Tomato tragedy

During my less nutritionally oriented college years, most of the food that I bought at the grocery store, including dinners, side dishes, and snacks, came in boxes. The exception was ice cream--I go for the primo stuff in the pint-sized cartons--but we'll leave ice cream out of the discussion, as its nutritional value is debatable.

After I graduated from college, I ventured outside the boxed world and bought food with expiration dates--what a novel idea. I tried a pepper for the first time at age 24 and realized that it was time to enter a brave new vegetable world.

Since then, I've been incorporating additional vegetables into my diet, but never the tomato. It had a suspicious texture and unusual flavor, and I avoided it at all costs.

I avoided the tomato until our honeymoon in France, that is. One night, B ordered a tomato and mozzarella appetizer, and I was feeling adventurous and world traveler-y, so I tried it--and wow. I couldn't believe I had been avoiding the deliciousness and amazingness that is the tomato. Granted, the mozzarella and aged balsalmic vinaigrette contributed to the bold flavors of the dish, but the tomato held its own against those competitive ingredients.

Since the 'moon, I've been dabbling in--even seeking out--tomatoes. I no longer remove them from my salads, and I even add them to burgers. This summer, we've gone so far as to have tomato side dishes at dinner.

And then this tomato/salmonella situation struck--disaster! I've only just discovered tomatoes, and now I'm supposed to avoid them? I think not! Cherry and grape tomatoes and tomatoes on the vine are allegedly safe, and they're conveiently the types of tomatoes that we buy, so there's no need for a tomato moratorium, so far. I don't think we'd survive without them. The main attraction at last night's dinner was a pint of cherry tomatoes (halved), a couple of tomatoes on the vine (cubed), a ball of mozzarella (cubed), and a delicious balsalmic sauce that B concocted. We ate the entire (enormous) bowl--and it was heaven.

Salmonella be darned! Bring on the tomatoes!