Friday, July 29, 2011

Swimming, Cell Phones, and Scalloped Tomatoes



My husband Roger and I are soul mates. The two of us connected by email and phone for about four weeks before we ever met for the first time.

One of my favorite stories to tell is that the very first time we saw each other, in the parking lot of the place we decided to meet for drinks, Roger was on his cell phone. I saw him standing there, looking very handsome, beside a classic corvette. He intrigued me at that point. We had been talking for weeks, as I said, and already knew that we had many interests in common. He didn’t know, at that point, that I have a love of classic cars. And I didn’t know before that time that he drove one.

However, I was not the least bit intrigued that as I parked, he didn’t get off the cell phone. As I got out of my car, grabbed my pursed, locked up, and gave him the “hello there” smile, he still didn’t get off the cell phone! Standing there for what felt like a millennium, I was running through my options. Should I go inside, let him follow if he wants to, and just enjoy myself? Should I get in my car and leave? Should I walk over and plant a kiss on him that would surely get him off that phone?

But what if I went inside and he didn’t follow? What if I left and didn’t have the satisfaction of him calling me back so I could ignore the phone call? What if I kissed him and HE left? Those second guesses of mine saved him, because suddenly, he was off the phone and quickly walking my way with an apology. Later I discovered that he was helping a very good friend through a tough divorce. At the time, however, I didn’t know that and I wasn’t impressed at all with his manners.

After a bit of small talk, we decided on dinner before drinks. The restaurant is what I would call a “hole in the wall,” with booths that have the occasional split, tables that rock and decor that was out of style in the 50s. It is also one of the best known restaurants in Jackson (Mississippi) and absolutely the best seafood in our area. They sat us in a booth in the back and I was immediately mesmerized with the man.

Let’s face it, first dates are almost always uncomfortable as you find your feet on what to talk about while gauging the other person’s beliefs and hang ups and expectations. For this date, there was none of that. From the moment we sat down, I felt like I was talking to my best friend. It felt as though I had known this man forever. Truth be told, I fell in love there in the back booth at Mayflower Cafe.

That was eight years ago and Roger and I are still soul mates. This wasn’t the first marriage for either of us. We are both more than a little set in our ways and we definitely have butt heads in our journey together. The things that keep us grounded are our mutual love of my children and the fact that we have so much in common.

Roger and I both have a love of cookbooks. He was a cookbook collector before I ever met him, and I’m sure that my job, at the time, as Associate Publisher of Quail Ridge Press (well-known cookbook publisher) may have been part of why he was interested in speaking to me in first place. Over the years, this love of cookbooks has grown between us into our own business publishing cookbooks. Much of our free time is spent reading, talking about, and cooking out of cookbooks of all kinds – including, now, our own cookbooks.

This past weekend, Roger and I took our youngest son, Nicholas, and two of his friends to a local swimming resort. The boys were happy to swim and paddle boat and canoe on their own, so Roger and I did what we do best... collaborate on cookbooks. This particular day Roger was building a new website for ebooks and I was researching cookbooks as ebooks. I discovered a great site called scribd.com that has scores of ebooks available for reading online. As a lover of books of all kinds, I was immediately obsessed.

Eventually getting around to searching for cookbooks, I discovered one called Grandma Rogers Cookbook. It’s a cookbook from the 1950s uploaded by Lisa Welsh Ritter. Everything from the layout, to the ads, and of course the recipes, immediately intrigued me. In another post, I’ll tell you what I discovered, that I never knew, about wedding cakes reading this book, but for now we’ll talk about Scalloped Tomatoes.

Before looking at this antique cookbook, I had never made, eaten or even heard of Scalloped Tomatoes. It took only reading the title to know I would love it, and so would my family. It just so happened that I had a healthy supply of tomatoes, fresh from the garden, on my kitchen counter. So as soon as we got home, I started cooking. I changed the recipe up a good bit to meet the style and taste of our cookbooks.

It was delicious... my soul mate agreed... and well he should after I forgave him for that day so long ago that he wouldn’t even get off the cell phone long enough to meet me for the first time!

Here is the recipe... I hope you enjoy it too!

Scalloped Tomatoes
1 medium sweet onion, peeled and sliced
Salt and pepper
1 stick butter, divided
1 cup milk
1/4 cup plain flour
3 ripe tomatoes, sliced
1 1/2 cups breadcrumbs

Add sliced onions to a skillet; salt and pepper to taste. Add 1/2 stick butter and cook over medium-low heat until onions are soft (not brown). Layer onions in a glass baking dish. Melt remaining ½ stick butter in small saucepan over medium heat. Add milk and heat. Whip in flour and heat until thick; remove from heat. Whisk in 1/3 cup water (omit if sauce is not thick) and 1 teaspoon salt, set aside. Layer tomato slices over onion and cover with white sauce. Top with breadcrumbs and bake at 350° for 40 minutes.

South Carolina Hometown Cookbook (coming soon)---- Sheila Simmons is publisher at Great American Publishers and author of the State Hometown Cookbook Series. She lives in Lena, Mississippi with her husband Roger and two sons, Ryan and Nicholas. In addition to publishing, cooking, and collecting recipes Sheila enjoys family, reading, collecting first edition books, and classic cars