My mom would drive us down in the country to visit our hillbilly kin (Ozarks, yes Beverly Hillbillies territory) and she was expert at cheap delicious picnics. She'd put an assortment of shasta sodas and a loaf of bread in the trunk, then stop at some farmers stand and buy huge tomatoes and big sweet yellow or white onions. We'd stop anywhere there was shade, sometimes we just stood around the open trunk. She'd slice huge thick slices of sun warm tomato and onion and layer them thick on the sandwich, it would drip as you tried to eat it. The squish and crunch, tart and sweet, great contrasts. Sometimes if you arrived unannounced, our kin would go in their root cellar or pantry, get tomatoes and onions, slice them up on plates and fan some bread out on the table and everyone sat down to eat. Some people salt and pepper, but we didn't. This does not work with hothouse tomatoes that are not ripe and soft and juicy or have no flavor, and red onions just don't cut it. Sweet yellow onions the huge ones coming from South America seem to be ok.
Copyright 2011 VROUK
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