Signs of the Season – dealing with tomatoes and snow

You can tell it’s winter in Michigan by looking at the tomatoes in the grocery store.

You can also tell it’s winter in Michigan by the ghastly amounts of snow, but that’s another story.

At first glance, these tomatoes seem fine, but take a close look at their freakish pink color, their hothouse sameness and their bizarre uniformity. Something is wrong. I think it’s lack of sun and dirt.

Anyway, it will be August before you know it and we will have glorious tomatoes straight from our very own garden in no time – lush red, nothing forced, each fruit a unique and exquisite individual.  

In the meantime, more shoveling, more dark days, more sweaters…..and more dealing with tomatoes from, well, who knows where.

If you find yourself with a dozen rock hard, flavorless, mealy tomatoes, I highly suggest you follow my example:

Remove the skins by coring the tomato and dropping them into gently boiling water for a minute or so. The skins should easily peel off. Scrape out the flavorless guts of the tomato. Slather them in olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until some color is appearing on the tomatoes. You are creating flavor!

I tossed mine over some garlicky pasta. I threw in some fresh spinach for good measure – Delicious!