Begone, Green Alien Menace!

About those green tomatoes. . .

I came home late Sunday afternoon to pinched alien faces still glaring at me like a mob of recriminating ne'er do wells -- judging ME for lack of action.  All they had done for the last week was sit on the counter letting their skin start to sag, while I was BUSY! True, I plucked them from a comfortable life in the garden with no real plan in mind, but put-out by their obvious disdain of me I remembered a cartoon Luke showed me in the midst of Matthew's juicing craze and in idea started to dawn.

For the full juicer humor piece, click here.

To avoid the gaze of all those green faces I went upstairs to my bedroom with laptop in hand to create a cooking plan. For good measure I took a corkscrew and the best bottle of chianti classico in the kitchen.  After pulling out the cork from the bottle I remembered that I had not factored in wine consumption as I filled my grocery cart on All Hallows Eve.  Crap.  Sinking to the bed with full glass in hand I contemplated a Thanksgiving Day with no wine.  I should definitely invite Jesus over that day.

Having recently piled 5 blankets on my bed to compensate for the decision to keep the thermostat at 54 degrees throughout Nothing New November, a change out of church clothes led quickly to my laptop settled on a pile of blankets, wine glass on bedside table, and Kris dreaming of green tomato soup, green tomato au gratin, green tomato bread, green tomato jam ...

After waking up a few hours later (I don't adjust well to time change Sundays), I snapped the laptop shut and pulled up the 3 recipes I wanted on my phone.  Back in the kitchen fortified with a second glass of chianti and the determination to rid my kitchen of the alien menace I pulled out the Magic Bullet contraption Luke convinced me to buy for $15 at a garage sale this summer.  Within minutes I had this:

Then this:

and finally this:

Emboldened by the knowledge of how quickly a green tomato becomes something else entirely, I created for dinner a Green Tomato Au Gratin with Italian seasonings, breadcrumbs and Italian cheeses.  It turns out tomatoes in Italian cooking don't have to be red at all!  It was delicious, evidences by the fact that I ate a quarter of the pan ...

The Apple Cinnamon Cake (anyone trying to get a 13 year old to eat more vegetables knows you don't use the name of the secret ingredient), Apple and Raisin Bread, and AuGratin were all a hit.  And stored away in my freezer the rest of the tomato puree awaits another baking day this winter!!