♫Only Two Things that Money Can't Buy♪

...and that's true love and homegrown tomatoes.

A great song by Guy Clark and so true, but home grown tomatoes in August are way beyond great. In a normal year they are the best thing about August in Ohio, though this year the weather is giving them a run for their money.

The above plate contains both a red and a yellow heirloom tomato, two day old, fresh mozzarella, just picked basil, a touch of sea salt and some extra virgin olive oil (pressed in January 2008). The tomatoes were treated like wine, chilled to a cool room temperature without being cold. The cheese was warmed to the same temperature. The result was a beautiful plate whose beauty was only exceeded by its taste. Health food at its finest.

The tomatoes were grown in a friend' s garden and I stopped on the way home from work to pick them. The basil was from my front yard and the cheese was made on Saturday. It's hard to be much fresher than that.

I added an ear of fresh, white corn and a pan roasted, small, wild, Alaskan salmon fillet and a glass of 2006 Firesteed pinot noir from Oregon. All good.