Fried Green Tomatoes for a special edition of #SecretRecipeClub

I am a little sad writing this post.  This is the very last special edition of the Secret Recipe Club. Next month, I will be writing my very last Secret Recipe Club post ever on my regularly assigned Monday.

Some of you may not be aware of this but my blog did not originally start out as a foodie blog.  It was more of a journal that I used to document my Life with Mom for whom I was caretaking during her final years as she we struggled through her battle with dementia/Alzheimer's disease.  I did share some recipes as well as the rest of my everyday life here on the farm but not nearly as many as I share currently.  I didn't belong to all the fabulous food and drink groups that I since have joined.

It all started with my friend, Amy, of Amy's Cooking Adventures.  Amy belonged to SRC and I read her blog faithfully.  I asked for information and found that I could request to join as soon as I had at least 100 recipes on my blog.  So, I started focusing more on food and soon I was accepted into this club.  That decision introduced me to all the other cooking groups to which I belong.  Needless to say, SRC holds a very dear spot in my heart.

When I first joined SRC, it was so large that there were 4 groups and a waiting list to be able to join.  As the years have gone on our numbers dwindled and we were downsized to 3 groups but given the opportunity to join in on special events during the months that held 5 Mondays.  These special events were assigned a theme and the blogger to whom you were assigned was not necessarily from you group.  It gave us a chance to meet members of the other groups and I enjoyed that very much.

This final Special SRC theme is Fall Dishes and I was lucky enough to be assigned to Kate of Thyme for Cooking.  Kate was born here in the Midwest area of the USA.  Since then she has spent time living in Ireland, Andorra ( a tiny country between France and Spain) and is currently residing in France.

Kate has an extensive library of recipes.  Knowing that I would get lost and confused without a roadmap, I decided to make a first course from Kate's blog.  That narrowed it down some but it was still a vast amount of recipes from which to choose.  Since our theme was Fall Flavors and I had decided to go savory rather than sweet.  I went to her subset of First Course Vegetables.

When I think Fall foods my mind turns to squash, cabbage, pumpkin, pears, apples, etc.  I started perusing the starters that Kate offered and found a Butternut Squash and Goat Cheese Polenta dish that sounds amazing.  The warm Acorn Squash and Walnut Salad also sounded delicious to me. Baby Pumpkins filled with Creamy Spinach nearly won the toss for this month.  In the end, I came across Kate's recipe for Fried Green Tomatoes, and my decision was made.  Our son in law, Pierre, had just given me a huge bag of late season tomatoes that were still green.  When I saw this recipe I knew that I wanted to make this popular dish that I had never tried.

I used Kate's recipe just as written, except that I seasoned the flour with salt and pepper, added some water to the beaten egg and made 8 slices of tomato as there were 4 for dinner and I wanted 2 slices per person.  You start by slicing the tomatoes and cheese.  Then you create a dredging station of seasoned flour, beaten egg and cornmeal.  The entire recipe only takes 10-15 minutes and it was a great starter that I served in lieu of a salad.

Make sure you stop by the other SRC Fall recipes being shared today.  You will find them right underneath my recipe.

Fried Green Tomatoes

slightly adapted from Thyme for Cooking

4 green tomatoes, sliced into 1/4" slices

1 T. olive oil

1/4 c. flour

salt and pepper to taste

1 egg

1 t. water

1/3 c. cornmeal 

8 slices fresh Mozzarella cheese

Heat olive oil in an oven safe pan over med high heat.  Place flour in a shallow bowl, season with salt and pepper.  Place egg and water in a second shallow bowl, beat with a fork.  Place cornmeal in a third shallow bowl.  Dredge the tomato pieces in the flour, dip them in the egg mixture and then dredge in the cornmeal.  Fry in the hot oil about 3 minutes, flip over and top with each with a slice of cheese.  Fry about 2 more minutes then place under a broiler until the cheese is melted.  Print Recipe

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