Tomatoes | Gherkins & Tomatoes

Tomato and tomato gravy dark contrasts 2

* The Legacy of a Typo: A Meditation on Tomato Gravy

January 21, 2013 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Stirring the flour into bacon drippings, creating a blond roux, and sautéing finely chopped yellow onions in the mixture turned out to be quite an adventure. No, I didn’t burn myself – for once – on the lethal combination of hot fat and flour. No, in the seemingly simple and slow act of making tomato gravy, to serve over biscuits or fried chicken, I started thinking about the role of gravy in Southern cooking, and by extension, in American cooking […]

Categories: Cookbooks, England, Gardens, Local foods, Photography, Southern Food, Tomatoes • Tags: Colin Spencer, Cuisine of the Southern United States, Kate Burridge, Mary Randolph, Southern cooking, The Virginia House-wife, Thomas Jefferson, Tomatoes

With Time and Frost, Things Fall Apart

November 5, 2012 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Fall can be a bittersweet time, a time to look forward to cool-crisp nights, hearty meat-and root-vegetable stews, and the smell of burning leaves, that is, you’re allowed to burn them where you live. On the other hand, the coming of fall and frost signifies the end of the growing season, and the beginning of fallow time. The life force fades from the trees as their iridescent leaves drop. But it’s in the garden where the change in temperature registers […]

Categories: Agriculture, Chile Peppers, Gardens, Herbs, Photography, Tomatoes • Tags: Gardens, Jalapeños, Lavender, Photography, Tomatoes

Tomatoes on the Vine (Photo courtesy of L. Wilcoxen)

Tomatoes, Dust, and a Tasty Soupçon of Africa, Too

July 20, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

My nose burned a little and an odd sensation on my forehead no doubt meant more freckles popping out. I didn’t care. I sat right where I wanted to be on that late August day, in the dirt between two rows of leafy tomato plants. Red globes of all sizes dangled like Christmas ornaments from the plants, the vines sinking into the dust from all that ripe weight.

Categories: Africa, Chicken, Chile Peppers, Food Columns, Recipes, Tomatoes • Tags: Africa, Chicken, Food, Habanero, Hot Peppers, Recipes, Tomatoes

Becoming Italian

August 11, 2008 by Cynthia Bertelsen

I’m hardly Italian. Nowhere near it. With a family tree first planted in America in 1632, a seedling from a village not far from Norwich, England, we’ve been in the New World so long that we have no ethnic ties or traditions at all. But for some reason, Italian food and culture and history tapped something in my soul. Through my pots and pans, I’ve adopted Italy’s cooking. And dreams of idyllic Italian style. My house walls glow terra-cotta red in the morning sun. Rows of rosemary, oregano, and mint sprawl in my garden. And I collect Italian cookbooks like a money-mad King Midas wallowing in gold coins.

Categories: Beef, Food Columns, Italian Cooking, Pasta, Recipes, Tomatoes • Tags: Beef, Cooks, Food, Italian Cooking, Pasta, Tomatoes

Gherkins & Tomatoes

Meditations and Photographs about Food, Cooking, and Life

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* The Legacy of a Typo: A Meditation on Tomato Gravy

With Time and Frost, Things Fall Apart

Tomatoes, Dust, and a Tasty Soupçon of Africa, Too

Becoming Italian

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