Jul 9th 2010 07:21 am A lot of celebrities have them
The tomatoes are coming in! Oh, happy day. I’ve been living on sandwiches made from home-grown tomatoes for a week now. First, I take two slices of whole-wheat bread, a sop to my mortality and my aging digestive tract. A classic tomato sandwich would include mushy white Wonder Bread, or the equivalent. Once I made the adjustment, it’s not so bad. (See “mushy,” above) Then, I peel and slice the tomatoes. I know. That’s perfectly good roughage going in the waste basket, but it was how I was raised, and I have not managed to make that adjustment yet. I slather the bread with real mayonnaise, apply the sliced tomatoes and top with salt and pepper. That’s it for the first couple of weeks. When the new wears off, I’ll broaden out with the usual variations, bacon, lettuce, etc. Life’s little pleasures.
Posted by jimmyjohnson / Vintage A&J
61 Responses to “A lot of celebrities have them”
Sylvia in MS on 09 Jul 2010 at 7:31 am #
It’s heaven to get that first home-grown tomato from the garden. Even better, a couple of hot biscuits, open face, with tomatoes and milk gravy over all….Not tomato gravy, but milk gravy. That’s been a family tradition for years now…had my first of the season Tuesday night. Ahhhhh!
Steve from Richmond on 09 Jul 2010 at 7:54 am #
Tomato sandwiches! Dang, now I know what I’m having for dinner. Had my first one in fourth grade when a buddy and I traded lunches. He got my ham sandwich and I got his tomato sandwich and each of us thought we got the best end of the swap. My wife is from Kansas and had never heard of tomato sandwiches. Is it just a southern thing?
Anonymous on 09 Jul 2010 at 7:54 am #
JJ- I am a little jealous. While we have harvested a few tomatoes, (for the right reasons- mater sandwiches and fried green tomatoes) we have lost most of our garden to some peculiar black w/ yellow trim grasshoppers. OK, I’m more than a little jealous…. sigh.
TruckerRon on 09 Jul 2010 at 8:04 am #
What about the sink? No one’s mentioned that you stand and eat the sandwich over the sink!
Den in MN on 09 Jul 2010 at 8:22 am #
It’s a Midwestern thing too (WI and MN, at least). Delicious. Thanks for the recipe/reminder, Jimmy!
carl on 09 Jul 2010 at 8:23 am #
we have our tomato sandwiches on toasted hemp bread when it’s available. we also use ranch dressing or dark mustard instead of mayo but i prefer mayo (when i make them). i’ve gotten two pretty sorry but expensive tomatoes off $40 worth of plants. i’m banking on the okra and eggplants to pull me through.
Connie on 09 Jul 2010 at 8:43 am #
Oh man! Tomato sandwiches are my absolute favorites! I knew I should have planted at least a couple tomato plants, but didn’t have the time or energy this year.
Damn.
On the bright side, there is a farmer’s market just down the street from me on Wednesdays that opens just before work. Now that I know tomatoes might be there, I need to stop by.
Thanks for the drool all over my keyboard Jimmy!
Jim on 09 Jul 2010 at 9:02 am #
The “TT” (toasted tomato) sandwich is a summertime traditional meal at our house using home grown beef steaks and lightly toasted whole wheat bread. I prefer Miracle Whip to plain mayonnaise.A little salt and pepper. Quick and easy meal. Of course you can add bacon and/or lettuce for the “BTT” or “BLT”, but for the purist it’s strictly the “TT”.
Trudy Bentley Rech on 09 Jul 2010 at 9:21 am #
Love tomatoes. We have a challenge to grow them where I live because of snails and whitefly. When I garden, I do so organically. So we have a wonderful market that carries great organic local produce. Tomatoes grow year round in Florida, so we are very lucky.
While whole wheat bread is good, my favorite is a sprouted grain bread (no “flour”) called Ezekiel Food for Life. Toasted up with some hummus and tomato and I am in heaven. Add some smoked salmon and chopped green onion…and transcendence in a bite!
emeritus minnesota biologist on 09 Jul 2010 at 9:21 am #
We used to have a large garden; it fed the five of us plus a college student or two who were living with us many of the years while I was still teaching. Tomatoes [early full-size and cherry of some sort], zucchinis, chard, beets, eggplants [iffy, unless the summer was unusually hot], asparagus, kohlrabi, buttercup or butternut squash [partly for "pumpkin" pies], girasols [in the woods edge], and a series of Haralson apple trees. Sweet corn occasionally, and green beans if we knew we’d be around for those weeks when beans have to be harvested every few days. Oh, and mustard greens. We bought a seed packet once, and never had to buy another. Some went to seed the first year, and from then on we had to weed them out of the garden to make room for the beds of other things. Those new mustard greens gave us fresh greens in late May or early June, a real treat this far north. Of course, few people have tomatoes to pick this early up here.
We’ve moved to a “townhome” community where someone else takes care of the outdoors. Nice not to have to shovel our own show. The most garden we can have now is potted plants on the patio.
Mindy on 09 Jul 2010 at 9:25 am #
Skinless tomatoes on wheat…with salt, bacon and mayonnaise…I’m not a Diet Nazi, Jimmy, and as much as I love those items as well, go lightly. That having said, I’m going to fix a slice of salt cured Virginia ham on rye with Swiss cheese, German mustard and a few other healthy and nutritious items.
Jeff in Ann Arbor on 09 Jul 2010 at 9:31 am #
Home made whole wheat bread (remembering our bread discussions here some years ago)?
Ripe tomatoes are some time away up here in Michigan.
Tom in Georgia on 09 Jul 2010 at 9:49 am #
Hey, it’s been a while since I posted – I just didn’t realize that I’d turn “anonymous.” Jeff- I am originally from Ohio and it grieves me to say this… but you can get some great bread in Michigan! (Storebought, no less) Georgia is a great place to live but the bread here is fair at best. (Biscuits more than make up the difference!)
Mike in Hartland on 09 Jul 2010 at 10:10 am #
The cherry tomatos are coming in here, Hartland Mi. My regular plants have plenty of green tomatos. The first tomato won’t make it into the house. We will eat it right off the vine, maybe with a little salt. There is nothing like a BLT when the big tomatos come in.
Sili on 09 Jul 2010 at 10:22 am #
I’ve always been skeptical of wholegrain flour, but I’ve found lately that it really does make for excellent bread in a sourdough.
Floyd in Nashville on 09 Jul 2010 at 10:23 am #
Dang. Reading all this, and I can’t catch lunch for a couple of hours yet. Thanks a bunch, yall.
Phil in Sugar Land, TX on 09 Jul 2010 at 11:28 am #
Tomatoes were actually considered poisonous for a while (the leaves and stems actually are) but the critters in my back yard never agreed with that theory and so I quit trying to grow tomatos.
We do have great crops of sweet basil, pineapple basil, lemon balm, thyme and rosemary going though. You can make very good tea with basil, which is a member of the same family as mint. Likewise with lemon balm. Stuff some lemon balm leaves in a chicken for great lemon chicken. Golly it must be time for lunch!
Robb on 09 Jul 2010 at 11:30 am #
Try lettuce, tomato and radish with mayo……..outstanding.
DaveDW on 09 Jul 2010 at 11:43 am #
You have GOTTA lay in some zucchinis if you don’t already have ‘em, Jimmy. Been one of my favorites since the 60′s as a kid when my folks raised them in our very kind neighbor’s back lot. Don’t know about on sandwiches, though.
Richard in Scruffy City on 09 Jul 2010 at 12:29 pm #
We decided to try topsy-turvy tomato planters (big bags that hang from hooks and have the plants growing out the bottom) this year, and to my astonishment it worked. We’ve been picking ripe tomatoes for about a week now, also fried a couple of green ones. Tonight we’re planning to make a tomato pie–Paula Deen’s recipe with a lot of cheese, mayo and basil leaves.
Carolyn on 09 Jul 2010 at 2:51 pm #
I love tomato sandwich with lots of mayo, salt and pepper and cut up some cucumbers and onion on it – a real veggie sandwich and so good and mushy and messy!
Mary in Ohio on 09 Jul 2010 at 3:00 pm #
Mmmmm. And since I have no tomatoes in the fridge/yard, I may have a bacon sammich. It has to be on untoasted Italian bread. Just bacon (lightly drained and blotted) on white bread. Like the Wonder Bread, it gets smooshy and can be folded into about 8ths. Makes the cats nuts. Not healthy. Thick slices of homemade wheat would be good too, but then you would leave a bit more grease on the bacon.
Bob, near Mark on 09 Jul 2010 at 3:21 pm #
Mary in Ohio,
I’d add a fried egg to that sandwich, along with the bacon, and toast the bread.
A place I used to work at years ago had a cafeteria that was open for coffee in the morning before work. They were not allowed to serve “breakfast,” but could make you a sandwich. The cook would make fried egg and bacon sandwiches on toast.
You couldn’t order bacon and eggs with a side of toast, but you could have them all combined in a sandwich. Kind of reminds you of a Jack Nicholson movie and his chicken sandwich with a “hold the chicken.”
Jim in SE Mississippi on 09 Jul 2010 at 6:25 pm #
I thought for a minute no one was going to mention fried green tomatoes.
I fell in love with fried egg sandwiches while in the Air Force. When working a morning shift, we’d get to the base weather station at 0430 to prep for a 0600 opening, and just before opening send someone over to the flight line grill to get a brown paper bag full of wax paper-wrapped fried egg sandwiches…hard-fried eggs (yolks broken) on white bread toast with mayo, salt and pepper. Food of the gods, at least to our unsophisticated palates and empty bellies.
Jim in SE Mississippi on 09 Jul 2010 at 6:36 pm #
Fried green tomatoes…not just for rednecks any more.
http://www.nsrg.com/crescent-city-grill/menu.aspx
Jim in SE Mississippi on 09 Jul 2010 at 6:45 pm #
Robert serves his “plain” fried green tomatoes with Comeback sauce. Good stuff, on a lot of things. If you’re interested…
Comeback Sauce
1 c. mayonnaise
½ tsp sugar
½ c. olive oil
½ c. ketchup
½ tsp onion powder
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp salt
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
5 drops Tabasco Sauce
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp horseradish mustard
2 Tbsp water
Combine all ingredients until well mixed. Yield: 2 cups
Ghost Rider 6 on 09 Jul 2010 at 6:53 pm #
Never heard of Comeback sauce? I’ll bet JJ has.
http://orig.clarionledger.com/news/0108/01/fjohn.html
Tom on 09 Jul 2010 at 7:04 pm #
BLTs now omit the “B” since doc told me to cut back on pork products, so I substitute a slice or two of provolone. Hah, that ought to fool the deities.
James Pollock on 09 Jul 2010 at 8:48 pm #
I’m sorry, but the proper way to eat tomatoes is ground into a paste, mixed with spices, spread over a thin layer of dough, then covered with cheese and pepperoni, cooked at 600 degrees until the cheese bubbles.
Hampton on 10 Jul 2010 at 3:48 am #
Spoken as a true southerner! The unseasonable heat in central “Missippi” has caused my maters to start dropping their blooms. I planted some more, Heatwave, and hope they bear soon. If there is one downside to growing maters it’s that they just don’t last long enough. Might have one of those mater sandwiches with some bacon for breakfast.
Jean From Dahlonega GA aka Trapper Jean on 10 Jul 2010 at 6:55 am #
I’m disappointed this year. We got our garden planted, and then the trees that haven’t been a problem leafed out really well due to all the rain we’ve had. Too much shade over the garden and the tomatoes aren’t growing as well. Neither are the okra and peppers, and the rabbits ate the zucchini and yellow crookneck squash plants. Next year we have to move the garden and install a rabbit-proof fence. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go see if my neighbor’s tomatoes are faring any better.
Claire on 10 Jul 2010 at 9:16 am #
We lost our tomatoes last year to the blight. They were great one evening and dead by morning – so disappointing! I was brought up on a farm in Vermont, and my grampa wouldn’t eat tomatoes because he said he wouldn’t eat anything a pig won’t eat. He didn’t know what he was missing! And neither did the pig.
David on 10 Jul 2010 at 9:59 am #
My tomatoes have just about played out. I planted 20 different varieties, 2 plants of each, to see which tolerate the Texas heat and dry. I’ve been making tomato sauce, salsa, and keeping the little old ladies at church well stocked with tomatoes.
Unfortunately, I’m not supposed to eat that many, since they are relatively high in potassium. (I’m on dialysis and have to be careful of potassium, phosphorus, and other things.) I still enjoy a toasted BLT, with mayo, every week or so. I’m also still having a slice on my burgers (about 1/2 thick, and as big as the burger) when we grill at home.
My favorite this year has been an old-time hybrid “Jet Star”. The plants have been prolific, the tomatoes large, and the taste pleasant.
Mary in Ohio on 10 Jul 2010 at 10:34 am #
Oh, David! To have all those ‘maters and be limited in enjoying them! Sounds like the torture of Tantalus! Stay healthy, but we will all lift a big juicy homegrown in your honor!
sideburns on 10 Jul 2010 at 11:23 am #
There’s a great way to cook zucchini, DaveDW: grilled. Slice them lengthwise, but not quite all the way, brush with oil, salt and pepper and grill about five or six minutes, then turn. Five or six minutes later, they’re done, and the slices will fan out on the plate, making them as attractive as they are tasty.
Tom in Georgia on 10 Jul 2010 at 2:34 pm #
Oh what a wonderful sight- my bride is slicing some fresh tomatoes. MMmmm. And the tomatoes look good too.
Tom in Georgia on 10 Jul 2010 at 2:36 pm #
I have two comments in moderation. I have been away… I was Tom (Somewhere in Georgia) previously.
emeritus minnesota biologist on 10 Jul 2010 at 3:22 pm #
Wrote this in ’98, maybe for a church cookbook. “Find a store that has midget longhorn Cheddar (not Colby). From the garden, pick some ripe tomatoes, along with a zucchini that is wider than the cylindrical cheese. Ideally, use a light-green zucchini ["greyzini"] with relatively tender skin, and hope the seeds are not yet hard.
“Batter: Blend a cup of skim (or other) milk, a cup of flour, a large egg, a teaspoon of baking powder, and ? cup of salad oil, seasoned to taste. (Store unused batter in the fridge. It looks awful after a few days, but stirs up just fine, and even works after the milk sours. Or freeze it.)
“Slice the zucchini (6-10 slices / person) and the same number of slices of longhorn Cheddar and of tomato. (You can piece ends and such, if presentation is not a major priority.) Arrange the tomato slices on the largest microwavable plate that will turn in your microwave, put them in the microwave, and SET it for 1½-2 minutes, but don’t turn it on yet.
“Dip the zucchini slices in batter and fry them on a griddle at 325-350°F. Turn the zucchini slices, and put a slice of cheese on each. Start the tomatoes heating in the microwave. When the cheese has melted but not yet run off onto the griddle, move the zucchini slices to dinner plates and slide a tomato slice onto each. This is yummy; say grace before eating, You will not need dessert.”
I’ve been on a lowfat diet since Bastille Day ’07, and have not eaten this yummy dish since then. Mentioned in an earlier post that this has lowered my cholesterol to acceptable levels without meds, and coincidentally taken 15# off my weight. Actually, I enjoy a varied diet, and Dave has reminded me that there are lots worse things than having to limit fat intake to 40 or so grams / day.
TruckerRon on 10 Jul 2010 at 10:19 pm #
emeritus minnesota biologist – I greatly lowered my triglycerides by increasing the fiber in my diet and learning to avoid foods that digest too quickly. All of that, of course, brought my blood sugar levels down where the belonged (it was my major goal), the triglycerides were a marvelous secondary effect.
On that diet, BTW, you can have all the tomatoes you want, as well as most other fresh vegetables and fruits.
Steve from Royal Oak, MI on 11 Jul 2010 at 5:38 am #
Wow JJ, thanks for the heads up on Sunday’s strip. Am I the only one that does not care for tomatoes? Part of it might be allergy related, but the only way that I like it is when I make homemade tomato sauce like my Italian Father-In-Law makes.
I did go up to Northern Michigan this week and brought Beef Bourguignon in a slow cooker. I had never made it, but like a lot of people, I was inspired by the movie Julie and Julia to make it. I had never cooked with wine and because I transferred the recipe to a slow cooker, I had a little too much liquid, but my MIL mentioned just adding a rue to it and it really came out great.
Jayne in Richmond, VA on 11 Jul 2010 at 7:55 am #
Steve in Royal Oak, MI: No, you’re not the only one that does not care for tomatoes. They gag me… and do the same to my mother and my favorite cousin. Everyone else in the family adores them. But, make them into pizza or spaghetti sauce, we are there for 2nd helpings. As salsa, make sure you add lots of spicy seasoning.
penandra on 11 Jul 2010 at 7:55 am #
I was late getting mine in the ground this year, one of the plants already had some tomatoes on it when I planted it, so I have had a couple of tomatoes already, but the rest are just coming in now . . . am anxiously awaiting my first BLT (hold the L)
But what I don’t get is why the tomato peels are going in the waste basket and not the compost bin . . .
Julia on 11 Jul 2010 at 8:39 am #
Recently had a conversation with two folks who did not grow up in the south. Well, one grew up in FL… I described the heaven-like effect of a good tomato sandwich and they both replied, “tomatoes, bread and mayo – that’s it?”. I went on the explain it had to be a good, earthy smelling “real” tomato and the response was “and???”. I merely shook my head in disbelief.
Neal in Bahstawn on 11 Jul 2010 at 8:47 am #
Steve, I think you may have mis-read the Sunday A&J strip… If your cat is like mine, activity in the kitchen will bring him running from whereever he is in the house, in the expectation that there will be some kind of ‘treat’; a bit of chicken or ham or turkey. Our cat will look up longingly and lovingly while whatever is being made gets made, in hopes that one of us will ‘cave in’ and offer that morsel of meat or fish. But, if its a tomato sandwich, there’s no treat to be had. That’s the gag… Ludwig stalks off in a huff because all that begging was for naught.
Mary in Ohio on 11 Jul 2010 at 11:42 am #
In re: Sunday’s strip – wouldn’t Loodie at least lick the butter/oil/dressing side of the sammich? My clowder sure would!
TruckerRon on 11 Jul 2010 at 12:29 pm #
Ok, it’s time for my big question: Who else eats their tomato sandwiches over the sink?
James Pollock on 11 Jul 2010 at 1:12 pm #
My cat would have run off with the tomato, THEN figured out she didn’t really want it.
Steve from Royal Oak, MI on 11 Jul 2010 at 1:21 pm #
Neal:
No, I enjoyed the strip and “got” it. I just thought it was cool that Jimmy was talking about tomato sandwiches and then we saw it in the strip a few days later. My comment referred to the fact that everybody else on the blog loves tomato sandwiches.
I had a cat that would eat popcorn and drink beer. My grandpa grew popcorn and there are numerous members of the family who like beer.
Our present cats love olive wood. We have a few rosaries and artifacts made of it and the cats love to chew on it.
John in LA late of PNS on 11 Jul 2010 at 2:54 pm #
JayneInRicVA:
And I am the one that would blow lunch and chunks by eating eggs, hard fried or hard boiled. Explosively. I can and have gagged down a few scrambled eggs and a few omelettes. But I do love tomatoes.
Dave in MA on 11 Jul 2010 at 5:17 pm #
I’m allergic to tomatoes. Get hives all over when I come in contact with them (although I CAN eat Doritos, which have real tomato components in them. Must not be the part I am allergic to.). HOWEVER, when you add PEPPER to them, now you’re talking about a trip to the hospital. I go into anaphylactic shock when I come in contact with pepper (the condiment), peppers (the vegetable) or, oddly enough, shrimp.
So all this talk of tomatoes, well, I just don’t seem to understand it.
JJ, when I saw today’s Sunday strip, I recalled your description of Friday’s old strip and immediately knew we had been set up.
And John in LA, I could live off eggs.
Love em scrambled, fried, poached, hard boiled, you name it. But no ketchup on them, please. 
Dave
Bob, near Mark on 11 Jul 2010 at 6:27 pm #
Steve from Royal Oak, MI,
Most of the cats I’ve had over the years also loved green olives (don’t know about olive wood). It affected them almost like catnip.
John in LA late of PNS on 11 Jul 2010 at 9:19 pm #
I hope a bunch of Y’all got to see Jimmy Buffett’s free concert for the Gulf Coast tonight on CMT. Great Show! Sure made me home sick–Jumbo-tron had the The Pcola Sign, Orange Beach, Destin, Jimmy’s sister’s restaurant–Lulu’s in Gulf Shores. Great Tunes. Jimmy gave the Gulf Coast a well deserved shot in the arm I feel. It was a GREAT Show–sigh.
Fins UP!
Jeremy on 12 Jul 2010 at 1:01 am #
Hello, I’m sorry if I’m off topic but I couldn’t figure out where the best place to ask this question was. I am trying to find the first appearances of Mary Lou from when Gene originally met her. It is difficult to figure out where they would be as Gene doesn’t seem to be aging like the rest of us.
I remember the one where Gene and Mary Lou kissed; they were at the beach and right when it happened, there was a shot of Janis as though she could sense something had happened.
Wik said the first appearance of Mary Lou was in the summer of 96 when they were on vacation. That didn’t seem right to me as Gene and I used to be the same age and I thought it happened earlier in the 90s. I checked the summer months of A&J on comics.com but she wasn’t there.
Can anyone help me or at least tell me where a better place to ask would be?
Thanks!
Jeremy on 12 Jul 2010 at 1:09 am #
Btw:
John, you mentioned that the Pepsi advertisment made you sick at the Buffet concert. I think I have you beat:
In the summer of 01 or 02, I saw Journey in concert and Peter Frampton opened for them. While he was playing Do you Feel Like I Do, Frampton used his trademark talking guitar thingy to suggest that the audience “enjoy some refreshing Pepsi from any of the concession stands” (actual quote). It was one of the saddest moments in my life, the one when I realized that the corporations have won; all that raging against the machine that people did in the 60s was all for naught.
So I think I’ve been made sicker by Pepsi-Co than you.
Brenty on 12 Jul 2010 at 7:26 am #
I eat tomato sandwiches over the sink. Much easier to clean up!
nickchick on 12 Jul 2010 at 7:36 am #
John, I’m so glad you brought up the concert last night. I wasn’t there but watched it on CMT. If you missed it they will replay it several times this week. It was fabulous! And FREE! CMT even showed it without commercial interruption. Jimmy did his hometown and the entire gulf coast real good! 35,000 parrot heads on Gulf Shores beach having a blast!
Other artists should follow Jimmy’s lead to help out the businesses on the gulf coast to get through these hard times. BP says they will start capturing all of the oil this week. Wonder if Vegas is taking odds on that promise?
A BIG thank you from Mobile to Jimmy Buffett and friends!
John in Richmond Texas on 12 Jul 2010 at 7:39 am #
We use the smaller Roma tomatoes almost exclusively for sandwiches, they stay harder and you don’t get the string apart mush with big slices that turn a lot of people off. It seems as I get older I need less meat, but just tomato and bread isn’t enough but a big slab of avacodo with it is just right, with mayonaisse, of course; and I can swallow cherry or grape tomatoes all day (with a dab of ranch dressing)
Today Monday’s – Hey, if I want it , I need it. True, you do need to have different money habits in different stages of your life. When my wife and I first made house together, we would get one big thing; dinette, blinds, washer, etc at a time and pay it off, before we got the next big thing, much more special and less stressful that way.
I just found a May 1939 Better Homes and Gardens magazine on Ebay for $3 and I NEED that.
Mike on 12 Jul 2010 at 10:23 am #
Have you considered Sara Lee Whole Wheat White bread? It’s still whole wheat but they nailed the squishy Wonderbreadesque texture.
Sharon on 12 Jul 2010 at 11:25 am #
I’m a Jersey Girl — and Jersey tomatoes are famous. My dad was actually a tomato farmer for two canneries (now no tomato canneries exist in NJ), I grow my own, fighting the squirrels in my backyard for them. I’ve actually worked in a cannery in Ohio making ketchup. I can’t imagine life without the love apple! I love dead-ripe juicy tomatoes with butter lettuce or spring greens and a great homemade blue cheese dressing…YUM!
Kathy in NE on 12 Jul 2010 at 5:27 pm #
Yes, tomato sandwiches are to be eaten over the kitchen sink, as well as whole tomatoes with salt.
Brenty on 13 Jul 2010 at 7:04 am #
Two weeks ago, the wife and I were at Wal-Mart and she bought me a Topsy-Turvy as we don’t have a garden and she knows how much I like tomatoes. We got a plant two days later, planted it, and already there are six tomatoes on there, two are two inches in diamter. I’ll probably eat every tomato in one setting. I can’t wait!!!!