White tomato bruschetta (or yellow tomato) on grilled black olive bread, with goat cheese and several variables. Another great REM “Realtor on the run” treat.

A trip to the farmers’ market or to your own personal garden (or even to your balcony tomato plant pot) will produce the best of the fresh of the season. Cut an ‘x’ in the bottom of each tomato skin. In briskly boiling water, using a long-handled spider spoon, blanch the tomatoes for just a few seconds. Or using a long-handled twin-tine fork like the one in your turkey carving set, remove each tomato and place in a water bath metal bowl filled with ice cubes. The metal bowl will help keep the water cold. In just seconds, the skins will slip right off.

Scoop out the seeds and remove the tomato handle core. Coarsely but evenly, chop a medium size Spanish onion.

Zest a large lime. Then using a sharp knife, carefully peel it, removing all the pith. Using a small serrated grapefruit knife, remove the lime segments between each membrane, one by one and add to a kitchen machine. Crush a fresh clove of garlic or squeeze a little thyme roasted garlic purée into the tomato mix. Add plenty of fresh ground pepper. Add salt and a heaping teaspoon of sugar.

Drizzle in a little oil from your leftover Celebrity goat cheese marinating jar, using a small tea strainer to catch the bay leaves. Spoon out a few goat cheese crumbles from the bottom of the jar.

Add a heaping teaspoon of WildlyDelicious White Truffle Dijon Mustard and just a spritz of Maplewood Smoked Sunflower and Grapeseed oil, and a generous drop of Black Magic Balsamic vinegar.

Add a half cup of fresh, coarsely chopped parsley and a tablespoon of crushed fresh thyme. Pulse quickly.

Add a couple of finely chopped macerated, marinated fresh black mission figs from your Asbach Uralt cognac jar. Stir in a tablespoon of brandy figgy jus.

Let rest in the fridge while you grill the olive bread or baguette. Split a whole baguette lengthwise or cut bread loaf slices on the diagonal. Brush with oil from your goat cheese marinating jar and using a pastry brush, wipe the bread with just a little smear of roasted garlic purée (a staple in your pantry oil jar).

Use your barbecue upper rack or your kitchen grill or stove broiler to let the bread get just a little crunchy; if using the oven, put the black-olive bread on a metal cookie sheet.

When ready to serve, top the grilled black olive bread with loads of the cold white tomato mix. Add a piece of oil-packed sun-dried red tomato and a Celebrity goat cheese marinated puck, strategically placed so each serving has a piece of cheese.

Return the bread to the very hot grill or top rack stove broiler, just until the cheese starts to melt. Remove the steaming hot bread and quickly sprinkle with salt and large pieces of coarsely chopped fresh basil leaves, as you are about to serve. Tomatoes love basil.

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In addition, for another gourmet touch, add chopped artichoke hearts packed in oil. Sprinkle with fresh grated pepper, just before adding the fresh picked basil.

If you want a totally different bruschetta experience, make a crostini; top the black olive bread with my lobster tails salad recipe, Dine in Tails: Lobster Tails in White Truffle Mustard Homemade Mayo Sauce. Sprinkle with crumbles of goat cheese and drizzle with the goat cheese marinating oil.

And another special bruschetta: Top pre-baked frozen puff pasty squares with the tomato mix and return to a very hot oven just long enough to melt the cheese. Then add fresh basil and serve.

You might find this tomato mix a wonderful opportunity to use those odd-looking “heirloom” tomatoes that are available in mixed colours. Enjoy often!

And then: Have you ever heard of fresh firm peach bruschetta? Simply replace the tomatoes, using very firm, juicy fresh-picked peaches, in peach season. Try the wonderful white peaches for a spectacular, different, white bruschetta treat. Sprinkle with a little golden-brown sugar, or a drizzle of figgy jus from your brandy marinating jar. Top with paper thin slices of prosciutto and marinated goat cheese pucks.

You could choose from many fresh fruits such as juicy Italian blue plums, juicy firm Black Mission figs, marinated in brandy or plain. For pear lovers, choose firm Bosc pears. Top with basil and goat cheese or substitute rocket (watercress) or even pea-greens, just when ready to serve.

Tomato butter (Jam) – Carolyne’s version

Try this recipe for something unusual and discover just how absolutely wonderful it is. Use ripe, green beefsteak tomatoes. Or use white tomatoes, yellow tomatoes or even the newer seed, purple tomatoes. I don’t recommend using Heirloom tomatoes in this recipe.

10 lbs. tomatoes (red ones). I prefer beefsteak tomatoes.

2 cups white vinegar

½ cup white balsamic vinegar

7 cups of white sugar

1 tablespoon table salt

1 tablespoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon cinnamon

Wash the tomatoes and remove the husk and any black rot spots. Split large tomatoes in half or quarters. Put tomatoes and vinegar(s) into a very large pot and cook down until half of the liquid is evaporated.  This will take up to three hours as you will have brought the pot to a boil and then turned it down to simmer.  Leave the lid off and stir occasionally using a wooden spoon. Make sure the mixture doesn’t stick or burn on the bottom of the pot.

Add the sugar and the spices and simmer another half hour.  Important: Pack in hot sterilized glass jars, filled to the top. Allow to cool completely, tented with a clean dish towel and then put lids in position and close tightly. I like to fold a piece of wax paper over top. Store in a cool, dark place.  This recipe makes enough to fill three one-lb. glass peanut butter jars, or nine or 10 small jars. Only pack in glass due to the acid content.

If you have not made tomato butter before, you will want to try this recipe.  It’s so simple to make and I cannot think of a better way to describe it than to say it is plain old-fashioned delicious as a fondue accompaniment to beef.  It is also good with cold sliced beef, veal, seafood and poultry.

Refer to my Sun-dried Tomato Tortillas, using the leftover roast beef filling. It’s magically enhanced with this tomato butter.

Another terrific way to use my tomato butter:

Make your favourite crepe batter. Instead of using your regular crepe size pan, melt butter in a large shallow skillet, perhaps 12-14 inches in diameter.

Pour just enough crepe batter to barely cover the entire surface into the hot but not browned butter in the skillet. You are making a very thin, very large crepe. Cook on one side until edges release easily and flip or turn using a wide flexible egg turner. Or use your fingers to turn the crepe. Cook the reverse side for just seconds.

As an entree filling, use room temperature medium rare roast beef, carved paper-thin, nearly shredded.

Mound the thin roast beef in a row, like a sausage, in the centre of the crepe. Sprinkle just a tiny bit of horseradish cream on the beef. If you don’t care for horseradish, as an alternate suggestion: drizzle just a little of my warm blue cheese dressing over the beef. Beef loves blue cheese. Roll the filled crepe loosely into a large log roll shape.

Cut the roast beef filled crepe into three equal portions, using a very sharp steak knife, cutting on the diagonal. Alongside the crepe, serve a generous dollop of my red beefsteak tomato butter.

Make several crepes in this way to transport to a friend’s pot luck. Remember to take along a jar of my tomato butter to enhance the gourmet crepe. And an extra small jar as a hostess gift. A memorable addition to your pot luck take-along.

My modified tomato butter that I share with you is my creation using as a base, a recipe shared with me more than 35 years ago. I cannot express how wonderful my tomato butter turns out year after year. (Don’t forget to try the green beefsteak tomato version.)

A great pairing with this medium rare roast beef filled crepe dish is my chilled favourite sparkling pink Royal de Neuville from France (champagne), in all seasons.

To fill out your meal, a great salad accompaniment is my Boston Bibb lettuce salad with warm blue cheese dressing. All the flavours marry well.

© From Lady Ralston’s Kitchen: A Canadian Contessa Cooks “Turning everyday meal making into a gourmet experience”