Those of you who have vegetable gardens are probably enjoying them by now. Depending on where you are and how early you planted, the produce you could be eating includes beans, corn and, to me the best of all, ‘maters (tomatoes).
A big, ripe homegrown tomato is the source of what may be the best thing about summer: a big, fat tomato sandwich.
The elemental tomato sandwich is elegant and absolutely delicious in its simplicity: a thick slice (or two) of the aforementioned tomato on the bread of your choice (don’t get too fancy), a generous smear of mayonnaise (Duke’s brand, don’t even argue about this), pepper and salt (enough to make your doctor cringe). Slap it together and wolf the sandwich down, knowing you are going to make another.
I didn’t grow up on a farm, but I have been around a lot of them and the associated gardens, and all of this I’m sure had a bearing on my largely misspent youth. When I was a kid, we had a very modest vegetable garden in the backyard, which seemed huge compared to today, and I’m sure my parents wanted to save some money by raising some of our food.
A staple in our garden was, of course, green beans. Now, from my youth, I have liked green beans as long as they are prepared the correct way, which involves either slow or pressure cooking with copious amounts of bacon or other pork fat. When you start talking about other recipes involving steaming a green bean, or worse, some kind of casserole, I’m out.