Herbed Tomato Salad

I made the most delicious tomato salad for lunch on Sunday and I made it with herbs I had grown all by myself. I'm so very proud! You may remember that earlier in the spring I took on an ambitious gardening project trying to grow flowers and herbs from seeds. My very good friend Cathy (hi Cathy!) had given me a bunch of seedlings that she had started, and to that group I added my own started seedlings, hoping that somewhere, deep within my being was the soul of a gardener. Well, I'm sad to report that the soul of a gardener I do not posess, most of the little seedlings never made it. I'm not sure if it was something I did or didn't do, or that it's just really hard to grow things from seeds, or a combination of both, either way, I was distraught over the heavy losses.

Some of the seedlings did prove a little more hardy than the others and showed potential as long as I took the time and nurtured them properly. I repotted them, fertilized them and moved them to a bright, sunny location on our front deck. I let the Little Girl smell them and touch them VERY gently, her smiles and coos beamed down upon them, I watered them diligently every weekend and hoped that the rain would take care of them the rest of the week, and quietly wished that something would grow. Well, I'm happy to report that my efforts have been rewarded. I am the proud mommy of a few very lush, healthy container crops of basil, sweet marjoram, oregano, French thyme, rosemary, sage, garlic chives, dill, and lemon balm.

To celebrate my crop of herbs, (my very first herbs!), I made a tomato salad with 2 large vine ripened tomatoes that I had purchased from a farm stand earlier that morning. I sliced the tomatoes into chunks, drizzled them with some dark green, extra-virgin olive oil, added a drop of balsamic vinegar to bring out the sweetness of the tomatoes, then added some red wine vinegar to taste, salt and pepper, sliced red onion also purchased from the farm stand and a mince of fresh basil (mostly basil), oregano, marjoram and sage. I tossed until everything was well coated and then we dug in. I ate mine as a main meal with a hunk of bread, (a failed baguette recipe, but I could not bear to throw the bread out so I endured the tough texture and salty flavor) and Tom ate his as a side dish to his grilled burger. We were in food heaven and we were both very sorry when the salad was gone, luckily there are plenty more herbs so we may make and eat this for the rest of the summer. weeee!

Written by Deb on July 26, 2004 01:32 AM