In California and Florida, the two states that grow the most tomatoes, you can probably get a fresh tomato in April and most certainly in June. But people in the majority of the U.S. will have to make do with cherry tomatoes or less flavorful locals or imports until the peak summer tomatoes arrive.

Everyone knows that the most lush, juicy, locally-grown, and freshly-picked tomatoes are available nationwide in August. So why promote tomatoes when the best ones are out of season?*

Thus, for the first time, THE NIBBLE is declaring its own food holiday. For us, August is National Tomato Month!

Whatever the time of day, there’s something delicious to be made with fresh tomatoes—even cocktails.

There are lots of recipes that do well with canned tomatoes. Don’t waste pricey fresh tomatoes on them. Instead, go for uncooked or lightly cooked recipes, where the fresh tomato taste sings.

Our summertime favorite is a simple combination of heirloom tomatoes, goat cheese, fresh basil, olive oil and balsamic vinegar (a Caprese salad with chèvre instead of mozzarella).

Tomato crostini, with both red and yellow tomatoes. The recipe is below. Photo courtesy Gaea Olive Oil.

 
 
FRESH TOMATOES FOR LUNCH

 
 
FRESH TOMATOES WITH SOUP & SALAD

 
 
 
RECIPE: SUMMER BRUSCHETTA OR CROSTINI (PHOTO AT TOP OF PAGE)

Bruschetta and crostini are popular hors d’oeuvres that are easy to make. They also can be served as a first course or a light meal, with salad and/or soup.

The difference between them is the size of the slice, plus grilling versus toasting. Bruschetta is made from a loaf of bread that’s three or four inches in diameter; the bread is then grilled. Crostini are cut from a loaf about two inches in diameter and toasted rather than grilled.

Can you toast a larger slice and grill a smaller one? Go for it!

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. CUT the tomatoes into triangular pieces (see photo at top of page) and place them in a bowl. Chiffonade the basil leaves and add to the tomatoes. Season lightly with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, plus salt to taste.

2. SPREAD the goat cheese on plain or lightly toasted baguette slices. If not using cheese, brush the slices lightly with olive oil. Top with the dressed tomatoes and basil. Finish with a grind of fresh pepper.
 
 
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*The answer: This happens with quite a few fresh foods. Companies and trade associations are eager to get publicity for their products and don’t want to wait for an appropriate month. The government officials who approve the holiday, from local to federal, just rubber-stamp the petition. Sometimes, producers especially want publicity in the off-season when their products don’t sell well. That’s why June is National Turkey Month and February 6th is National Frozen Yogurt Day. These two are no big deal because you can get a good turkey or frozen yogurt anytime. But apricots are a summer fruit, so why is January 9th National Apricot Day? Why is February Berry Fresh Month—and so on, and so on? When we began THE NIBBLE in 2004, the concept was to match our content not just to American holidays (Christmas, St. Patrick’s Day, etc.) but to the hundreds of officially sanctioned daily/monthly food holidays. We also chose to promote food seasonally. But on an out-of-season holiday like National Apricot Day, all we can promote are apricot jam and apricot nectar!
 
 

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The first is from the National Watermelon Promotion Board, Watermelon.org.

RECIPE: WATERMELON PIZZA

Ingredients For 6 Servings

Pizza for dessert! Photo courtesy National Watermelon Promotion Board.

1. DRAIN the watermelon round on paper towels to remove the excess moisture. Place on a serving platter and cut into 6 wedges, leaving them in the shape of a pizza.

2. SPREAD the preserves (the “sauce” on top and sprinkle the toppings over the preserves. It’s ready to serve!

RECIPE: WATERMELON KIWI PIZZA

The second watermelon pizza couldn’t be easier. If you like, you can add on additional fruits—whatever you have on hand, from stone fruit slices (peaches, nectarines, plums, etc.) to orange segments.

Without the chocolate chips, coconut, raisins and walnuts, it qualifies as a “diet dessert.”

Ingredients For 6 Servings

1. DRAIN the watermelon round on paper towels to remove the excess moisture. Place on a serving platter and cut into 6 wedges, leaving them in the shape of a pizza.

2. PEEL and slice the kiwi. Place on slice on each watermelon wedge. Sprinkle with optional coconut.
  

The recipe to make your own pimento cheese is below, following the history of pimento cheese.

October 11th is Southern Food Heritage Day. April 9th is National Pimento Cheese Day.

> Pimento cheese recipes are below.

> The history of cheese.

> The different types of cheese: a glossary.
 
 
THE HISTORY OF PIMENTO CHEESE

Today’s combination of grated Cheddar cheese, mayonnaise, seasonings and finely diced red pimento (the Americanized spelling of the Spanish pimiento, red bell pepper) started in the North as a cream cheese-based spread.

It blended the newly-introduced blocks of cream cheese with canned pimentos, newly imported from Spain.

The two ingredients may have been first combined by home economists, women who developed new recipes, and other tips for homemakers that were eagerly read in books, magazines, newspapers, and on product labels.

In the 1870s, New York State farmers began to make a soft, unripened cheese modeled after the French Neufchâtel cheese.

Within a few decades, a recipe for cream cheese appeared, made by mixing cream into the Neufchâtel curd. The new soft cheese was molded into small wood block forms.

Because the city of Philadelphia had a reputation for fine food, a New York-based manufacturer, Phenix Cheese Company, named its product Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese.

It was the leading brand then as now (J.L. Kraft and Bros., established in 1909, acquired Phenix Cheese Company in 1930; the company is now called Kraft Foods Group).

Philadelphia Brand actually sold two kinds of flavored cream cheese in addition to the original plain: Chive and Pimento.

All three were staples in our home.

 
 
THE PIMENTO CHEESE SANDWICH TAKES HOLD

The cream cheese/pimento spread became a standard on tea sandwiches, and spread (no pun intended) from the tea party set to the working class.

It found its way onto lunch carts, along with the egg salad and ham and cheese sandwiches; and into sandwich shops and diners.

The first printed recipe unearthed so far is in Good Housekeeping magazine in 1908, for a sandwich filled that blended softened cream cheese, minced pimentos, mustard, and chives.

The following year, the Up-to-Date Sandwich Book published a simpler version: Neufchâtel cheese with chopped pimentos and a bit of salt on lightly buttered white bread.

Before World War I, dozens of similar recipes appeared in magazines and cookbooks.

Soon after World War I, southern farmers began growing pimentos. Locals mixed the canned domestic pimentos with grated Cheddar instead of cream cheese, which was then less available in the southern states.

In the South, pimento cheese remains a choice on tea room menus, sliced into triangles; and as a finger sandwich with cocktails.

Commercial brands of pimento cheese can be found in most supermarkets, to be spread on crackers at home. Every home cook has his or her favorite recipe.
 
 
HOW TO SERVE IT ALL DAY

#1: PIMENTO CHEESE FOR BREAKFAST

If you want a taste of the original pimento cheese, you’ll have to blend your own diced pimentos into cream cheese.

But if you want to embrace Southern-style pimento cream cheese, here’s how to do it, along with a recipe to make your own Cheddar-based pimento cheese:

 
 
#2: PIMENTO CHEESE FOR LUNCH & DINNER

 
 
#3: PIMENTO CHEESE FOR HORS D’OEUVRE & SNACKS

 

RECIPE: PIMENTO CHEESE SPREAD

You can find recipes made with Cheddar, Cheddar-cream cheese blends, and other cheeses. This one sticks with classic Cheddar.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE the mayonnaise, pimiento, Worcestershire sauce, onion, and cayenne in a large bowl. Stir in the cheese.

2. CHILL in the refrigerator to let the flavors meld. Serve at room temperature. The spread can be stored in the fridge for up to 1 week.
 
Variations

 
 
> THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF CHEESE
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF CHEESE

[2] Don’t forget the hot dog, here topped with pimento cheese and some fresh jalapenos (photos #2 and #3 © Birdie’s Pimento Cheese).

[3] A pimento cheese and bacon sandwich on a biscuit.

[4] A pimento cheese quiche (photo © Callie’s Hot Little Biscuits | Facebook).

[5] Party perfect: a pimento cheese ball Here’s the recipe. (photos #4 and #8 © Wisconsin Cheese).

[6] With wine, beer or cocktails: pimento cheese and crackers, toasts or sliced baguette. Here, we used artisan nut bread (photo by Katharine Pollak | © THE NIBBLE).

[7] Pimento cheese with crudites (photo © 33 Greenwich | NYC [now closed])

[8] For entertaining or snacking: a crock of pimento cheese and sliced baguette or toasts.

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For National Watermelon Day, August 3rd, try a salted watermelon milkshake.

Salt with watermelon? Actually, as a pinch of salt helps most foods, it’s an old trick to bring out more flavor (here, sweetness) in the watermelon.

This recipe is courtesy of The Milk Shake Factory in Pittsburgh. It requires watermelon sorbet; but if you can’t find it or don’t want to make it (here’s a watermelon sherbet recipe), substitute strawberry or raspberry sorbet.

Or, make an easy watermelon granita with this watermelon granita recipe, minus the basil. No ice cream maker is used; just watermelon, sugar, water, lemon juice and an ice cube tray.

Prep time for the milkshake is 10 minutes.
 
 
RECIPE: SALTED WATERMELON MILKSHAKE

Ingredients For 1 Large Or 2 Small Servings

Salted watermelon milkshake. Photo courtesy The Milk Shake Factory | Pittsburgh.

1. COMBINE the watermelon sherbet, milk, watermelon slices and a pinch of sea salt in a blender. Blend until the sherbet and watermelon slices break down, approximately 45 seconds. Add the soda water and blend 10 seconds more.

2. POUR the mixture into a 20-ounce drinking glass or two 10-ounce glasses. Garnish with mini chocolate chips and skewer the watermelon wedge, or notch it deeply and anchor it to the rim of the glass. Serve immediately.
  

Ice cream sandwich sundae (photo © Grand Hyatt Hotel | NYC).

We love this ice cream sandwich sundae, served at the New York Central Bar and Kitchen, located in the Grand Hyatt Hotel right above Manhattan’s Grand Central Terminal.

You can make it at home by adapting New York Central Bar & Kitchen’s recipe with your own favorite flavors.

Theirs combines summery flavors and colors:

 
What’s your preference?
 
 
ICE CREAM SANDWICH HISTORY

According to the New York Times, the American ice cream sandwich was born in the Bowery neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in the early 1899s.

In an article in The New York Tribune in July 1900, the pushcart vendor who was selling the sandwiches was so busy pressing them into a tin mold to order, that he didn’t have time to make change. He insisted that customers pay the exact price of one cent.

The treat was revolutionary: hand-held and portable (the cone had not yet taken hold).

An earlier predecessor, without the wafers, was a slice of vanilla ice cream cut from a larger slab by Italian street vendors in London. It was known as an “okey-pokey,” the English adaptation of the vendors’ Italian phrase, “o che poco,” meaning “oh, how little [money].” The name which gave way to the “Hokey Pokey” song.

The modern ice cream sandwich that we know, a slice of vanilla between two rectangular chocolate wafers, was invented in 1945 by Jerry Newberg, who sold ice cream sandwiches at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.

By the time we were kids, Nestlé’s ice cream sandwich was our favorite treat from the corner grocer’s ice cream case. (Our tastes have evolved to more premium goods.)

Who ever thought the ice cream sandwich of childhood would become this elite?

 
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*Source: Sugar and Snow: A History of Ice Cream Making by Jeri Quinzi.