I made this dish just last night. Its delicious! Although last night I added about 1/2-3/4 lbs of cubed pork tenderloin. CHARCROUTE GARNIE Serves 4 to 6 A blend of French and German cuisine from the Alsace region of France. Even if you hate sauerkraut, you will love this dish. 16 oz Hillshire Farm smoked sausage, cut into 1/4" thick disks 2 small onions chopped 3 cups sauerkraut 5 medium Yukon gold potatoes, cubed 6 tbsp butter 1 cup white wine (Riesling) black pepper 2/3 cup apple sauce Boil potatoes in a large pan over medium heat. Cook sausage and onions for about 10 minutes. Add sauerkraut and cook for another 15 minutes. Drain potatoes and add to pan. Add butter, wine, apple sauce and pepper. Simmer and stir until most of the liquid is absorbed. Serve with a strong German beer.

Oh yeah, fresh yummy tomatoes! First I'd make some fresh salsa and then I'd have a nice tomato sandwich with Miracle Whip on White Bread and maybe a couple of tomato omelettes. After that I'd scrounge up some zucchini and make this: Gratin of Zucchini & Tomatoes Contributed By: EatingWell 3 cloves Garlic, crushed 2/3 cup Fresh basil leaves 1 tsp Fresh thyme leaves 2 cups Fresh whole-wheat breadcrumbs, divided 1/2 cup Finely chopped sweet onion, such as Vidalia 3 Large ripe tomatoes, diced 1 tbsp Red-wine vinegar 1/4 tsp Salt, divided 3 tbsp Extra-virgin olive oil, divided 3 Medium zucchini (about 1 3/4 pounds total), sliced on the bias about 1/4 inch thick Freshly ground pepper to taste 3/4 cup Freshly grated Parmesan cheese Preparation 1. Preheat oven to 400 degree F. Coat a 9-by-13-inch baking dish (or similar gratin dish) with cooking spray. 2. Put garlic, basil and thyme on your chopping board; mince well. Spread half the breadcrumbs evenly in the prepared baking dish. Strew onion over the breadcrumbs. Distribute half the diced tomato over the onion, then sprinkle with half the garlic-herb mixture. Sprinkle with vinegar and 1/8 teaspoon salt. 3. Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add a third of the zucchini; you want it to saute, not stew, so do not crowd it. Saute, turning the pieces once, until golden and not quite tender, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes per side. When the slices are done, use a fork to transfer them to the gratin, overlapping the slices. Cook the remaining zucchini in two batches, each time using 2 teaspoons oil. Strew remaining tomatoes and garlic-herb mixture over the zucchini. Season with the remaining 1/8 teaspoon salt and a grinding of pepper. Toss the remaining 1 cup breadcrumbs with the remaining 1 tablespoon oil and sprinkle over the gratin. 4. Bake the gratin until bubbly hot, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle with Parmesan. After that, I'd make tomato soup, I love KatieC's roasted tomato and garlic soup posted above or this one from Fannie Farmer: Pure Cream of Tomato Soup The Fannie Farmer Cookbook Servings: 7 cups. Ingredients 5 tablespoons butter 1/2 cup chopped onion 4 tablespoons flour 4 cups milk 1/2 bay leaf 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 3 cups tomatoes, chopped (fresh or canned) Preparation Melt the butter in a soup pot. Add the onion and cook over medium heat, stirring, until the onion is softened but not browned. Sprinkle the flour over the butter mixture and continue to stir and cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Slowly add the milk, bay leaf, sugar, and salt and continue to cook and stir until slightly thickened. Stir the baking soda into the tomatoes. Add the tomatoes to the milk, and bring just to a simmer. Remove from the heat and put through a strainer. Taste and correct seasonings. Reheat before serving. While I was at it, I'd make Sol's tomato tart. Geez, I wish I could post a picture of that, it's a think of beauty, but here's the recipe anyway. My favorite isn't really quiche, but it is. It's Sol's Tomato Pie, which is actually just a quiche with that mustard layer on the bottom crust. TOMATO TART Crust This makes two 9-inch tart shells. 2 1/2 cups AP flour 3 tablespoons semolina flour 1 teaspoon salt 12 tablespoons [1 1/2 sticks] cold, unsalted butter 3 tablespoons cold solid shortening Ice water Preheat oven to 400°F. Put the flours and salt in food processor. Pulse a couple of times, just enough to integrate the ingredients. Add the butter and shortening all at once and pulse until the mixture looks like moist crumbs and no chunks of butter or shortening remain. Sprinkle ice water over the surface of the dough. Repeat with 3 more tablespoonsful. Pulse to just bring the dough together. The dough should be past crumbly, but holding together. Cut the dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap. Press each half to form a disk. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes before rolling out. Then roll out one disk to 1/4" thick. Fit into your tart pan, and chill 30 minutes. Dock the bottom of the tart. Line it with parchment or foil, and weigh it down with pie weights or dried beans. Place tart shell on center rack in the oven and bake 10 minutes. Remove paper and weights from the pan. Return it to the oven and bake another 10-15 minutes or until the tart is a light-golden brown. Remove from the oven and set on wire rack to cool. Filling 12-15 plum tomatoes, cored and cut into 1/4"-thick rounds 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard * 1 cup coarsely grated Gruyere cheese 1 teaspoon Herbes de Provence 2 large eggs 1/4 cup light cream 1 teaspoon salt A few turns of freshly ground black pepper Preheat oven to 375°F. Put the tomato slices in a colander and place in the sink. Let them sit for 15 minutes to drain off any excess liquid. Spread the mustard evenly over the tart shell. Sprinkle the cheese over the mustard and sprinkle the Herbes de Provence over the gruyere cheese. Working from the outside in, lay the drained tomato slices in overlapping, concentric circles, covering the crust completely. Whisk the eggs in a bowl, whisk in the cream, salt and pepper. Pour this custard evenly over the tomatoes until it comes to about 1/4 inch from the top edge of the crust. Bake for 1 hour, to 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until the custard is set. Annie

Thanks all! I had been using Pam or butter (depending on my mood I guess?) but ran out of Pam and switched to just olive oil or butter. I'll try some of these methods next time if I stick with the oatmeal. Stick. Haha. It did come out of the pans OK with a knife, but I'm going to have to scrub those pans--definitely not the super-clean release I've had! But now I know! Thank you all very much!

I had forgotten about the tip to pull the ball apart and rotate the top. I did that several times when I first read about it and it worked great. Always1step, what kind of butter did you use? I was just reading on the King Arthur blog about which butters to use for baking. They recommend an 80% fat content butter, their preferred is Cabot. Land O'Lakes and Costco were brought up in the comments of the article as being comparable. King Arthur opinion is that European butters like Plugra and Kerrygold, with their higher fat content, may not produce the desired results. A light bulb went off in my head at that, as I recently made scones and they spread all over the place - and I had used Kerrygold. Usually I use Costco organic or Land O'Lakes for baking and have good results. King Arthur: Which Butter to Use for Baking