Send a Soul Food Market gift to a military hospital and we’ll pay the shipping. 

That’s right.  There are many veterans and active military in the Soul Food Market family. 

Send a gift anonymously to a soldier.  We’ll make arrangements with the hospital and make sure it gets there. 

You choose the hospital, we’ll do the rest.  Here’s a link to help you find all the military hospitals in the US.

http://www.theagapecenter.com/Hospitals/Military.htm

• Beefsteaks are the big, juicy late summer beauties that can weigh up to a pound each. With their mild flavor and thick flesh, they are perfect in a BLT, or even just for eating out-of-hand. Beefsteaks have a high water content, and are better eaten raw in salads or sandwiches than they are cooked.
• Romas, also known as plum tomatoes, are great for sauce as they are relatively dry. They’re tangy and thin-skinned with few seeds.

• Minis (Cherry, Grape, sweet 100, etc.) are extra-sweet, with full flavor and thin skins. These tomatoes are delicious cooked and raw. Pack them with lunches for an easy accompaniment or mid-afternoon snack. Try them sautéed as a side dish, cooked with herbs and olive oil for a quick tomato sauce, or tossed in a salad. Combine different sizes and colors (yellow, red or orange) for enticing presentations.
• Heirlooms range widely in terms of size, color and flavor, but generally taste the most "tomato-like" of all varieties. The use of the term "heirloom" is often debated; some say a variety must be 100 years old to be considered an heirloom, others say 50 years is old enough, while others say a variety that’s been around since the end of World War II or at least three human generations is an heirloom. All agree heirlooms must be bred with open-air pollination and cannot contain any genetically modified organisms. They also agree old-time varieties of tomatoes are special. A tomato salad or Panzanella made with heirlooms is a truly beautiful dish, and will be the star of any potluck.
• Hothouse (on-the-vine) are available year-round and are mild in flavor. Some are flavorful, some not.

Tomato Tips:

• Choose tomatoes that are heavy for their size and intensely colored. They should be firm, but not rock-hard. Heirloom tomatoes might have blemishes, which don’t necessarily affect quality. Smell the blossom end—it should have an earthy, fresh tomato smell.
• Never refrigerate tomatoes—it makes them mealy. They last at room temperature for about 2 to 3 days. If you need to ripen a tomato, put it in a perforated paper bag for a day or two. 

•  Use a serrated or razor-sharp knife to slice tomatoes.
• If you’re making salsa, you can use the wide holes of a box grater to both peel and finely chop. Grate quartered tomatoes up to the skin; discard the skin.

Cooking:

• Although you don’t have to peel tomatoes, it’s a nice touch for long-cooked dishes. Otherwise, the peel comes off during cooking and it can catch in your throat when you’re eating the finished dish. The easiest way to peel three or more tomatoes is to make a small, shallow X on the bottom of the tomato, and then cut out the top core. Immerse the tomato in boiling water for about 10 seconds—just long enough to loosen the skin—and then transfer to ice water. Take care to not leave the tomato in the boiling water too long; you don’t want the tomato to cook. When the tomato has cooled, the skin will easily slip off. If you only need one or two tomatoes and you’re serving them raw, an extremely sharp vegetable peeler will also get the job done.
• To seed a tomato, cut it in half across the middle, then squeeze out the seeds and juice into a strainer placed over a bowl. Discard the seeds. Add the juice to salad dressings or stews.

• You can make your own sun-dried tomatoes in the oven. Smaller varieties like cherry, pear and plum tomatoes work best—just make sure you use tomatoes all of a similar size. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit and put a rack on a baking sheet. Halve the tomatoes lengthwise and lay on the rack, skin side down. Generously sprinkle with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper and strew some fresh herb sprigs like thyme or rosemary over the top. Roast until the tomatoes are barely moist and shriveled, anywhere from two to six hours, depending on their size.

Fresh Tomato Sauce Techniques:

• Tomato sauce should either be cooked for 15 minutes, to lose the raw tomato flavor, or for an hour until it develops a mellow and complex flavor.
• Make 15-minute sauces in a skillet instead of a saucepan so they reduce quicker, and let the sauce sit, covered, while you make the pasta. This allows the flavors in the sauce to meld.

• The fewer the seeds, the better-suited the tomato for a long-cooked sauce. Cherry tomatoes make an excellent raw or short-cooked sauce, but the seeds develop an unpleasant taste with long-cooking. Roma tomatoes are ideal for a longer-cooked sauce.
• A food mill is useful for creating an ideally textured tomato sauce; it strains out seeds and skins as it purees.
• Use the concentrated flavor of oven- or sun-dried tomatoes, tomato paste, roasted or charred tomatoes to enhance a sauce.

– tips from The Food Network

Make your $.50 box of macaroni and cheese, but pour it out of the sauce pan and into your prettiest baking dish and then add one of these dresser-uppers and bake at 350 until bubbly:

• Make some toast, tear it up and buzz up in the blender, dump bread crumbs in a skillet and add a couple of pats of butter…..stir until toasted and loverly…sprinkle on top of your mac ‘n cheese. 
• Stir in chunks of leftover ham and some frozen peas
• Stir in sauteed onions and bell peppers from your garden and some cooked Italian sausage.  Jimmy Dean now has it in a roll like his pork sausage.  I really like it.  (I dislike sausage skin….YUCK!!!)
• Layer steamed broccoli florets with your mac ‘n cheese then top with Ritz cracker crumbs

REFUSE TO GROW OLD……LIVE LIFE WITH ZING!!!!

• My absolute favorites:  Crumbled feta, Kalamata olives and baby spinach
• Pull a jar of roasted red pepper from the pantry and cut into strips….top with arugula after baking…YUM!!!!
• In Cherokee County, Georgia, we can run out in the backyard and pick a tomato and pull about 8 leaves from a basil plant.  Slice the tomato and roll the basil leaves up into a tiny log and slice….eating fresh can make a cheap cheese pizza into a masterpiece!!!!
• Get out the lunchmeat….slices of salami or prosciutto are perfect toppers
• Artichoke hearts, sauteed golden brown onions, minced garlic and Parmesan cheese
• If you can’t afford a fancy vacation…..we didn’t go on one this year….. drizzle on a little olive oil and sprinkle with fresh thyme, oregano and parsley, then add some of your favorite olives…..mine are Kalamata and then grate on some Parmesan…..there is a wonderful American Parmesan called Locatelli….I got mine at Costco……….Voile!!!!!!!! You’re magically transported to a sidewalk bistro in Rome…………..CIAO!!!! 

You don’t have to be rich to enjoy quality food.  Live life with EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!!

Crisp cookies should be stored in a container with a loose lid, like a cookie jar. If there is a lot of humidity in your area, add a piece of bread to the container.