'Mato Lovin'

I adore tomatoes. Well, maybe a bit too much for my own good.

I had been wanting to try the Zucchini and Tomato Gratin recipe from "Vegetarian Times" magazine for several month now, and when I saw they reprinted it in their summer farmer's market issue that I picked up last month, I knew that it was time. (That sounds like I should que dramatic music or something...)

Anyway, I veganized the gratin pretty easily by replacing the cheese in the recipe with Daiya "cheese," of which I have grown unhealthily-fond recently. I've even written to my store of choice for all vegan products in Wichita, Green Acres Market, asking them to please...PLEASE OR I WILL DIE...add Daiya to their stock. Whole Food Market locations across the country now stock it, but we unfortunately are deprived of such a food chain here in Wichita. It's like we're viewed as the boonies or something, but it couldn't be farther from the truth. Anyway, Green Acres has yet to stock Daiya, so I must still resort to ordering packages of it by mail from Wisconsin...*le sigh*.

I digress.

The recipe also benefited from the addition of some red onion. It's basically tomato that is cut, put into a colander and sprinkled with salt to release the water, and paired with zucchini that is also salt-cured. Rinse the zucchini, pat it dry, throw it in a pan with oil until brown, and then layer the tomatoes, onion, chopped garlic, zucchini, kalamata olives, and Daiya in a baking dish. Bake at 375 deg. (I think...) for 10 minutes foil-covered and then for 20 minutes uncovered. Voila.

I'm not generally a fan of kalamata olives, but these added something wonderful to the dish.

I ate the leftovers the next day for lunch at work with some lovely sourdough bread, which mopped up the drippings nicely.

Philip and I went to the Farmer's Market in Old Town this morning. I seriously love their whole setup. Lovely live music played whilst we foraged for veggies and such. Picked up some beautiful baby eggplant, tomatoes, red and Vidalia onion (all of which are going in an eggplant tagine recipe from "Vegetarian Times" tomorrow, if I deem it peasant enough). Also got some potatoes, two cucumbers, and some whole wheat lemon & chive fettuccine. Philip bought me a beautiful bracelet that has square, tile-like beads and is the color of the Mediterranean Sea as I remember it when I traveled to France in 2001. Thank you, honeybunch!!

We also did our registering at Target, which we thought was SO MUCH FUN!!!! I thought it would be tough to find items we need, since we've lived together for about 5 years now, but we managed.

Now listening to the "Strange Currency" show done by my fellow public history program grad student, Jedd Beaudoin, on Wichita's 89.1 KMUW. Now that it's on 6 days a week, it's much easier to find a time to listen in. Love it, and Jedd does a great job.

Jes