Sweet things

I have a sweet tooth, but for chocolate and ice-cream and desserts rather than for confectionary (lollies/sweets/candy). So I wasn’t wildly thrilled at the photo challenge for candy this week. As I’m doing both last year’s challenge and this year’s, the Candy challenge required both photos of candy, and photos that implied candy. The first photo speaks for itself.

The chocolate is just asking to be made into a chocolate mousse, in the very glass I’ve used to serve chocolate mousse. I can’t remember the last time I made chocolate mousse. Yet it was one of the first ever fancy desserts I would make for guests. At least one person reading this will remember how I used to make chocolate mousse, and decorate it with chocolate palm trees. I need to try that again, and show you, although it has been years since I made chocolate mousse. Just talking about chocolate mousse makes me want to make chocolate mousse. I love chocolate mousse.

The second photo is really about my opinion that tomatoes are the candy of the vegetable world. I’ve written about tomatoes before. When I was in the Middle East, I adored the cherry tomatoes that I ate in Israel and Jordan. In our hotel in Amman, we were served a small bowl of cherry tomatoes, along with a small bowl of olives, with our drinks. Perfect!

Photographically speaking, this challenge taught me a number of things. I played with light, and with different backgrounds. I realised that I should have done this challenge with traditional round cherry tomatoes, as the oval ones look as if I distorted the photo. I learned that I should not always go for a very wide aperture, as it can blur too much of the photo. And I learned that I should take more time for my challenges, and not try to sneak in five or ten minutes of photography when I’m waiting for my husband to get home with the takeaways for dinner.

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Eight things I like right now

1. Yoga with Adriene is making me more flexible and stronger, though perhaps  some of that is due to …
2. My new programme at the gym, and how strong it makes me feel.
3. I’ve adapted to coffee without sugar easily, and I never thought I would be able to say that.
4. My reading mojo has recently returned, and I’ve read (and I’m reading) some great books.
5. My homemade Super Deluxe Chocolate Ice Cream is rich and delicious, though with summer coming to a close, my hips and heart need my personal gelateria to shut up shop soon.
6. My screen saver thrills me when I return to my desk, returning me (briefly) to some of my favourite places in the world.
7. I’m currently binge-watching Suits, a TV series I’d never heard of until it was recommended by my friend Peony, and having a wonderful time doing it.
8. This long summer has seen some bumper crops of tomatoes – one of my favourite foods – and I’m reaping the benefits from my very elderly in-laws’ garden.

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A Tribute to the Tomato

After three years of living in Thailand, a fellow expat New Zealander asked me what I was looking forward to most, when I returned home in a few weeks. “Tomato sandwiches,” I responded, without question. I’d be arriving back in New Zealand in February. Mid-summer, prime tomato season. The tomatoes would be ripe, full of flavour, delicious. Tomato sandwiches were a staple as we were growing up. And there’s still nothing like the taste of ripe, sliced tomatoes, sprinkled with salt and pepper, sandwiched between two fresh thin slices of bread. The key is its simplicity. The taste of the tomatoes reigns supreme.

Sadly, the summer tomato season is over now, though the supermarkets are still full of greenhouse tomatoes. They don’t taste the same, but even slicing one the other day (for fried rice) saw me inhaling the scent of it in bliss (and hence this post).  In winter I still use tomatoes, roasting them or putting them in stews and soups and pasta.  I cannot imagine a world without tomatoes. (Tomatoes were available in Thailand – so I didn’t have to go cold turkey, but they were just not the same). Think what I would miss:

• Tomato sandwiches
• Tomato and basil – these two things equal summer
• Tomato, basil and mozzarella salads. (I have a recipe where I add roasted capsicums into the mix).
• Tomato and mozzarella pizza; the best pizza I’ve ever had was in a vegetarian restaurant in Rome, smothered in fresh slices of ridiculously ripe and tasty beefsteak tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, with flurries of basil and mozzarella. Sigh.
• Roast tomatoes
• Tomato soup – yes, from a can if necessary
• Chopped tomatoes in fried rice
• Various tomato sauces over pasta  (including Bridgett’s sauce with pesto and cream/low-fat evaporated milk she included in a blog comment)
• Cherry tomatoes with lemon, caramelised onions, olive oil and smoked salmon over pasta
• Tomato relish bringing taste to just about any savoury dish
• Lasagne
• Semi-dried tomatoes, adding flavour to pasta, stir-fries, anything
• And yes, even processed tomato chutney sauce (a bit like ketchup) with our fish and chips

I’ve heard that there are people who don’t like tomatoes.  My mind boggles.

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