Garden Tomato Salad

Just like with zucchini a surplus of tomatoes happen as well. Our neighbor has brought over about 40 fresh tomatoes in all, so I'm searching my cook books and finding things to make. His tomatoes are so good, a little sweet, juicy, tender, just lovely little things. They even smell wonderful. Anyway here's a recipe we keep going back to because it's so good. We grew our own basil this year so we like it because of that too.

3 to 5 tomatoes, cut into bite size pieces
1 cucumber, peeled and sliced (I chop mine)
2 to 3 leaves fresh basil, finely chopped
2 to 3 tbls red onion, chopped
1 tsp garlic salt (I used 1/2 tsp minced garlic and added plain salt)
1/2 tsp dried oregano
2 tbls olive oil

Mix all ingredients together. Let stand for awhile before serving.

Marie's Pasta Salad

This amazingly delicious recipe comes to us via my mother in law, Marie.  Pasta salad is one of the best meals for summer time.  When my mother in law brought this to me on my birthday, she topped with some tuna that had been mixed with mayo - and that was even better!  You should try it.  Really.  It's yummy.

Marie's Pasta Salad

Just cook, drain and rinse the pasta.  Add whatever veggies you want and toss in this dressing:

2/3-1 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp dry mustard

1/2 Tbsp salt

1/2cup vinegar

1/4 tsp onion juice or 1/2cup finely chopped onion

1 cup salad oil

1/2 Tbsp celery seed

The recipe suggests marinating it all together overnight so the flavors can mix.  Then, if you choose to use fresh tomatoes, add them just before serving so that they don't dilute the dressing.

Spaghetti Squash

This has got to be the coolest thing EVER! I was reading through my mom's Moosewood Cookbook (the original version) and they had a spaghetti squash casserole recipe. I had never heard of that before and if you havn't either, well now's the time to check this thing OUT! It's a squash, but when you cook it, the inside s become really stringy, the same texture (although not quite as chewy) as spaghetti noodles. You just run your fork through it and it comes apart in strands. Here's how I ate mine:

-Cut squash in half (careful, it's hard to do)

-Scrap out the seeds

-Put in microwave safe dish with a bit of water in the bottom and put the squash facedown.

-Microwave until soft enough to easily prick with a knife. Mine took a good 10 mins or so. You could also bake it in the oven for 10-15 mins at 350. (Oil the baking sheet with EVOO).

-Put squash on a plate and smoother with home-made tomato sauce and sliced Asiago (mmmm) I put the cheese slices under the sauce so they melted right away.

This half of a squash was a fair size and I ate the WHOLE half! The best part was that since it is squash, it's not starchy like pasta, so I did not feel super full or stuffed. I saved the other half for another dinner.