Tue 10.21.08

Last Kiss of Summer

Summer's gone. Hello autumn.

I guess it's officially been fall for several weeks already, but it's been hard to tell judging from the offerings at the farm stand. Peppers, eggplant, zucchini, and tomatoes abounded even into early October, doing their best to distract from the wearisome reality that the days are getting shorter, colder and grayer. And, I have to say, the produce were all in very fine form that late -- the corn and tomatoes of a couple weeks ago were still spectacular, at least as sweet as those in August. Next year I'll know to wait until just after the hottest days are over before gobbling down every tomato in sight.

So I guess that was the first tomato lesson learned this summer. The second is that tomatoes + butter = awesome. Indescribably so. My lunch of choice this summer was definitely the open-faced tomato and butter sandwich, with a good pinch of salt (and, on occasion, some raw garlic rubbed into the bread), seen above. Likewise, I've been adding butter, sometimes in lieu of olive oil, in everything tomato-related from pasta pommodoro, tomato soup, tomato salad. I'm sure I'll go through a olive-oil-tomato phase again soon enough, but the lactic richness of butter complements the fruity, acidic sweetness of a ripe tomato in a very special way. It really gives the tomato something to cut through, in mouth-feel and in flavor, whereas olive oil plays along much more congruously. So, it was one fixation of the summer.

But no more. This weekend the farmer's market featured a variety of hard squashes, dried corn, and pomegranates, a sure sign that fall is here. Which is all well and good, but the thought of waiting another nine months for fresh tomatoes is leaving me peevish. Add the impending cold and I can feel myself getting more ornery by the day. Maybe since I grew up in Texas, I just don't have the constitution for sub-50 degree weather for extended periods of time. I mean, I'm going to have to wear a jacket everywhere I go until March! March! In a few months, I'm probably going to be just intolerable to be around.

Three things keeping my spirits up until then, when winter inevitably breaks me: 1) the aforementioned pomegranates, 2) Thanksgiving in Texas, and 3) PIE.