Tuna-Stuffed Tomatoes

I didn't grow up to be a tea-sandwiches-with-the-crusts-cut-off kind of gal.  In fact, in high school, my standard sassy line to my own mother whenever she (frequently) got on my nerves was a question about whether she really wanted me to be just like Tricia Nixon, sitting primly at a ladies tea eating white bread sandwiches with the crusts cut off. Fast forward a few decades and here I am, happily cutting off the crusts for tea sandwiches for a baby shower for the daughter of one of my close friends. 

The menu for the shower was tea party foods. I volunteered to make tea sandwiches (of course) and small scones, along with lemon mousse. Although there were several types of sandwiches, I felt as though the menu needed a colorful, vegetable-based dish.

The stuffed tomatoes idea came to me as I strolled down the produce aisle and realized that Campari tomatoes are the perfect size for stuffing – big enough to easily hollow out, but not so big that the stuffing would be an overwhelming amount of food. Campari tomatoes are bigger than cherry tomatoes and smaller than regular ones. They are typically sold on a stem, in a hard shell plastic box.  As you can see, they are slightly larger than a large-size egg.

This recipe is gluten and dairy-free, a simple but elegant brunch, lunch, or tea-time dish.  

Tuna-Stuffed Tomatoes

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Caviar Pie

Don’t be put off by the name of this appetizer.  Although the words caviar and pie may seem incongruous, in this case they meld beautifully together.  Think elegance and home-cooking goodness, joined in the best kind of edible yin-and-yang.  The recipe comes form my friend Jamie, who in turn got it from her mother.  

The elegant, colorful layers display at the beginning only on the outside of the pie.  But as you cut into it, they show all the way through.  The presentation is lovely, but that's only part of the package here.  In each small bite of pie, you get tastes of each layer that are distinct, complementary, and addictively combined all at the same time.   

I worried momentarily about overselling this dish.  Then I remembered Saturday night when I brought it to a potluck.  I couldn’t get any good pictures because of the crowd around it.  In a flash the pie was gone, and all I had was an empty plate and friends asking me for the recipe.

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Holidays left you with hard-boiled eggs? Make egg salad!

I can’t imagine Passover and Easter without boiled eggs.  

I call this my Roy Lichtenstein egg.

If you have leftovers and can’t bear the thought of eating them plain, egg salad is a great option.  If you don’t have leftover eggs, keep reading anyway.  Egg salad is inexpensive and can be easily adapted to your palate or ethnic food craving.  I'm not even going to price out the cost of egg salad. It's just a bit more than the cost of the eggs, which is less $1 for two eggs, even if you buy organic, cage-free eggs from hens who were hopefully prancing merrily around the barnyard.

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