Seasonal perfection!

Servus!

My girl and I receive a box of regional organic fruits and vegetables on a weekly basis - this assures that we have fresh, local, seasonal stuff in the house and we are forced a bit to assure that we use it before everything goes bad.

Currently, tomatoes are in season. We have been getting a LOT of tomatoes lately, and while this isn't a bad thing, it has been so hot lately that neither of us is really excited about cooking in the evening when we get home. This means that the traditional pasta sauces, stews, etc. that usually use up the tomatoes are not very appetizing when you think about standing over a steaming pot of sauce in a sauna-like kitchen.

My girl said that she'll make a tomato salad:



For two moderately hungry adults:

6 super fresh, organic, absolutely perfect tomatoes - we chilled ours, BTW
1 package of the finest feta cheese you can get your hands on
1 large, beautiful red onion

Your best olive oil, mild and fruity
Well aged Balsamic vinegar, preferably from a small company who has been bottling the stuff since the time of the Romans.

Freshly cracked pepper and ground red Hawaiian salt to taste

Cut the tomatoes, carefully removing the stem. Cut the onions into half-rings. Crumple the feta over the tomatoes. A lug or two of olive oil and a splash of the Balsamic. Carefully grind the salt and pepper to taste. Mix well, while considering the artisans and farmers who worked hard to bring you the finest ingredients possible. Eat on the balcony in the evening with a piece of fresh bread to soak up the heavenly oil and vinegar left over in the bowl.

You may think that I am overdoing it with the descriptions here but we did use the best stuff that we had, deciding that it was time to use it. Most of us have really good ingredients around the kitchen but we always seem to save them, opting for the lower quality product. I can tell you, it makes such a difference in the flavor. This was more of an experience, an epiphany, than a small meal.

This is also the reason that you should eat things that are in season. All of the great chefs go on about this but it's far too easy to pick up those horrible hydroponically-grown spheres of red water that are weakly passed off as "tomatoes" during winter and early spring.

Wait instead.

Wait to have vegetables that are bursting with flavor. By doing this, you respect something that was daily life for billions of people in the past and that, via modern technology and globalism, no longer is important or relevant. The wait is absolutely worth it. I would put money on it.

I haven't eaten this simply yet so well in quite a while. I can assure you, I was thankful for it.

I bid you Peace,
Jake