I've been cooking up lots of tomatoes lately in all kinds of ways. I found a recipe for colorful grape tomatoes sautéed in lots of anchovies and garlic then finished with a good dose of vinegar. I've been adding tomatoes to rice and broth for a rich pilaf, and roasting them with herbs to go alongside my weekly roasted chicken. But my go-to recipe lately has been a tomato and eggplant gratin that is simple and comes together really quickly.

But twice, just for fun, I elevated our grilled corn and made elotes locos and both times it added just the dedacence needed for an otherwise simple summer feast. Elotes locos, tomato salad, lettuce dressed with a simple tangy dressing and cornbread - summer in a nutshell. There is less of a recipe here, and more of a method and some tips and tricks I learned along the way. 

This week, I made tomato cobbler which is basically exactly as delicious and seasonal and smile-inducing as it sounds. I even made it mid-week, after a full day in the garden, and it came together really quickly. 

I learned a new way of making tomato sauce, under an arbor of wisteria and grape vines, in the outdoor farm kitchen. We washed tomato flat after tomato flat, cooking down some whole, and chopping others up. After a morning of processing we made 91 quarts of sauce and the next day I stepped in to the cellar, where the shelves were once again full of tomatoes.

Last weekend I made a simple corn and tomato salad, with things I had picked up at my produce market that week. It was deeply satisfying and full of summer flavors.

The recipe calls for eggplant, but suggests you can use zucchini or cauliflower, and it was so so good and the best way to use up some odds and ends. You basically cook eggplant (or zucchini, cauliflower or broccoli) until it softens, then add just enough stock to allow it to bubble away and fall apart so it becomes a savory pasta sauce