Whistlestop End to the Garden

After planting all the garlic and strawberries this weekend, I kept looking at the peppers and tomatoes.

I don't have the heart to pull them out yet.

There are tens of green tomatoes and dozens of all kinds of peppers. I have till the first frost before I try to overwinter the peppers - but I hacked away at them all today wondering if cutting back foliage would channel more energy to the fruits of my labor. . . And then. . . "Oh no. . . " I cut a vine with three of the largest green tomatoes I'd ever seen:

Welp, no time like the accident to work on the Fried Green Tomatoes recipe.

I watched a Paula Deen recipe where she used the air fryer - tweaked some things with what I had and. . . .

"Buttermilk":

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup whole milk

Juice from half a lemon

Three dashes of hot sauce

~ Combined and let sit for ten minutes - essentially making buttermilk.

1 large green tomato, slice 1/4 inch thick

~ Sliced tomato and salted with garlic salt.

~ Let tomato sit for ten minutes on a paper towel to draw all the moisture out.

Coating:

1/2 cup Panko crumbs

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup cornmeal

~ Combined all three.

~ Soaked drained tomatoes in the "buttermilk."

~ Dredged in Panko mixture pressing in the crumbs.

~ Sprayed both sides with Pam spray and air fried at 400 degrees.

~ Flipped every ten minutes.

~ Took about 23 minutes.

Brenna and I order these every year at Merchant's before heading to the Amy Grant/Vince Gill Christmas concert. They serve them with pimento cheese, so I made some with the jalapeño peppers from the garden.