Growing up in the greenhouse business, I didn’t get a lot of exposure to heirloom tomatoes.  Our business was to sell the best growing and producing vegetables- and in the late fifties and sixties (1950’s-1960’s) that meant hybrids.  We had Marglobes and Rutgers, Jubilee, Big boy, Early girl- all hybridized to give large, virtually seedless, and consistent fruit.  The idea was not to preserve the past, but to improve the tomato!

That has changed in these times of organic, local, and heritage vegetable consumers.  Now there is a great emphasis on the old stock of tomatoes and there are businesses that only sell heirloom seeds – which I like- but there is also the question on the use of these tomatoes- some of which have strange shapes that make cutting difficult. 

There is also the dense center vein and the blossom cavity at the bottom of the heirloom beefsteak tomato that makes using them a challenge.

Cutting these areas out greatly diminishes the usablility of the heirlooms- you sometimes end up with only half of the vegetable that can be used in a recipe.

I have found that the flavor and the historical romance is worth the inconvenience of the waste- and have found a way to utilize even the “wastage” by cooking them up into a sauce that can be used in soups or spiced up with herbs, onions and garlic to make into a pasta sauce.  If you are making a salsa, use the pretty part of the tomato for your recipe and save the cut away portions to cook down later.

For this salsa recipe, I used these tomatoes, pepper, and onion.

Normally, I would use jalapeno peppers, but this yellow pepper was supposed to be sweet- and when I cut into it to use for a different recipe, the veins and smell told me otherwise.  One touch of my finger to my tongue gave the secret away completely- HOT!!- very HOT!   So I decided to use it in my salsa!

I had  two red tomatoes and many more orange and yellow- so my salsa is more in shades or yellow, orange, green and red- rather than the typical red and green variety.

Ingredients:

1 large hot pepper, or several small jalapeno peppers, diced small

3 or 4 tomatoes, chopped

1 medium sweet onion, diced small

1 large handful cilantro, chopped finely

juice of 1 lime

salt and pepper, to taste

Chop everything up to a uniform size- I usually leave the tomatoes slightly larger because I like a bigger bite of tomato.

Mix vegetables up together, add juice and stir well.

Get out a tortilla chip and taste, add salt and pepper according to your pleasure- and enjoy!

Save up your tomato scraps until you get at least 1 1/2 cups (or you can supplement with a whole tomato to expedite your sauce) and then cook down in a saucepan with about 1/2 cup water added.  Add oregano, basil, garlic, sauteed onions, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper to taste and you have a fresh made pasta sauce.  Bring sauce to a slow boil- bubbles will form and pop slowly within your sauce and it will thicken slightly after being reduced- about 1 hour cooking time.

( If you like, you can run the sauce through a sieve to get the pulpy and dark tomato parts out- but they aren’t really noticeable once it is all cooked down and I usually let them add to the slight texture of this homemade sauce.)

I’ve had plain rhubarb pie.

I’ve had strawberry-rhubarb pie.

And they are really good.

But rhubarb custard pie is what I think of when you mention rhubarb pie to me.

My mother always made it with the custard- and it is perfect for a foil to the strong flavor of the rhubarb.  The tart flavor of rhubarb is tamed or modified by the sweet custard and you have perfection sitting on your plate.

It can be made without a top layer, since you already have the custard going on, but I like the look of a loose lattice top crust with the bubbly rhubarb pink juices staining the crust and gourmet sugar twinkling on top.

Twinkle * Twinkle * Twinkle * Twinkle* Twinkle*

This is really a simple pie to make and it brings back accolades of praise and happiness in your family.   Try it- you will love it.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/4 cup flour

dash salt 

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

3 eggs, beaten

4 cups 1″ slices of rhubarb

1 TBS butter

pastry for double crust pie **

Roll out pastry for bottom and fit into pie plate.  I use a glass pie pan because it gives you a good indication of the even browning on the bottom crust.

Mix together sugar, flour, salt and nutmeg and stir into rhubarb until it is well coated.  Pour beaten eggs over mixture and stir well. 

Pour mixture into pie plate- I like to make two smaller, thinner pies- but this will make one large deep dish pie.

Dot butter over the top of pie.

Roll out second crust (top) and cut into strips and lay them on top of pie, weaving them into a lattice.

Over and under, gently lifting up the pastry slices to form  loosely woven top crust. 

Then sprinkle with large gourmet  sugar crystals and bake for 50 minutes at 400 degrees F. 

I cover the crust with aluminum foil for the first 4o minutes so the crust doesn’t get too brown,  taking the foil off for the last 10 minutes brings it to a lovely golden brown.

**Double crust pie dough

2 1/2 cups pastry or AP flour

1 cup cold butter

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 to 1/2 cup ice cold water

Using either a pastry blender or food processor, work butter into flour and salt mixture until it is well distributed and looks more like the texture of meal.  Add water and gently mix together until it becomes a ball.  Divide in half and press lightly into a disk and then place in a bag and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

The custard will form whilst the pie is baking and will be a rich and wonderful base to the tart rhubarb.  This recipe has been in my family for at least the past 60 years and this pie never fails to bring smiles of happiness to every face.

Enjoy!

I’m not suggesting that this is a healthy alternative, understand.

I mean, really, just look at them.  They must be evil on many levels.

But when you make it yourself , you don’t include ingredients you can’t vouch for or pronounce.  Or at least I don’t.

And actually, I’m going to give you my new and improved rendition of these bars, because the first ones I made following a recipe, they were too rich and thick and full of the dreaded corn syrup.

and marshmallows.

They are still rich, and they have some corn syrup, but I cut down on the amount and also on the marshmallows and made them in a much larger pan, so there is less cake bar bottom.

Here is the recipe- they are really quite good- especially if you are sending them in a bag lunch or to a gathering with a lot of young people.

Base layer:

Yellow cake mix

1/3 cup butter

1 large egg

3 cups mini marshmallows

Mix together and press into the base of a jelly roll pan (at least 11×15) or into a 13×9 and an8x8 inch pans.  Bake at 350 degrees F for about 12 to 15 minutes- pull out of oven cover surface area with marshmallows and put back into oven for another 3 minutes.

Topping:

1/4 cup corn syrup

1/3 cup honey

1/4 cup butter

2 tsp. vanilla

12 oz package of peanut butter or butterscotch morsels

2 cups Rice Krispy cereal

2 cups salted nuts

Put corn syrup, honey, butter and vanilla in saucepan and cook over low heat until melted, add morsels (peanut butter or butterscotch), and stir until this is all melted and just starts to bubble (low boil).

Add rice cereal and coat it with mixture, then carefully spoon it on top of marshmallow layer on the cake base. The marshmallows will be all melty and it takes a little care to keep it from becoming a gooey mess.  Now shake the peanuts or whatever nuts you decided to use – evenly over the top and push them into the rice krispy layer with the back of a spoon.

Cool, and cut into bars.

They are really delicious.

These long and thin bars are the healthier of the two pictured above.

I cut down the amount of yellow cake base, and the amount of corn syrup in half.