When I was growing up the family always had a big garden at my grandma's. By the time I came along most garden produce was frozen, but Mama still canned a few things, mainly because the family preferred them canned as opposed to frozen. Mama would can corn, peaches and tomatoes. We ate a lot of Mama's canned tomatoes, especially in the winter months. Mama would use them for making chili, vegetable soup, breaded tomatoes ands sometimes Daddy would just pour some in a bowl and eat them with a spoon. To be honest, I still like eat canned tomatoes that way even today. But my favorite way to eat Mama's home canned tomatoes was macaroni and tomatoes. Mama is gone now, but after much trial and error I've finally recreated her recipe. It makes a good side dish, but I'll often have it for the whole meal with a pan of crusty cornbread to go with it.
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2-3 tbsp. butter
3 14-oz. cans of tomatoes (I use no salt diced tomatoes)
4 cups cooked macaroni
salt and pepper to taste
Heat the butter and fry the onion until it starts to brown a bit, then add the tomatoes and bring to a boil. Finally, add the cooked macaroni, salt and pepper to taste. Allow to sit a few minutes before eating. It calls out for a pan of cornbread to eat with it.
Breaded Tomatoes
4-6 slices of white bread, cut into cubes and dried in the oven until lightly brown
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 14-oz cans of tomatoes (no salt diced tomatoes is what I use)
salt and pepper to taste
3 tbsp. butter
Heat the butter and then fry the onion until it begins to brown. Add the tomatoes and simmer a few minutes. Just before serving, stir in the dried bread cubes, salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!
