Volt/Big White Barn Heirloom Tomato Festival a Big Disappointment

Bryan Voltaggio preparing heirloom tomato and shrimp ceviche with dehydrated tomato cotton candy and tomato dippin dotsI think it's in my blood to love tomatoes--my great-grandfather actually wrote a book on tomatoes aptly called "the Tomato."  I was really, really excited to go to the first ever heirloom tomato festival at the Big White Barn in Frederick, Maryland.  What a disappointment!

I've never run an heirloom tomato festival before, let alone attended one, but I know if I was in charge I would ensure that my featured centerpiece was perfect.  I don't claim to be a tomato expert, but I do know that you should never ever refrigerate tomatoes.  It ruins the texture and the flavor of the fruit (yes, technically, a tomato is a fruit).  Unfortunately, all of the tomatoes were pre-cut and preserved in coolers.  It was incredibly difficult to taste the differences in the varieties, and sadly most of the tomatoes tasted terrible.

I was also excited to try the heirloom tomato bloody Marys.  Sadly, I wasn't enough of a lush to get one as soon as we arrived at the festival and by the time I decided to try one at 3:00 (the festival started at 2) the guy in front of me literally was served the last one.  I guess I'll have to experiment and make one at home.

Thankfully, it wasn't all bad.  It was a beautiful day and the farm is lovely.  Volt restaurant prepared a really interesting concoction--a heirloom tomato and shrimp ceviche, topped with heirloom tomato "dippin dots" and dehydrated tomato cotton enjoying an heirloom tomato popsicle (yes, the chefs are making fun of me because I ate so many!)candy.  The ceviche wasn't anything special, but the dippin dots and the cotton candy were amazing.  The cotton candy had an intense tomato flavor and the combination of the sweet ice cream with a little bit of salt in the cotton candy was delicious.  My favorite part was tasting Restaurant Nora's heirloom tomato popsicles.  The heirloom tomato juice was sweetened with a bit of agave syrup.  I shamelessly kept on going back for seconds (and thirds and fourths).  As much as I loved the popsicles, they weren't worth the $50 admission fee.  Yes, I do have sucker written on my forehead.

Now Brought To You In Glorious Technicolor!!!

Check out the first ever klutz in the kitchen video on YouTube:

I'm demonstrating how to make homemade pasta (click this link for the recipe).

Apparently, you can also subscribe to the Klutz in the Kitchen channel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDvnNU1jMEw

Hopefully this link works (i'm very much a novice with YouTube).  Apologies if you get a little bit seasick--we still need to purchase a tripod for our flip camera!

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

our hungry boys, Alex and Wyatt. So far, they are not picky eaters!so having babies isn't quite as easy as it looks.  The boys are only seven weeks old, but I've already learned quite a bit about cooking with kids:

• I always thought I would love to have big eaters, but boy can these kids eat!  They eat about 10-15% of their body weight every day. just imagine what you would look like if you ate that much....
• I have new respect for cows and goats and any other animals that are milked.  enough said.
• Kitchen helpers!Thank goodness for friends (and daddies, and grandparents, and random strangers on the street who offer to help).  If I could divide myself into three people and grow extra sets of hands, I might be ok.  Luckily I have great helpers since I haven't figured out how to do that yet.
• it is much harder to cook when your day is divided into one hour increments of "free time."
• Cook things ahead of time so you can eat at somewhat normal intervals.  I learned this the hard way.  By the time I finished cooking our dinner after the twins finished theirs, it would be 9:30 or 10:00 at night...just in time for the twins to eat again.  oh the positive side, not eating is a good way to lose all that extra baby weight!
• Making stewed peaches with WyattIt is possible to cook while holding a baby, although it requires extra caution and a warm bath for you and the baby after you finish cooking.

Although I have been delinquent about posting, I actually have been able to spend a decent amount of time in the kitchen.  I love summer cooking.  Simple meals are a great way to showcase the naturally delicious flavors of local ingredients.  We have had lots of salad, grilled corn, and tomato sandwiches.  I have made some more complicated recipes; however, I think the days of spending hours in the kitchen are over at least for a little bit.  and on that note, I am being beckoned.  Check out the recipe page for some updates!