Fried Green Tomatoes with Homemade Buttermilk Dressing

A few years ago for our 9th wedding anniversary Jeremy and I spent the week without kids in Savannah, Georgia.  One of the highlights of our trip was on the last night when we attended Chef Joe Randall's cooking school.  The food was to die for and Chef Joe sent us home with all of the recipes.  Our favorite is fried green tomatoes with homemade buttermilk dressing.  I have simplified and adapted the recipe to our taste and it has become a family favorite.  It also gets rave reviews by everyone I make it for.  Please know that this is not Chef Joe’s recipe but his inspired mine.

To start with you need

Green Tomatoes

Slice the tomatoes about a 1/4 in. thick

Next and this is VERY important

lay the slices out flat and sprinkle with salt.

Leave them flat for 20 minutes to an hour.

After that blot all the excess water that the salt pulls out with paper towels.

Flip and start over.

You will use lots of paper towels and if you are cheap like me this

WILL

make you crazy.

That is until you taste the first tomato, at that point you will throw the whole roll of paper towels in the trash and never think about them again.

Mix an egg with 1/2 cup of buttermilk.  Dip the tomatoes into this mixture.

Mix 1/2 cup of cornmeal

1/2 cup flour

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon red pepper

(note- this is spicy)

Dip the tomatoes into it.

Then fry in very hot peanut oil, a couple of minutes on each side.

Drain well and place on a plate covered in a paper towel.

(Yes, that is fried squash in the background….DON’T JUDGE)

Up Next,

Buttermilk Dressing

1 cup Duke's Mayo

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 cloves of garlic

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

2 teaspoons fresh parsley

2 teaspoons fresh basil

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cracked black pepper

put all of this in a Mason jar and shake well.

Drizzle the tomatoes with the homemade buttermilk dressing

and

Enjoy

Cha Cha

Friendship

The other day I commented on this picture by my friend Sibi

My comment was:

How is it you make the most simple things stunning.  Glad I am your friend and I can feel stunning when near you.

If you don’t know I am NOT the type of person who leaves comments,  I do NOT often feel I have anything of value to add to what is already there.  This picture was different, it captured my attention and held it.  I looked at it searching, searching out every detail.  The longer I stared at it the more my heart was captivated.  These are simple things, alone they would not be impressive but together they are stunning.

TOGETHER THEY ARE STUNNING!

Sibi has a gift for making everything around her beautiful.  I have been a guest in her home, I have attended an event she has put together, and I have spent countless hours on the phone with her and after each I feel more beautiful.

Do you have friends who make you feel more beautiful?  

- Friends who will fuss and fluff until you are more beautiful

- Friends who you know WILL pray when you ask

- Friends who are praying when you don’t have the strength to ask

- Friends who will not allow you to be complacent

- Friends who see more in you and for you than you dare dream.

- Friends who see God in you and are thankful for it

- Friends who push you to press into God harder

- Friends who God has used to change you

I prayed for these types of friendships for years and today I am blessed and thankful to have them.  With them in my life…….my life has become more beautiful…...STUNNING.  With them in my life I am no longer one simple girl----we are a stunning arrangement. One that God can and does use for His glory.

Thank you Sibi for once again using your gifts to add beauty to my life.  You are a blessing.

Thank you to all my friends for being a gift given from God.  For each of you I am thankful.

Cha Cha