Fried Green Tomatoes

Fall is in the air. Opening the windows to feel the breeze in the house is delightful. Last weekend we collected the last of the crowder peas and froze them. The other night I cooked half the bag. Paige is spending the night Friday and since she planted the seeds, I thought it appropriate to share the bag with her. She loves baked beans, but I’m not so sure she will like crowder peas. We shall see.

During our hot spell, the tomatoes became stagnant, but the minute the weather cooled off, the yellow blossoms produced lots and lots of tomatoes. Unfortunately, we have to pick them before they are too ripe because we have a squirrel that loves our tomatoes. And then the other morning we woke to find ice on the car windshields. That made me think it was time to take down the tomato bed.

However, I hesitated and sure enough the warm days have returned and once again my tomatoes are turning orange, if not deep red. When the ice scared me and I thought of all the green tomatoes I figured I might as well pick a few and eat them green. Of course that meant I had to fry them first. So for lunch I sliced two tomatoes, dipped them in egg substitute mixed with a little salt and pepper, then into bread crumbs and fried them in a tiny bit of canola oil. They were light and delicious and made for a great lunch.

Every time I fry green tomatoes I think of Fannie Flagg’s book Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop. Everybody knows the movie based on the book was a huge success (and one of my all-time favorite movies.) But, in my opinion the book was better than the movie. This is because the book takes the reader past where the story ends in the movie. But it is hard to separate the characters in the movie with the ones in the book. In fact some paperback editions actually have the stars of the movie on the cover.

When I cook something that touches a memory, like fried green tomatoes do, it sparks my soul. It fills me with a sense of peace and connectedness to my own long lost relatives that lived during the depression and shared meals where fried green tomatoes were a staple.