The South of France

Ha! I wish I was in the South of France. I'll just have to settle for Salad Niçoise and fried green tomatoes. The salad is a go-to recipe around here. Even landlocked raised Inspector Gadget puts up with the tuna. He's lived in Florida longer than he lived in Indiana, and I've done my best to get him to like seafood, which he now does. That first raw oyster was sketchy, but he ate it. Fried clams at Howard Johnson's and tuna noodle casserole were his only childhood seafood dishes. Both are delicious, but nothing compared to the fresh (and frozen) seafood you can get in Florida.

The fried tomato recipe was new to me. My mom prepared them by dipping tomato slices in seasoned flour and frying until golden. The buttermilk, corn flour, cornmeal and flour were a nice change and gave the juicy tomatoes a nice crust. Hollywood is in heaven. It took two grocery stores and a trip to two produce markets to score some nice green tomatoes. I can usually find them year round, but I'm not sure why they were so elusive this week.

Miss Southern Thing was also craving boiled peanuts. Is that kid from the South or what?!

I also found some fresh and pretty radishes at the produce market. I went with a French preparation and simply sliced them, buttered the slices, and topped with pink Himalayan sea salt. Leave it to me to make vegetables fattening.

It's America's 236th birthday today. She's just a youngster compared to most countries. I think she looks wonderful and I'm proud to live here. I'm not sure what activity is planned today but you can be sure I'll be cooking up a few thing. Happy Fourth of July.