It’s tomato time!

I had a proverbial stroke of genius upon visualizing that the free range eggs from my CSA share would fit perfectly into one of the glossy show-offy beefsteak tomatoes that are at their peak here in New York. I used the tomato “guts” to make a zippy sauce so as not to waste any tomato goodness.

When I’m not stuffing them with farm-fresh eggs or popping them straight into my mouth, this is what I’m doing these days with my farmer’s market tomatoes:

I’m ravishing these jewel-like tomato salads like this one from Kalyn of Kayln’s Kitchen, or this simple-is-best heirloom salad from Catherine at Albion Cooks.

I can never get enough of salsa, and this one from Elise at Simply Recipes is a classic.

And if you have an over abundance of tomatoes (lucky you!) these recipes sound fab:

A fantastic-looking Tomato Pickle from Indira from Mahanandi.
Sexy Romesco Sauce from Ann at a A Chicken in Every Granny Cart.
Ultra-minimal Tomato Ginger Jam from Alanna at A Veggie Venture.

And don’t forget these favorite Vanesscipes that feature red-ripe tomatoes:

Spicy Chilled Tomato, Corn, and Herb Soup
Farmers Market Fresh Tomato Pasta
Corn Pudding with Roasted Tomatoes and Garlic Toast

Serves: 5
Time: 1 hour

Baked Eggs in Tomatoes
with a Zippy Tomato-Corn Sauce

13 large beefsteak tomatoes (10 for stuffing, 3 for sauce)
salt and pepper
12 large eggs
8 cloves garlic, sliced
olive oil
1/4 cup capers (one full 2 1/4 oz jar)
kernels from 4 cobs of corn
3/4 of a day-old baguette (6 - 8 cups of cubed bread)
2 cups gruyere cheese, grated (optional)
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 450F.

Slice off tops of tomatoes and scoop out seeds and pulp, leaving a half inch around the sides and bottom so they don’t collapse — a lot like carving a pumpkin. A good tip is to cut a thin slice from the bottom of the tomato so they are more stable. Reserve the pulp and the tomato tops for the sauce (never discard vitamins!) Put the tomato shells on a baking tray and sprinkle the insides lightly with salt.

Break one egg inside each tomato. Top with a light sprinkling of salt and pepper. Bake 20 minutes for softer yolks, 25 minutes for hard yolks.

Chop the reserved tomato pulp and tops. Dice the three reserved tomatoes.

While the eggs are in the oven, start the sauce by sauteing the garlic slices over low heat for about 5 minutes, until barely turn golden. Add the pulp from the stuffed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, and capers. Turn the heat up to medium and simmer until starting to get thick, about 20 minutes. Add the corn, and when heated through add the diced bread. Salt and pepper to taste.

Assemble one or two stuffed tomatoes on a plate and ladle the sauce over. Sprinkle with cheese, if desired. Serve with crusty bread and a green salad.

I’m not sure if frugality and penny-pinching is genetic but for better or worse I’ve inherited my family’s Midwestern “waste not, want not” mantra. I get phone calls like “Hey Vanessa, I’m about to throw away some bubble wrap, a yard of astroturf, and a silver ice bucket with my initials on it… I just thought you might, you know, want to do something with it before it goes into trash.” You see, I hate wasting anything.

I buy a bunch of bananas, for instance, and if the sisters and I can’t eat them all before they start to go spotty I throw the brown ones in the freezer, skins and all, to be later incarnated as banana bread or my favorite smoothie: banana-peanutbutter-cocoa.

So when challenged by a recipe development class at the Institute of Culinary Education to create a variation on the classic chocolate-chip cookie, I thought it would be fine time to clear the freezer of bananas and put them to use in a cookie version of my favorite smoothie. Effervescent instructor Sarah Copeland, recipe tester for the Food Network, used her encyclopedic baking knowledge to help turn my smoothie concept into real (and vegan!) cookies. My classmates shared inspired ideas and comments, including Myra Kornfield’s vegan baking tip to use coconut oil in the cookies for richness. The weekend class somehow flew by even though my stomach was quite heavily bogged down with test cookies.

So here they are, the results of my smoothie-to-cookie experiment - Vegan Banana Peanut Butter Cocoa Cookies, or Vanana Cookies for short. The bananas, peanut butter, and cocoa combine to create a rich brownie-like cookie with bursts of creamy banana and chunky peanut. Truly scrumptious, vegan, and a great way to reclaim a few overly ripe bananas.

Preparation = 20 minutes
Cooking = 10 minutes
Yield = 16 large cookies

Vegan Banana Peanut Butter Cocoa Cookies

2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder, preferably organic
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 very ripe bananas*
1 1/4 cup natural chunky peanut butter, at room temperature
1⁄4 cup coconut oil (not virgin), at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 firm-ripe bananas, cut into large dice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl.

In another bowl, cream together the ripe bananas, peanut butter, coconut oil, light brown sugar and vanilla extract until all ingredients are completely incorporated, about 3 minutes.

Slowly add the chocolate mixture to the ripe banana mixture, stirring to combine. Mixture should be very thick. Fold in diced banana with a rubber spatula.

Drop on an ungreased cookie sheet in large, 3 tablespoon-sized scoops, spaced one inch apart.

Bake until the outside of the cookie lightens, starts to develop deep cracks, and the banana bits start to brown, about 8 - 11 minutes.

Cool for 2 minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to a wire rack.

*Can be frozen and rethawed

To be perfectly honest, I created this pizza merely as a vehicle — a platform of sorts to showcase one of my favorite veggies: hot chili peppers. I love the taste, the tang, and of course the heat.

My quest for a hot pepper pizza took on a life of its own and ended up a very pleasing combination of chewy crust, zesty hot peppers, tangy sauce, and refreshing herbs.

I served two 14″ pizzas to four people and there ended up being one slice left… only because we were all too polite to lay claim to the last piece.

Active time: 35 minutes
Baking time: 20 minutes
Serves: 4

2 12-14 inch pizza crusts – homemade (see below) or purchased
16 oz frozen tofu
1 small bottle of Asian Sweet and Sour or Peanut Sauce
1 red onion, diced
3 banana peppers, sliced
2 yellow bell peppers, diced
3 red bird chili peppers, sliced finely
salt, pepper
handful fresh basil, chopped
handful fresh mint, chopped
handful fresh cilantro, chopped
sesame oil

Preheat oven to 425.

Crumble the tofu in a bowl and add about 2 Tbsp of sweet and sour or peanut sauce to flavor the tofu. Mix.

Make (or unpackage) your pizza crust and roll out to the size of your pizza pans or cookie sheets. I use this wheat crust from Allrecipes.

Brush the dough with enough sauce to coat.

Sprinkle a layer of tofu over the pizza.

Top with the onions, banana peppers, yellow bell peppers, and red bird chili peppers.

Season the pizzas with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Bake for about 20 minutes, until crust is golden.

Top with the fresh basil, mint, cilantro and a drizzle of sesame oil.

This soup is sister to a gazpacho, cousin to a salsa fresca, and perhaps a great-aunt to a bruschetta topping.

The Li’l Sis invented it one sultry July day when she was craving a cool tomato gazpacho but wanted something with a bit more zip. She ravaged our fire escape garden and tossed in handfuls of herbs and three tiny red chili peppers. What these peppers lacked in size they well made up for in heat. Even the tough-tongued Li’l Sis had to admit we probably used one pepper too many.

This soup is the perfect way to put the bounty of luscious August tomatoes to good, fresh, tasty use. And you might as well pick up a nice loaf of crusty bread too; it’s all you’ll need to enjoy this simple main course soup.

Time: 1 hour
Serves: 6

Spicy Chilled Tomato, Corn and Herb Soup

18 large tomatoes, stem end cored out
3 cobs of corn, cooked and kernels cut off
1 can small white beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 cup chopped basil
1/3 cup chopped mint
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 - 2 jalapenos, minced (with or without seeds according to your preference)
juice of 1 lemon
3 Tbsp avocado or olive oil
2 tsp salt
freshly ground pepper to taste
3 avocados, diced

Dice 8 tomatoes, including the skins. Using the large holes of cheese grater, grate the other 10 tomatoes into a large bowl, getting all the pulp away from the skins. Discard skins, squeezing any remaining tomato juice into the bowl.

Add the cooked corn kernels, white beans, cilantro, basil, mint, garlic, jalapeno, lemon, oil, salt and pepper.

At this point you can chill the soup for two or more hours if you’d like it cold. It’s also wonderful room temperature.

Before serving, scatter the diced avocados on top.

Serve with crusty bread & olive oil.

This is less of a recipe and more a tale of food algebra and perfectionism.

Follow along:

Summer = BBQs
BBQs = Hot Dogs
I hail from Chicagoland and in Chicagoland, Hot Dogs = Chicago-style Hot Dogs
Since I’m vegetarian, Hot Dogs = Veggie Dogs

∴ since it’s summer, I want a Chicago-style veggie dog.

Or something like that!

The Chicago-style Hot Dog differs from pretty much every other kind of dog in that it is very, very specific in regards to toppings and topping order. For instance, unless you want to be kicked in the behind by a crazed Bear’s fan, you DO NOT put ketchup on your Chicago-style Hot Dog. If you need more Chicago-style info, this fantastic site hotdogchicagostyle.com will set you straight.

What I’ve learned in this endeavor is that three very important Chicago-style ingredients are all but unavailable in New York City. After hunting two Boroughs, four neighborhoods and nine different stores, the Li’l Sis and I were unable to procure poppy-seed buns, sport peppers, and ultra-green sweet relish. (Vanessa’s note: I’m thankful that no neon-green relish is for sale in my borough.)

So what I’ve invented here is something I like to call: The Brooklyn-Made Chicago-style Veggie Dog. Probably culinary blasphemy to many, many people, but I’d just like to think of myself as a veggie pioneer.

Time: 15 minutes
Serves: 2 - 3

The Brooklyn-Made Chicago-style Veggie Dog

1 pack of veggie dogs - there are usually 5
1 pack of white hot dog buns (supposed to be poppy seed buns, but I was unable to find these in Brooklyn)
bottle of yellow mustard
jar of sweet relish (I was unable to find the ultra-green sweet relish that is usually served on a Chicago-style, which is fine by me)
1 small onion, chopped
2 tomatoes, cut into 1″ thick wedges
dill pickle spears (the Li’l Sis recommends Claussens)
jar of sliced jalapenos (I dare you to find “sport peppers” in NYC. And you can use these jalapenos for many yummy dishes)
celery salt (not optional)

Cook your veggie dog your favorite way and place on a room temp bun (only steam your bun if you have a bun steamer, which is bit excessive for a Brooklyn apartment.)

Starting with the mustard, squirt it on the entire dog in a zigzag pattern. Add relish to the entire length of the dog, tucked near one side of the bun. Sprinkle with chopped onions. Add two tomato wedges on one side of the dog between the dog and the bun. Add a pickle spear on the other side of the dog between the dog and the bun. Place a few jalapeno slices according to your heat preference. Sprinkle lightly all over with celery salt.

LSLBmCsVD (Li’s Sis Loves Brooklyn-made Chicago-style Veggie Dogs) For the top photo, my food stylist (aka, the Li’l Sis - who seemed to inherit my share of the family “neat” genes) added the yellow mustard last, instead of first, for aesthetic reasons. It’s supposed to snugly blanket the dog to more greatly compliment the flavor, but I can’t apologize because it really looks better this way.