This time of year reminds me of summer lunches at my grandmother’s house where every day she’d serve a side dish of thick slices of fresh tomatoes and Vidalia onions. Another favorite is a tomato sandwich on wheat with salt pepper and a little mayo. A beautiful, simple lunch.

I wish I had the problem of too many tomatoes that some of you do! It may be the simplest preparation, but my favourite is to eat tomatoes fresh with an avocado and olive oil. Mmmmm.

I have yet to make ratatouille, but right now, I’m relishing tomatoes just as they are with a pinch of salt or dash of patis (Filipino fish sauce). I’ve also been gorging on tomato black bean salad with fresh corn, cilantro, cumin and jalapeno!

While the tomatoes are still fresh, I just like to slice them up roughly and drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic salt. I might add some fresh basil. Perfect!

I always enjoy those juicy red fruits and have been eating them in every way imaginable plus dehydrating them, canning them into salsa, and chili sauce for the future. Then there are the firm green ones that are so good fried and some canned into relish and pickles.

we have a bunch of cherry tomatoes right now. I love to use them for bruschetta. with the larger tomatoes, I like making roasted tomato salsa.

In January, as I was semi-seriously contemplating my “new year’s resolutions” I boldy put “perfecting my salsa recipe” on the list. Several summers have passed since I first started experimenting with what began as a crazy addiction to cilantro. Each year has brought a new version, closer to my desired product. Saturday morning tomato (and onions and jalapenos)gathering at the Farmer’s Market, chopping the tomatoes by hand, finally learning to throw most of the other ingredients into the processor...coming to terms with the definition of “too much garlic” and “not enough heat,” I have finally perfected my “cilantro addiction” salsa.
It is the first bowl to empty at office food days and the most requested item to contribute to family picnics and gatherings. As summer draws to an end there is a frantic “I’ll make it just one more time” rush to have that tomato-perfection blend of flavors...because though the recipe can be made with canned or store bought tomatoes in the winter, we all know it’s just not the same.

I was in Corvallis last weekend and headed down to the waterfront farmer’s market. To my delight there was an abundance of tomatoes and an enormous variety to boot. If you haven’t experianced this particular market it is well worth the drive during the month of September.

I grew up and lived in Corvallis from 1954 through 1972 and had grandparents who grew a wide variety of fruits and vegetables just outside of town. One item I was especially fond of were their tomatoes. My grandfather would slice them thick and sprinkle a little salt and pepper on them, and he would always remark about how no other food made him happier than eating those bright red beauties.

Even though I now live in Portland, my job takes me into Corvallis on a regular basis and finding great produce at either roadside stands or the farmer’s market is a must. I have yet to eat a tomato from any specialty grocer in Portland that comes close to a Willamette Valley tomato. Just slicing one and having that aroma waft over me takes me back to my childhood days.

One word, SALSA!!

I love this time of year when unfettered tomatoes taste the best. If I want to fancy them up a little, I just use a little basil, the best olive oil I can find, sea salt, pepper, and white balsamic vinegar (keeps the pretty, varied tomato colors vibrant and less muddy than regular balsamic) for a quick salad. Beyond that, my guilty pleasure now is a toasted bagel, a big slice of fresh tomato, and any cheese under the broiler for a minute or two to melt.

we love to cut them with buffalo mozzarella, balsamic vinegar and some blue cheese, yummmy

BLTS and more BLTS with my big Caspian Pinks. I’ve been eating the brown berries out of hand, the Ceylons on a cheese and tomato sandwich, the other cherries get roasted and covered with olive oil, then put in the fridge to hang out, the romas are either canned whole, roasted and pureed and then put up, or made into a sauce with onions and garlic for the freezer.
And just yesterday I simmered a bunch of green tomatoes with onions, apples, currants and spices for chutney. These will be gifts for my friends who didn’t bury themselves in tomatoes this year!

Pa amb tomaquet: take a slice of just grilled bread, rub it with a clove a (peeled) garlic, then take a ripe tomato (cut in half) and slather the pulp onto the bread. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt. Fantastic!

I slice fresh tomatoes and top with basil, crumbled blue cheese, and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Delicious!

raymondw345@AOl.com; hope to win the prize and best luck to each entranat.

A sandwich isn’t a sandwich without a thick layer of fresh ripe tomato and some mayo or Italian dressing. A thick, spicy marinara is one of my two favorite foods. And after eating it on pasta, or with fried mozzarella, if has to be followed by my other favorite, chocolate, of course.

i’m in an apartment with a little kitchen and no pantry, but i do have a garden and my four tomato bushes were putting out four to five pounds of tomatoes every two days during the peak of the summer. i don’t know how to can, so i began multiple racks of drying in the oven, popping the finished faux-sun dried tomatoes in a ziplock bag and putting them in the freezer. i’ve got three gallon bags at the moment, and that should provide for all kinds of fancy recipes all winter long. some i put in oil after drying and put in the fridge. i made tomato and feta salads with fresh and dried cherry tomatoes for picnics. i made pico de gallo and salsa and marinara and puttanesca with capers. i made mayo and tomato sandwiches, i traded tomatoes for a neighbor’s lemons, i made green tomato chutney and gave it away to my friends. i made roasted vegetables with tomatoes, i made wolfgang puck’s delicious summer chicken tomato fondue. i never would have thought four bushes would feed so many people. what an eye opener and a blessing!

My favorite dish with tomatoes is spaghetti I add a handful of cherry tomatoes cut in half to my sauce homemade sauce just before I srve it the taste is awesome they are heated but not soft and they don’t get soggy that way MMMMMM!!!!

Mmm I love to add nice juicy sauteed tomatoes to my homemade lasagnia sauce.

For me, the best way to serve tomatoes is...
Freshly sliced with a sprinkle of salt. MMMM Good!

I love fresh heirloom tomatoes with a thin slice of fresh mozzarella, basil, and a drizzle of good olive oil.

Insalada Caprese is my number one way to eat the season’s best, freshest tomatoes. Greek Salads are wonderful too!

This is our first summer as participants in a CSA. It’s been fantastic! We’ve enjoyed tomatoes in a fresh tomato soup; in a sandwich with grilled eggplant, peppers, onion and goat cheese; sliced with fresh mozzarella and basil; slow roasted with garlic and tossed with pasta and goat cheese; and, of course, eaten right out of the box!

i like my homemade tomato salad

I simply like to pop a cherry tomato into my mouth as a snack. Also, before heating up a frozen pizza, put some sliced tomatoes on top. It will improve any frozen pie.

First I get a couple of cukes, peel them, cut them in half and remove the seeds and stuff the cavity with a mixture of half creme fresh, half sour creme and a tablespoon of chopped fresh parsley and salt and pepper to taste. Wrap these in plastic wrap and refrigerate over night. To serve, slice 5-6 good sized tomatoes and place them on a platter with alternate slices of the cuke. Sprinkle the tomatoes with nice sea salt and a chiffanade of fresh basil. Lasts about 30 seconds if you are lucky.

Cut up a bunch of tomotoes, some garlic, an onion, drizzle with olive oil and some balsamic, roast ‘em and then add some basil/oregano/thyme, add some stock, puree - voila! Roasted tomato soup...I have a few batches frozen already, waiting for February. :-)

I am always trying to get my daughter to eat more vegetables. She abhors lettuces (I can’t believe it either). So for a quick side/salad I slice tomatoes, slather with Italian dressing, lightly pepper and top with parmasean cheese and down the hatch they go :)

My wonderful friend’s garden is overflowing and she is sharing her bounty. We eat the tomatoes whole as a snack after school!

My favourite thing to do with tomatoes is to snack on them! Yum!

I love to grill mine using olive oil and sea salt.

I cut the tomatoes into wedges and put cottage cheese on them.

Our big family loves tomatoes so I add them to stews, salads and everything under the sun. My favorite way to eat them is cutting them into big slices, sprinkling them with mozzerella cheese and oregano and putting them under the broiler for a few mintues. It’s like eating mini healthy pizzas !

This is my first year growing tomaotes in Oregon, and my skills need improvement, however I have been able to harvest about a dozen precious tomatoes and several handfuls of cherry toms. The golden cherry tomatoes never made it into the house, eaten entirely out of hand in the backyard. The rest were almost entirely eaten on homemade bagels with just a splash of tobasco, a twist of black pepper and a sprinkle of sea salt. The sweetness and acidity of the tomatoes were highlighted with this combo, and a light spread of cream cheese provided the balance. Mouth is watering, must stick a bagel in the toaster!

The tomato season ended here in North Central Florida in July and will resume again the end of October. At the peak of the season, I got what I call “used but not abused” tomatoes at the local farmers market and made sauce for the freezer. With beter quality ones, I made gazpacho and many happy BLT’s. Tomatoes found their way into all kinds of dishes as well.

We absolutely LOVE tomato sandwiches. Just soft white bread, fresh tomatoes, mayo, and some salt & pepper. YUM!!!!

very thinly sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, spanish onion mixed together and marinated for several hours (in the refrigerator) in italian dressing.......a wonderful relish/side dish.......it’s addicting!

I love to serve my tomatos fresh from the garden with cooked sliced potatoes and green beans. Drizzle with olive oil and salt and it’s very filling and delicious.

I love them on a sliced bagel half (real bakery
bagel, that it). Slice bagel in half. Brush halves
(cut side) with olive oil. Cover with thin slices
of tomato. Place on top a few leaves of basil. Sprinkle with a little bit of kosher salt and
red pepper flakes. Sprinkle with olive oil. Place in 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. Enjoy!

Tomates, plain with the meal.

Tomatoes on everything, except dessert!!

I use tomatoes in sandwiches almost daily and I make homemade spaghetti sauce

Like many others, our tomato crop is eaten in the garden; ie cherries, grape, etc. However, with a name like Martinez, we just love fresh salsa. Therefore, we can hardly wait for the first tinge of red of the tomato and green on the hot peppers.

Sliced with sea salt

I like to make a tomato salad with Caesar dressing, bacon bits, and Parmesan cheese.

This year has been my biggest tomato year yet. I grew up loving them but lost all interest until I realized a couple years ago how the industrial food complex is destroying the flavor. I rediscovered homegrown and heirlooms straight from the farms. Beautiful and delicious eaten as is especially the green striped ones (Green Zebra I believe) and the deep purplish brown ones that taste almost smokey.

But this year I’d been cooking them into dishes with zucchini especially after I discovered fresh cranberry shell beans (wow). Also good to add to various salads such as Greek or with quinoa in a tabouli-like dish as well as getting baskets of various cherry toms to nibble on instead of chips or cookies.

However, the one preparation that has captured my fancy the most was part accident. I don’t fancy bread much but my daughter saw an organic in-store made white bread at our independent grocery (the usual home rule is breads have to have at least 3 grams of fiber per serving so this would be special). However, she didn’t eat it. Consequently neither did she eat the heirloom beefsteak toms I’d bought at the farmers market which she also said she needed for lunch sandwiches.

It had been months since I’d had anything with mayonnaise so I decided it was time to try the simple dish I’d been reading about by my net friends. Thus I made my first open-faced “Tomayo” sandwich by toasting the bread, slathering with mayo and putting thick slices of the toms on top then sprinkling with sea salt.

Amazing.

I just didn’t think it was possible to find anything better. Simply couldn’t be improved upon I thought. But something had me try a bite in the third one I made with a thick dusting of crumbled dried basil after salting and the very best indeed became even better.

That’s been my meal twice a day for over a week now.

This last trip to the market had me buying 15 of the beefsteak toms along with several different varieties of heirlooms I hadn’t been able to try yet. Also picked up several bags of sun-dried to save for after the market closes for the season.

Next year I’ve decided I’ll slow-roast some to freeze for winter and hopefully have a canning party with some friends so we can learn how together then savor the bounty the rest of the year and not worry about electricity outages.

In fact, I’m already planning next year’s dishes which will include breakfast burritos, tomato-pesto pies, various salads, soups, stews, and of course more “tomayo” sandwiches.

Warm up a can of Great Northern beans and a can Red Kidney beans; drain and pour into a serving bowl. Add 3 chopped tomatoes, fresh basil, chopped chives and crumbled goat cheese and serve. Delicious!

Just finished my last frozen tomato that Carl gave me from his backyard garden in Chicago 2006 crop.

They were delicious! Yesterday I froze some from the Oak Park, Illinois farmers market. Their tomatoes were not as good as Carls’.

Fresh organic food is so delicious! Especially a good tomato!

Now you have my attention! You’ve found THE CONTEST I want to win!

homemade green tomato pie with locally made vanilla ice cream

really! tastes like tart apples..

My favorite summer sandwich is sliced tomatoe with Miracle whip.

Tomato and cheese pie....pie crust smeared with mustard then layers of tomatoes and cheese of your choice. Top with small torn pieces of bread and bake until cheese is melted and pie is heated through. Yummo!!!

I always add tomatos to my spaghetti sauce, but my favorite thing is slice it up, add a little salt, and eat it!

The tomatoes have been coming at me so fast this season that I’ve found it very hard to keep up. I wonderful problem to have, I realize. I’ve been eating BLTs all summer...levain bread, hellma’s mayo, tomato, Niman Ranch bacon, sea salt and a generous amount of pepper. Heaven! Nothing like a BLT with gorgeous summer tomatoes...you have to eat over the sink because the juice drips down your arm! I also make a tomato tart which is great with corn chowder. Super easy summer dinner. Lately though, they’ve been coming so fast, along with the peppers, that all I can do is roast them. I use my cast iron skillet, put the whole cored tomatoes in with some pepper in between each piece and a basil leaf or two inside the whole left by the tomato core, throw in a few garlic cloves, drizzle on some olive oil and roast for an hour or so in the oven. Theyn I just pack them up and freeze them, or puree them and freeze them, if there are any left after snacking on them. Those roasted tomoatoes are really good on top of some burrata cheese with a drizzle of balsamic. Yum!

I make salsa and share it with friends.

I make tomato sauce and freeze it.

Our favorite fresh tomato dish is bacon and tomato sandwiches on whole grain bread---only with very good specialty bacon from the local farmer.

I slice green tomatoes nice and thin and then can them. Dyhuring the winter you just open the jar, dip tomatoe in flour and fry in bacon grease. Great Fried Green Tomatoes.

Slice thin and top with finely chopped fresh basil. Crumble bleu cheese generously over top. drizzle with balsamic vinigar and sprinkle with a few capers (optional). Salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy

I love them fresh out of the garden with salt on them, but they are good with BLT’s and of course in fresh salads. Some good ideas on this site, also.

I serve them with fresh mozarrella and olive oil with hot pepper flakes.

Tomatoes have always been one of my comfort foods! Already looking forward to next years harvest - this year’s was wonderful!

I love tomatoes! I like my tomatoes the best as a greek farmers salad, with olives, cucumber slices and with an olive oil - balsamic vinegar vinaigrette. Yum!

fresh tomatoes and fresh steak

All good tomatoes need is a little extra virgin olive oil, a little salt and some oregano. There is no better snack or side dish with any meal.

My colleagues have been showering me with garden tomatoes, which I have been turning into bruschetta. Yummy!!!

I like to eat a tomato, standing in the garden, while the tomato is still warm from the sun.

i love tomatoes fresh off the vine with onion in a sandwhich

I eat tomatoes so many ways...freshly picked from the garden...cut up and tossed with salt, pepper, and olive oil...roasted and tossed with pasta...etc...I just LOVE tomatoes!

My husband likes to cut up tomatoes and cucumbers and add lemon juice, cilantro, and salt for a simple salad. I like to go Italian by slicing the tomatoes and adding extra virgin olive oil, oregano, balsamic vinegar, and salt.

Sliced, large local tomatoes, with a dollop of low fat sour cream, and a few fresh basil leaves.

Tonight my partner made a beehive timbale (from http://gorgeoustown.typepad.com/lex_culinaria/2006/03/beehive_pasta_t.html) with a fresh tomato sauce. It made a wonderful contrast between the very structured timbale and the wild and chunky fresh tomatoes.

Thank you everyone for the terrific, inspiring, tasty ideas. The contest is now closed; we will notify cookbook winners later today.

Watch for more book contests soon!