BELOVED NEIGHBOR OF 50 YEARS; FAMILY FAVORITE RECIPE
I grew up in the small town of Southboro MA, where we lived from the mid 1940’s to the 1980’s.
A few times a year I try to visit our neighbor who still lives there next to our old homestead. At the time I am writing this she just celebrated her 94th birthday.
Martha tells me she moved to Southboro in 1925. She and her husband raised their 3 children, Cliff, Bill, and Ginny, in the same house she remains in today. My mother and Martha became friends while they raised their children over the years. Martha’s son Cliff became friends with my brothers Ed and Dick, and Ginny was my sister Susan’s true best friend. One of my fondest memories is when Martha would invite my brothers and sisters and I (I was about 10), down to her house on really hot days in the summer to make homemade root beer. We would help her bottle it and put the caps on. To this day I remember how cold and delicious that root beer was. She tells me she still has the bottle caps. We love to get together and talk about those years. She affectionately recalls the trouble that my brother Ed and her son Cliff would get into as boys. She chuckles as she remembers them hiding over on the stonewall while others searched the neighborhood for them, and Stella could be heard yelling out for Eddie to come home; she says he was one of her favorites, “he was such an imp” she adds.
Martha shared this particular recipe with me because it has become a huge family favorite that has lived on through five generations. It is also one of her own personal favorites as her father brought this old Pennsylvania Dutch recipe with him when he came to Massachusetts which says to her that it must have been his favorite as well.
Baked Stuffed Tomatoes - Serves 4
Ingredients:4 large tomatoes
1 to 1and 1/4 pounds ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium green pepper, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 teaspoon italian seasoning
salt & pepper to taste
Cut top/stems out of tomatoes, remove and save the pulp. Sauté
Bake at 350 degrees until tomatoes are soft, (30-40minutes).
Sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese, or any grated cheese of your choice.
*****
Fresh
garden tomatoes are plentiful now, and this is a perfect way to use them. I did
not plant a garden this year, but am lucky to have a farm stand 15 minutes away
to take advantage of locally grown vegetables
Growing up on a farm, this is part of summer for me. We would take a salt shaker down to the gardens and pick a ripe tomato and eat it right there. It was warm from the sun, and the flavor can't be beat.
It's advisable not to refrigerate fresh picked tomatoes if at all possible.
Tomato-Onion Phyllo Pizza
Ingredients:
5 tablespoons butter,
melted
7 sheets phyllo dough
(18"x14")
7 tablespoons grated
parmesan cheese, divided
1 cup (4 oz.) shredded
mozzarella cheese
1 cup thinly sliced
onion
about 9 plum tomatoes,
sliced
1 and 1/2 teaspoons
minced fresh oregano OR 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon minced fresh
thyme OR 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
salt & pepper to
taste
Brush
a 15"x10"x1" baking pan with some of the melted butter. Lay a
sheet of phyllo in pan, folding edge in to fit. Keep remaining dough covered
with waxed paper to avoid drying out. Brush dough with butter and sprinkle
with 1 tablespoon parmesan cheese. Repeat this process with 5 more layers,
folding edges in for each layer to fit.
Top
with remaining dough, folding edges in to fit; brush with remaining butter.
Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese; arrange onion and tomatoes over the cheese.
Sprinkle with oregano, thyme, salt, pepper and more parmesan cheese;Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until edges are golden brown.
*****
Roast Chicken w/ Zucchini & Tomatoes
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Make a rub/paste with the
following:
Using
leaves only; 1 bunch fresh parsley,
1/3
bunch fresh thyme, and half a bunch fresh tarragon, mixing all
with
3 garlic cloves that have been minced, and a scant 1/4 cup olive oil.Prepare a whole chicken, 3 to 4 pounds, by rinsing and drying well. Season cavity with salt and pepper and stuff with 1 lemon, cut in half.
Coat chicken all over with the olive oil/herb rub; season with salt and pepper.
Put chicken on a rack in a large roasting pan.
Scatter the following around the chicken:
4-5
tomatoes cut in large wedges
3
medium zucchini, cut into half-inch rounds
1/2
lemon, thinly sliced
1
large red onion, thinly sliced
Drizzle 1/4 cup olive oil over
vegetables and season with salt and pepper to your taste.Roast uncovered for 1 to one and 1/4 hour or until reaches 160 on meat thermometer; Let sit for 15 minutes before carving.
