Days leading up to summertime always remind me of long, hot, Oklahoma days. I got the fortune of spending weeks at a time with both sets of my Grandparents out in the country as a little girl. One thing that has been on my mind lately about all of those summers is home grown tomatoes. Perhaps it is because I am ignorant, but I never realized that a person could not like tomatoes until I was about 14. I remember hearing someone exclaim that they could not stand the taste of tomatoes and I simply did not understand how. My grandmothers both ate their tomatoes the same, straight off the vine in the garden out back, rinsed with cool water in the kitchen sink, peeled, sliced into thin pieces, and sprinkled with salt and pepper.

A few evenings ago I found myself fixing a plate of tomatoes the exact same way.

It is one of my favorite comfort foods. It takes me right back to those old tables and crowded kitchens. Untainted memories that cannot be replaced. Life has a way of giving us “comfort food” moments, ones that we can snatch out of the garden and rinse off when we need a plate of them. They can leave us feeling homesick for another time or reminiscent to what has or what could have been. Some days we may need more comfort foods than others, but if our plate is too full of old classics there will never be room to try something new.

Wherever you may find your plate in the future, I hope it is full of home grown memories.