Tomatoes and Boo Radley

First, there can never be enough garden tomatoes. But the (pre-existing) garden at our new place is doing very respectably.  The Watsons haven't left on their mission yet, so we had held off pillaging, but this week they kindly gave us free rein.  HOLY COW, so many delicious cherry tomatoes.  Those little things are some  of my favorite snacks.  They are the perfect mix of sweet and fresh, crunchy and juicy, don't produce any crumbs (although the risk of tomato geysers is an ever-present issue), don't make you feel gross in twenty minutes, and are right on the line between salty and sweet. In other words, they are the perfect airplane food.  Another aside about tomatoes: when you compare the garden to the store-bought, the store-bought are not good. Not even "kind of lame," but in a side-by-side comparison, store-bought might be described as gross. But you have to forget about that comparison most of the year.

So naturally, our Friday night meal revolved around tomatoes. We made crispy cheese ravioli (all time favorite), with a garlic, cherry tomato, balsamic vinaigrette,  and basil sauce.  We also had big slices of tomatoes that were roasted with mozzarella and parmesan on the top.  So yummy. After that, we watched "To Kill a Mockingbird."  We hardly ever watch movies together (I can probably count them on one hand), but last week we went crazy on the library website (my hold list keeps getting longer).  I've been re-reading that book, but had never seen the movie.  First off, what an amazing book.  It's almost cliche, how good it is.  I haven't read it in a few years, so every page was just unfamiliar enough that it was just as much of a delight as it was the first time. I finished it late the night before, just in time.  The movie was pretty good, too. The book was better, surprise. Spending time with Paul was the really wonderful thing. Turns out "dinner and a movie" is kind of great.