Green Tomatoes

Remember that giant bucket of green tomatoes we harvested during the Snowtober* storm?

*Remember?

Well, I found the most awesome use for them.

I cooked them.

I know, I know: sounds obvious. Pedestrian even. But I did not want to make 5 pounds of Fried Green Tomatoes as much as our genteel friends in the south urged us to.

Instead I discovered the magic of green tomatoes: they're their own entity. Instead of approaching them as unripe fruit, one must embrace them as a veggie all their own. A fully ripe green orb of loveliness. Tomatillos? Bah, who needs 'em. We've got Green Tomatoes, baby.

But first, one must prepare them.

We harvested pounds and pounds of green tomatoes, and they all needed washing and slicing and dicing.

Lots of slicing . . .

. . . and lots of dicing.

My technique: reach for the tomato . . .

. . . place it upon the cutting board . . .

. . . and slice and dice.

I know, I know: I have a gift.

Thank Heavens to Betsy* we also harvested all our chile peppers, cayenne peppers, habaneros and jalapenos off their poor dead plants.

*No idea.

And then: Well then I cooked them all up.

My lovely cousin Liz sent a recipe for green salsa -- which typically uses tomatillos, but we've already determined how we feel about tomatillos -- made with green tomatoes instead.

We ate this green salsa hot, right out of the blender. Actually, I just should have served it that way. Green tomato and hot pepper soup. To Die For.

What we didn't eat I put in the freezer. For that mouth-watering taste of, well, October in winter.

I *also* made a pasta sauce, with mushrooms and scallops. Those green floating bits are *not* bell peppers; there are never any bell peppers floating in anything I make. No, those are -- well, I think you can guess -- green tomatoes. Today's hero.

And finally . . .

I just chopped up the rest, cooked them a little, and put it right in the freezer. A blank slate of green gorgeousness, ready for any jaunty ideas this winter.

Three pots of green tomato love bubbling on the Vulcan at once, when we easily could have ditched those babies and let the snow take them. Well, the snow and the squirrellies.

Bubbling green tomatoes and a glass of wine and steam moistening the air . . .

Green Tomato Heaven on Earth.