So happy Naked Cow Dairy is back

We had leftovers tonight, but dinner was made sooo much brighter with sliced Orange Blossom tomatoes from WOW Farms in Waimea on the island of Hawaii. I just added a pinch of sea salt, splash of extra virgin olive oil, basil chiffonade and a sprinkle of Naked Cow queso crumbles. UNBELIEVABLY good!

Love from the Food Processor: Tomato Soup

With fruit and veg needing attention, the food processor got a workout.

A cantaloupe was saved here, with Cuisinart help.

And there were a bunch of WOW farm tomatoes that needed love. With temps cooling a bit here in HNL, instead of salsa, the Romas and low-acid orange tomatoes went into my favorite soup. We had this with La Tour  Kalamata olive bread. And butter.

When you make the tomato soup recipe, you might want to add a teaspoon or more of agave or other sweetener, depending on the acid level of your tomatoes - and spices. Also, the ginger I used was very spicy hot, so I pulled it all out of the pot before serving! And instead of using powdered coconut, I used the half can I had leftover in the refrigerator, from another recipe.

Side trip: Romas are not my favorite tomatoes, but that's what's left when you get to the Blaisdell Farmer's Market late. I love the yellow and orange low-acid tomatoes best for eating out of hand, or in a salad. I don't usually care for cherry tomatoes, but Toon at Fort St. had the largest I'd ever seen. Sweet, too. Since I started buying tomatoes from farmers markets, I have not paid for one from a supermarket. They just aren't any good. I admit that I sometimes go without when I can't get to the farmers.

Imua! I see sweet potato coconut soup in my future!

What Else to Make with WOW Tomatoes

There were cucumbers, older bread, and WOW tomatoes from the Blaisdell Farmers' Market. Such a deal: these lovely red, orange and yellow - the latter two, low-acid! - about 8 or 10 of them for only $5. The lovely tomato lady said they were the "salsa" bag - riper, softer victims, but I already bookmarked them for tomato SOUP.

Yes, in the teeth of a Hawaiian summer, I make soup! Here is the recipe. I made a double batch, and we ate it hot the first time. Tonight, we ate the leftovers cold - just out of the refrigerator long enough to take off the first chill. We also ate deliciously sweet, juicy Tuscan melon - I got this from my *favorite* big box store - with prosciutto.

Last night, we ate WOW tomatoes and arugula on top of pizza that was NOT Inferno's. More about that some other time!

And I used the last of them Marc Matsumoto's Panzanella salad. Check out his personal blog, No Recipes, as well as the PBS blog. For this bread salad, there are 4 things I did differently. my leftover bread was a Kalamata olive loaf, not plain or white, and as I didn't have champagne vinegar, I used Japanese rice vinegar (milder). I used Kalamata olives instead of green ones AND capers. Finally, I have a huge bag of arugula (anyone out there have different arugual recipes?) so I served the salad on a bed of this.

How was it all? Two thumbs up from the DH! I thought the salad was a bit salty - probably because of the olives in the bread as well as the salad, plus the capers, and would cut back on the salt in the dressing. But it was all fresh, light and tasty, and the only heat in the kitchen was from toasting the croutons in a skillet. Here's a tip: keep the croutons in the pan to cool, that way they are not piled up and soggy, but stay crisp. I had leftover croutons enough for another salad.

And leftover melon and salad for lunch at work tomorrow!

What do you do to keep cool in the kitchen? Besides drinking a lot of rose!

About my leftovers plus WOW Farms tomatoes

Do you eat them? I've heard of some folks who won't. Never met them!

We were told that children were starving in China, so we'd better eat what was on our plates!

Food is expensive, so wasting anything is painful, and a shame. Since I don't know how to cook for just the two of us, there are always leftovers. That's also true when we go out to eat. Sometimes it's hard to find something you want to eat that you can finish in one sitting.

We went to the Blaisdell Farmers' Market on Wednesday, and I got the delicious black-eyed pea chili with cornbread and a piece of chicken from Pacific Soul. I ate half the chicken and cornbread, and a third of the chili, and was full. The DH got surf and turf: fried fish and beef curry - and ate half of it. No, we can't share - we never want to eat the same thing!

So dinner last night was the leftovers plus salad mix from the big box store, topped with the last of the Pirie mangos from Ewa Beach and luscious WOW Farms tomatoes that are almost the same color as the mango flesh - orange-skinned and fleshed, and low-acid.

Yum, yum, yum!

When the tomatoes are this lovely and ripe, I have not even bothered to chop them for bruschetta. Instead, I toast the bread* - which you can rub with a garlic clove - and drizzle with a combination of extra-virgin olive oil  and balsamic vinegar. Top with fat, juicy tomato slices and sprinkle with sea salt. And cracked black pepper, if you want. Sooo good!

*Please, please use GOOD bread! My two favorites are the olive bread from Ba-le, and La Brea rosemary/olive oil loaf. As Berry says, "Life is too short for bad bread!" So true!

No WOW in these tomatoes, but OH, what soup!

While the Carrots with Lentils were yummy, this soup was incredible! The recipe is Suvir Saran's from his book, Indian Home Cooking. It's his mother's recipe, and delicious, hearty and warming. I've made a few adjustments - less onion, more carrot, some wine (leftover I'm trying to use up - I'm so not a drinker!) and soy milk - but otherwise follow the original pretty closely.

Why no wow? The WOW tomatoes are from the Big Island, and I picked up a bag on Wednesday from the Blaisdell farmers' market. I already had 6+ tomatoes at home, so I made this soup from them.

• 2 TBSP butter
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 large carrot, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, diced
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tsp salt
• 4 cups roughly chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup wine
• 1/2 cup soy milk
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Italian or Chinese parsley, for garnish

You could chop the onion and carrot in the food processor. This is what I did, as it was used for another recipe. Saute onions and carrots in butter for 2 minutes, then add garlic and bay leaf and cook for a couple more minutes, Add tomatoes, sugar, pepper to taste, wine and water. Bring up to a boil, then turn heat down and cook for ten to 15 minutes. Add soy milk, heat through and remove bay leaf. Taste for salt and pepper, then puree with an immersion blender. Add more liquid if you want it thinner - water or soy milk.

OK, so you don't drink soy milk - use regular milk! No one notices that I use soy milk whether I make corn or clam chowder or mushroom soup - haha, fooled you! It's not milk, but it is delicious!

I served this with Italian parsley as a garnish, DH said he would have preferred cilantro.

Nevertheless, he loved it, and this soup was the star of the meal!