Chase's Tomato Plant Sucks Because Mine is Awesome!

    Meet Tony Roma, my tomato plant. I didn't name it that because I like the player or the team. I just thought it would be a funny name for a Roma tomato plant because I'm eccentric. When we first moved into our house, one of the first things I did was set out to have a mini-garden on our patio.
    One of my fond childhood memories is around grade 3, when we were in Enid, Oklahoma. My family set out to make a smallish vegetable and herb garden in our backyard. We had so many cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, and okra than we knew what to do with. Flash forward to about three months ago. We bought two tomato plants and one basil plant. Chase named his Schwarzenegger because it's a Beefsteak tomato plant and it made sense to him. We couldn't plant them in the backyard as they would probably get mowed over, so we potted them in our screened in porch.
    Since we're both quite competitive, we decided whoever had the tastiest and most fruitful tomato plant, won. The catch was that they would have the same care and we couldn't sabotage the other plant (although we could trash talk it all we wanted.) Months went by and no tomatoes. We kind of gave up on them. Then this afternoon I went out to check on our crazy weather and saw this petite miracle! Isn't it lovely?! Chase still doesn't have any tomatoes on his plant, so I'm winning by default! Ha!

    One of the quick things we love to eat here in the small Owen household is 揚げだし豆腐 (Age dashi Tofu). It's crunchy tofu with bonito flakes, green onions, and a lovely sweet and salty sauce. It's really easy to make.

揚げだし豆腐 (Age dashi Tofu) via Japanesefood.about.com

Ingredients:

• 2 blocks cotton tofu, drained and cut in half
• 1 cup dashi soup stock
• 1 Tbsp soysauce
• 1 Tbsp mirin (I add about 1 Tbsp more for sweetness)
• 1 Tbsp potato starch/corn starch and 1Tbsp water, mixed
• 1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger
• *potato starch/corn starch for dusting tofu
• *vegetable oil for frying.

Preparation:

1. Wrap tofu with paper towels and place it on a cutting board. Put another cutting board or a plate on top the tofu and let sit for about 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, put kombu dashi, soy sauce, and mirin in a sauce pan and bring to a boil.
3. Add starch mixture in the sauce and stir quickly. Stop the heat.
4. Dry tofu with paper towels and cut each tofu in half.
5. Dust tofu with potato starch.
6. Heat oil in 350 degrees F in a deep pot.
7. Deep-fry tofu until they turn lightly brown. Drain on paper towels.
8. Place each fried tofu in a small dish and pour the sauce over it.
9. Garnish with grated ginger.