Q: What are some good make-ahead or on the go breakfasts for super early mornings?

Sent by Amy and Justin

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In the winter, polenta, sausage and greens is a dinner we probably make at least once a week. Sometimes we’ll mix it up with a rich tomato sauce or I’ll cool the polenta in a pan, slice it into squares and fry it to have with a big salad. But in the summer we’re rarely inspired to make a pot, likely because it just seems like such a stick-to-your-ribs cold weather food. But have you tried fresh corn polenta made with ripe summer corn? Now that’s a different story. 

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4.6 / 5 Stars | 224 Reviews

by CATHY BYRON

“Fresh strawberries, grapes, and bananas are folded into cool, refreshing strawberry yogurt. Delicious!”

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“The space has so much light that it wants to have bright colors and plants everywhere,” says Chris Apollo Lynn in this tour of his home. He entertains frequently, which means his kitchen sees a lot of action every week. Thank goodness it’s such a light and airy place to be! (The green leather-topped wood stools are also a nice touch!)

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Q: What are some crowd-pleasing brunch recipes? I’m hosting brunch for my large family and I want to be creative without alienating some of the picky eaters. Help!

Sent by Bethany

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Campari is my desert island liquor. We are pretty into cocktails around here and have a relatively well-stocked bar but all I need, truly, is Campari (although gin would be nice, too). While it’s my cocktail go-to, I’ve never thought to do much else with the bitter, vibrant red liquor. Until now.

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Guys, we should definitely, definitely talk about these. Here, I’ll go first: I think it’s essential that you not let another tomato season pass without making them. I realize that you might imagine rice-stuffed tomatoes to be something unappealing. Maybe you had a cold, stomach-turning one at a buffet wedding too many years ago that its squidgy horror should still be fresh in your mind, and yet. Maybe you cannot imagine why anyone would consider rice stuffed inside a tomato to be something noteworthy, being just rice and tomatoes, possibly two of the most generic foods out there. Maybe you’re waiting to hear what I dolled these up with to make them interesting — was there bacon or cheese or caramelized onions? Did I amp it up with whole grains or kale? Maybe I cooked an egg inside, like that one time? And maybe you’re going to be disappointed when I tell you that I added nothing, just about nothing at all, and that’s the best thing about them.

I started obsessing over rice-stuffed tomatoes a year ago. At the time, I loved them because they felt to me like the essence of simple Italian and Mediterranean cooking, this idea that you don’t need to lay 16 outside flavors onto things as simple as seasonal tomatoes and plain rice to make them taste amazing. You could coax the maximum flavor out of them with seasoning, by toasting the rice, by cooking them with a tiny amount of onion and garlic in olive oil then slowly in the oven. But, at the time, I never told you about them because they made me a little sad. At the time, I was moping that the family vacation to Rome — a place I imagined did a fine job with these throughout tomato season — we’d been trying to take for as long as we’d been a family had gotten postponed again due to all of those real-life things that have the nerve to get in the way of a good time. I mean, I know that sometimes as a grown-up you don’t get to do everything that you want, but I was starting to question the point of working all of the time and spending scrupulously if it didn’t, at least every few years, lead to things we really wanted?

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permalink to rice-stuffed tomatoes | 64 comments to date | see more: Gluten-Free, Grain/Rice, Italian, Photo, Summer, Tomatoes, Vegetarian

4.5 / 5 Stars | 251 Reviews

by Star Pooley

“A traditional Italian soup. Serve with a crisp salad and a hot loaf of garlic bread and you have a meal! Serve with grated Parmesan cheese on top.”

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Yesterday I ate a tomato, just a tomato, for lunch. It was a gorgeous Black Cherokee about the size of my fist, perfectly ripe and a deep, red-purple color. I cut it into thick slices, put it on a plate and added just a drizzle of olive oil, a pinch of crunchy salt and a flicker of black pepper. I sat outside in the partial shade of my apartment’s courtyard and ate it with a knife and fork as if it were a steak. It was indescribably good in a way that only a tomato eaten on a sunny summer’s afternoon can be good. It was the food of now, and of here, and it was enormously satisfying.

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by Guest on Sunday, August 18, 2013