60 ml) cornmeal, 2 tsp (10 ml) sugar, 2 tsp (10 ml) salt, 1 tsp (5 ml) paprika, and 1/2 tsp (2.5 ml) cayenne. Don’t be surprised at the amount of salt; it and the sugar are there to balance the acidity of the tomatoes, and the fried tomatoes will not be noticeably salty. Fry the slices in the preheated oil, about four slices at a time (don’t crowd the fryer), for 3-4 minutes; you want to flip them over with a slotted metal spoon about halfway through. Remove them with the slotted spoon when they’re golden brown; since tomatoes can be eaten raw all you’re really doing is getting the outside nice and crispy. Drain on paper towels. I like to serve them with remoulade sauce for dipping; I’m pretty sure you can get it at most large grocery stores even outside of Louisiana, but if not you can make a reasonable fascimile by combining 8 parts mayonaisse with 1 part each ketchup, Dijon mustard, and pickle relish and seasoning the mixture with salt, pepper, tarragon, granulated garlic, and parsley. Anyway, that’s it; some people like them so much they use all their tomatoes before they get ripe! But don’t try this with ripe tomatoes; they are too soft and too moist, and the result will be a mess rather than a tasty side-dish or snack.
Archive for the ‘Diary’ Category
Diary #690
Posted in Diary, Miscellaneous, tagged Louisiana, recipes, Sunset on September 19, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Annex 123
Posted in Diary, tagged Sunset on September 15, 2023| Leave a Comment »
The rugs from my incall fit quite well in the atrium, over the same floor mats they sat on in the incall. Not only do they make the space visually cozier, they also absorb sound so there’s no longer an echo in there. And two layers of insulation will certainly keep the atrium warmer when we start using the stove in a few weeks. On top of everything else, the rugs make me feel a lot better about walking around barefoot in there as I am wont to do. There are two large rugs from the incall which don’t really fit here; one of them is rolled up just out of frame on the left, and I plan to use the other one in my office upstairs. And there are a few spaces that we don’t yet have rugs for; you can see one of them just in front of the stove, where that rocker is. For that one, I plan to get a proper hearthrug, and I’ll keep my eyes open for something to fit into the other areas. But even as things are now, I’m quite happy with how it’s coming out; I don’t think it’ll be much longer before the project is basically done except for the kind of tweaking which can go on a little at a time for months or even years after everything else is sewn up. 
Diary #689
Posted in Diary, tagged Sunset on September 12, 2023| 1 Comment »
One thing I do not have is a green thumb. I’m not one of those people who could kill a cactus, but I would also never attempt to raise any plant that requires more than sunlight and water. So when one of my favorite gents gave me some tomato plants, I was not hopeful I’d be able to get them to produce any tomatoes. Well, as it turns out, I was wrong. Oh, it looked for a few weeks as though I was right; we planted them in an old trough to protect them from the gophers, and I watered them every day, but they just weren’t growing at all. So I decided that maybe what they needed was fertilizer; I therefore collected a couple of spadesfull of pony poop from the north paddock, dumped it into the planter, spread it around more or less evenly, and watered the plants every day when I fed Cicero, and BOOM! Within a week they were shooting up, and several months later we have tomatoes. There are several diffrent varieties here; the cherry tomatoes are well on their way to ripe, and the larger varieties are still green, but growing nicely. When they get jut a bit more ripe, I’m going to pick one to make fried green tomatoes, and if the cold comes before they turn red I may have to do that with all of them. Grace loves snacking on the cherry tomatoes, so those will probably get eaten plain. And the rest will go well for hamburgers and (sliced very thin) grilled cheese sandwiches. And maybe next year I’ll get more adventurous and try my hand at homemade salsa.
Annex 122
Posted in Diary, tagged Sunset on September 8, 2023| Leave a Comment »
I’m really pleased with how well the Durabak works on wooden surfaces. It goes on quickly, and if the air is warm and humid it dries very quickly. By the time I got to the bottom of the ramp, about half an hour after starting, the top was nearly ready for the second coat; I could see that I’d have plenty left, so I went ahead and did the lower deck (between the house and the hot tub), then returned to do the second coat here; I had just exactly enough for a second coat on the lower deck. The ramp on the southeast side is both longer and wider, so I barely had any left when I was done with it; still, the stuff is much too expensive to waste even a little, so I swept off the inside ramp well, gave it a quick wipedown with xylene, and gave that ramp a third coat (the first two coats were the dregs of the cans I used to do the bathroom). Yesterday, today, and tomorrow the weather forecast is for dry and warmish, so I’m getting the shop roof done, and that’ll be the last of the weatherproofing for the season; Jae is close to getting the decor finished as well, so it shouldn’t be too much longer before I can call the annex project officially done at last, about three and a half years after starting.
Diary #688
Posted in Diary, tagged animals, Sunset on September 5, 2023| Leave a Comment »
I didn’t think the apples were quite ready yet, but over the weekend a strong breeze knocked dozens of them off the trees, which means they are either ready or just about; yesterday I started collecting them, leaving the uglier ones for Cicero (because he doesn’t care). He’s been spending more time on that side of the paddock, happily munching apples to the point where he’s less interested in any other treats than usual (except for his dinner, which he’s always enthusiastic about). Alas, the way I use the apples requires a great deal more work; I’m going to keep the nicest ones for eating, making pies, etc, then press most of the others into cider, saving some of the middle-grade ones for apple butter. If I had realized how much fruit we’d have this year, I would’ve tried to get the Durabak done earlier in the summer; now I’m stuck having a lot of work over the next few weeks. But what else is new? Well, at least the annex is mostly finished, and though I’ve still got to find places for a lot of the stuff that came from my incall, I think by the time winter arrives I should be basically done with that too. And then, for the first time in many years, maybe I’ll be able to just take it easy this winter and, after my regular chores are done on any given day, just devote myself to pleasant and less-strenuous activities.
Annex 121
Posted in Diary, tagged Sunset, Washington (state) on September 1, 2023| 1 Comment »
My Durabak came in on Tuesday of last week, so on Wednesday I opened up the black can to attempt to seal up the last persistent leak in the join between atrium roof and original house roof. While I was up there waiting for the first coat to dry, I decided to use waterproof Gorilla tape to close up the gaps I could see in the shop roof, and next week I’m going to use the three white cans over that whole area to eliminate the pinhole drips we had last winter. That leaves only the two grey cans, one for each of the two paddock ramps; I did one already and I’m leaving the other for when Jae isn’t here because that makes it easier to ensure nobody steps on the surfaces when they’re still tacky. I’m getting it done just in time; the weather forecast shows we’re leaving the summer dry spell and heading back into normal levels of rainfall. And with any luck, the money and effort expended on this treatment will eliminate some of the problems associated with the rainy season and enable us to fully enjoy the atrium (and use Grace’s shop).
Diary #687
Posted in Diary, tagged Sunset, Washington (state) on August 29, 2023| Leave a Comment »
So far, this year has been the best one for fruit since I bought Sunset. I have never seen so many plums; we have a big bowl of them in the kitchen. I’ve made jam and cobbler and Chinese plum sauce, and I’m putting the ones too bruised for human consumption into Cicero’s dinner. And that’s only the plum trees on the west side of the house; the one in the north paddock is dropping them there for the animals to eat as well. Then there are the blackberries, which are nearly always abundant, and though the apples aren’t yet ripe I can see there are plenty of them. If I had to guess why we’ve had such a good season, I’d have to say it’s probably a combination of the weather (which was both seasonally and regionally appropriate this year) and the fact that one of our neighbors started keeping bees, so we probably had better pollination than usual. If that’s the case, this may betoken more good years to come. And if that’s the case, I should probably think of more ways to make use of all this fruit!
Annex 120
Posted in Diary, tagged Sunset on August 25, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Jae has been working on other aspects of the decor for the past few months, and I was beginning to wonder if she’d ever get around to doing the cupboard doors. Then finally this week she got the last odds and ends finished, so finally the bathroom is done! As I mentioned before, we’ve been taking showers there since the beginning of spring, and as you can see the sink and toilet are being used as well. But until this week, she hadn’t yet painted the cupboard doors or added the knobs, so I didn’t really want to take a picture until those steps were done. But now they are, so voilà! It shouldn’t be a lot longer before we’re down to the last minor touches, and the project will at long last be done.
Diary #686
Posted in Diary on August 22, 2023| Leave a Comment »
I’m not sure what inspired it, but two of my most generous readers sent me gifts last week! Robin Aguilar, who has read my work nearly since the beginning, sent me an electric edger (Grace wants one because they’re lighter than the gasoline-powered models) and a copy of Carl Sandburg’s Rootabaga Stories, a collection of delightfully-weird stories featuring creampuff villages, corn fairies, and moon toboggans that I loved as a child. And another reader who prefers to remain anonymous sent me The Flintstones and a new collection of remastered Looney Tunes, the first Warner Brothers has released in years (the fact that it’s labeled “Volume I” provides cause for hope). I’m especially looking forward to viewing The Flintstones because although the series was intended for family viewing, I haven’t seen it since I was a teenager and I’m sure that, like many other series I’ve rewatched in the past decade, I’ll see things in it I missed before because my brain was much too fast and much too noisy to take it all in. Anyhow, thank y’all both so much!
Annex 119
Posted in Diary, tagged Sunset on August 18, 2023| Leave a Comment »
The vertical strip of dark green foliage hides the downspout for the gutter hidden by the horizontal strip of dark green foliage; these exist to catch the water that leaks through the join between the atrium roof and the original house roof. I’ve ordered the Durabak to try once more to seal up that join so that no water can penetrate; it’s supposed to be here on Tuesday, and the weather forecast is clear and not-excessively-hot for the remainder of August, so with any luck I’ll be able to get up on the roof late next week and get that accomplished. I also bought enough to do the northern third of the shop roof, where there are a number of pinhole leaks due to the previous owners using substandard roof panels that buckle even under my not-all-that-excessive weight, resulting in metal fatigue and small breaks in the area where I had to work while building the much-stronger atrium roof. I also got two cans for the outside ramps; I coated the ramp in this picture with the dregs of the cans from doing the bathroom, and it has provided such a satisfactory non-skid surface that I knew it was the right thing for the outside ramps, which become dangerously slick in the rainy season. In fact, this time I’m going to use the dregs for the lower deck (between the hot tub and the house), just in case there is still some slight leak from the roof edge. Finally, those of y’all who have been there may recognize the clock from my incall; finding homes for the other furnishings is slow, but we’re getting there.
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