HOME SWEET SOUTHERN HOME continued Mary Beth Voelker is a writer, a mother, a cook, a gardener, and a crafter. Though originally from Pittsburgh, she and her family kept coming back to North Carolina until God let them stay. She likes to say that while she has often been bored at work she has never been bored at home. HOME SWEET SOUTHERN HOME continued Stuffed Tomatoes by Mary Beth Voelker Fresh tomatoes from home gardens and farm markets are one of summer’s greatest pleasures. There’s nothing like a tomato sandwich for lunch or a plate of sliced tomatoes to make your dinner complete. But there’s only so many times you can eat the same thing, so here’s another idea to make the most of summer’s favorite crop – stuffed tomatoes. You can stuff any size tomatoes, but cherry tomatoes make the best appetizers, and medium-sized tomatoes make the best lunches, light suppers, and side dishes. Slice the top off, free the core with a very sharp paring knife, then scoop the seeds out with a spoon. If the tomato is very juicy, turn it upside down on a rack to drain for a few minutes. Probably my favorite stuffing is tuna salad, with or without a pinch of curry in the dressing and a sprinkle of shredded cheddar on top, but chicken or seafood salad are nearly as good. Cream cheese, pimento cheese, and hummus make good stuffing for cherry tomato appetizers. Tabouli salad or Texas caviar can be used to fill any size tomato while larger tomatoes hold a generous serving of Italian pasta salad. Be creative, lots of things taste good with fresh tomatoes. And if you’re short time, remember that many of the grocery stores in this area have excellent delis with delicious salads ready-made to fill your tomatoes. My Favorite Quick Dipping Sauce Mix ½ cup of mayonnaise with 1-2 tbs of Parmesan cheese; add garlic powder and freshground black pepper to taste. Thin with a little lemon juice and a dash of your favorite hot sauce. This is good to use on a fresh veggie tray or to serve with fried zucchini sticks or even chicken tenders. Save Money Cutting Meat Yourself Would you like to save at least a $1/lb on meat almost every time you shop? I’m serious. As I write, this one of our local grocery stores has boneless, skinless chicken breasts on sale for $2.97. But regular split chicken breasts, with the bones in and the skin on are only $1.97 on sale. A month or so ago at another sale I bought two packages of split breasts amounting to 5 breast halves and totaling 6.39/lbs. After less than 10 minutes of processing and a few hours of ignoring a simmering pot on the stove I had: 5 trimmed breast cutlets (1 3/4lbs), ready to make Chicken Parmesan, Chicken Florentine, Chicken Fried Chicken, or any other recipe calling for boneless chicken breasts, 1.25lbs chicken nuggets to either bread and fry as a superior option to fast-food or use in a stir-fry, 1qt chicken broth, and 1½ cups shredded cooked chicken to use with the broth in soup, pilaf, or chicken and dumplings. Sounds good, right? Split chicken breasts are one of the easiest cuts to process yourself at home. All you need HOME SWEET SOUTHERN HOME con't. next column HOME SWEET SOUTHERN HOME con't. next column is a thin, sharp knife, ideally a boning knife, a cutting board, and a small pot to drop the scraps. First, unpackage your meat and rinse it if it seems too slippery. Grasp the skin firmly and pull it off, working from the point of the breast to the round end. Drop the skin into the pot. Second, determine whether the breast has a portion of the breastbone or not. If so, slide the tip of your knife down beside the breastbone to free the meat there. Third, work your knife along the ribs, freeing the meat from the bones. Then drop the bones into the pot. At this point, after less than 2 minutes, you are exactly where you would have been buying a boneless, skinless chicken breast except a dollar per pound richer, not counting the value of the broth you’ll make from the scraps and the cooked meat to use with it. From here you can trim the boneless breast into a flat cutlet, butterfly it and pound it thin, or cut it up for chicken tenders or stir-fry meat. Cutting up a whole chicken is a little more challenging, but “How to Cut Up a Chicken” is available at food.com under the name 3killerbs. Again, you’ll save at least a $1/lb vs buying whole cut-up chickens. I also cut my own servings from other large pieces of meat. Recently I had a pork butt to deal with. The butcher had already sawn through the big bone so that it was in two halves when I opened the packaging. I packed the smaller half whole for Crockpot BBQ then started cutting. Using a long slicing knife I cut butt-steak slices ¾”, pork kebab chunks, and stir-fry meat leaving about 4lbs of meat around the bone for an oven roast. That was 5 family meals not counting leftover BBQ for lunches. A boneless pork loin is even easier than the split breasts. Just take it out of the plastic and slice boneless chops or thin pork cutlets. Leave 8-10 inches at the larger end for a roast if desired and cut some of the slices into cubes for kebabs or into strips for stir-fry. �� No. 127 The Pinehurst Gazette, Inc. p.11
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