Green Tomato Cake

Green Tomato Cake

Ingredients

4 cups chopped green tomatoes

1 tablespoon salt

1/2 cup butter

2 cups white sugar

2 eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch baking pan.

Directions

1. Place chopped tomatoes in a bowl and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon salt. Let stand 10 minutes. Place in       a colander, rinse with cold water and drain.

It produces a lot of liquid.

2.  Place chopped, salted and drained tomatoes into a food processor and process until it's in tiny bits

I placed all this into a smaller colander and drained off the remainder of the liquid.  It produced even more than when I salted them. (Don't salt again)

3. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat until creamy.

Butter

Butter and Sugar

Butter, Sugar & Eggs

4. Sift together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, soda and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add raisins and nuts to dry mixture; add dry ingredients to creamed mixture. Dough will be very stiff. Mix well.

5. Add drained tomatoes and mix well. Pour into the prepared 9 x 13 inch pan.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean.

Sorry I didn't get a picture before people started cutting into it...it was just that good!

I was going to frost this with a cream cheese icing, but I tasted it and decided it could stand alone.  I might add the icing next time, by the end of making it I was pretty tired and I had to work later, and that played a big part in not icing.  I forgot to put in the nuts I was going to use pecans because I am allergic to walnuts. The original recipe calls for 2 cups chopped tomatoes, I went an extra step and finely processed them.  It wasn't until I was processing the last cup that I realized 2 cups of processed tomatoes equals 4 cups of chopped tomatoes.  Yep you guessed it, I had to double the recipe. It turned out wonderful because I was able to have a cake for my family and one for work.  Both cakes were gone in the morning!  It was super fun to have the people at work try and guess what the "secret" ingredient was. I am thankful I took the extra step and put them in the food processor. I think that the chopped pieces would have been too big and the tiny ones gave the cake just the right amount of texture and helped make it SUPER MOIST!  I love this cake!  It's definitely one I will keep using again and again. Towards the end of the summer my garden is almost dead, but I have TONS of big green tomatoes.  I love the ripe red ones, but it's nice to have a little variety to spice things up.

I found this at allrecipies

Oh tomato I'm gonna miss you most of all....

I recently found out I am allergic to tomatoes. IT ROYALLY SUCKS!  When I eat a fresh tomato face breaks out into the really pretty itchy rash and my mouth gets little blisters and feels like it's on fire.  Sadly I had a few tomatoes this weekend before the side effects really kicked in and I am again starting a steroid dose pack....lovely.  In the garden I have about 10 different tomato plants and they give juicy red jewels everyday!  LOTS of them!

There were probably about 20 more from Sunday's harvest. I love how they are on the vine. For the first time this year we planted heirloom tomatoes.  They are big, juicy, beautiful, striped treasures. Slice them up, sprinkle a little kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper and you have an AMAZING side dish for your summer dinner. 

Doesn't the plate just sing!  I was able to eat about half of this little beauty before I had to stop.  Believe me there was not a shortage of takers to finish it.

I think my favorite tomato dish is a caprese salad.  Oh the flavors of soft mozzarella, fresh basil and a sweet tomato drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. If you sprinkle this with a little kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper and I swear you will think you are in Heaven!  Ugh! I hate being allergic to everything!

There is also a pizza that is pretty dang close a caprese salad....the margherita pizza.  It's gooey and pretty perfect.

I really don't have it all bad, I am going to see an allergy specialist and hopefully she will cure me so next year I can partake in the tomatoey goodness that is usually my summer.

BLT Pizza

The garden is in full swing and pumping out tomatoes by the bowl full.  I thought it was a perfect night to make the house favorite BLT PIZZA.  It is AMAZING, and simple and did I mention amazing...

For the pizza...you can start a few ways.  You can either  A.) make your own pizza crust, B.) buy pizza dough and bake it yourself, or C.) buy prepared and precooked thin crust.  I usually make my own dough, but it was after all the Sabbath a day of rest, so I opted for C.  It was super simple and Walmart had them on sale for $2.00.  This pizza doesn't have a sauce, so I melted some butter and put a little garlic in it.  I then brushed the crust generously and sprinkled it with dried parsley flakes.  I covered it in about a cup of shredded mozzarella and popped it in the oven on 425.  I started it out by having it on baking stone and when the cheese was almost melted I put the crust directly on the oven shelves.  That allowed the crust to crisp up a bit. When the cheese was melted and almost brown, I pulled it out and let it cool for a couple of minutes.  I topped it with bacon that I had cooked to an extra crispy texture.

After the bacon I topped it with sliced tomatoes fresh from the garden.

I then topped it with a mixture of chopped iceberg lettuce and the tangy zip of miracle whip.  I put the lettuce in a bowl topped it with MW and then used the tongs I cooked the bacon with to toss.  Once the lettuce is nicely covered in MW, top it on top the pizza and serve.

The first time I served this everyone was a bit skeptic, but one taste and everyone was hooked!  I think it works so well because you get the temperature contrast of the cold lettuce and hot pizza.  It just has the best taste! I adapted the recipe from the California Pizza Kitchen BLT Pizza.  You see there is not a CPK in the great state of OK and I had to get my fix. A girls gotta eat right?

We also had a Margherita pizza with tomatoes and basil from our garden.  I used the same crust and the same cooking technique only I topped it with a light pizza sauce, fresh basil, mozzarella, and sliced tomatoes.  It was so good!  I was also able to eat this one because the tomatoes were cooked.

Dinner was a hit and it was pretty cheap and super fresh!