Southern Wedding Tomato Sandwiches (Open Faced)
As Paula Deen would say “No southern wedding is complete without Tomato Sandwiches.” I personally had never heard of one before. BLT ‘s of course but not just plain tomato. Cousin and I thought that sounded great so we decided to make them for the first time last year. We used a Beefsteak rye bread since that is our favorite rye bread. For the condiment we decided a dilled mayo would be excellent. We take our mayo (for me it’s never anything other than Kraft Real Mayo) and added dill weed till the mixture looked like what we wanted. We put that on the bread then used sliced on the vine ripened tomatoes. (home grown are preferred if you can get them, personally I can’t since I moved to Missouri.) Serve Open faced. A couple times we decided to “cut the bread” to fit the tomato and had little round sandwiches. However that’s only for special occasions. For everyday we just use the whole piece of bread and cut the tomato to fit if necessary. Surprisingly these were very good. I was amazed. Thanks Paula Deen I would never have thought of that! 
Open Faced Egg Sandwich (Open Faced) I used the eggs I had leftover for the tuna yesterday and made egg salad. I took the eggs and cut them into quarters and put them in a mini chopper, 3 eggs at a time. They come out perfect. No larger pieces because the mix was mashed with a fork, which is how I usually did it in the past. I added my dilled mayo to get the proper consistency that I wanted then added about a tbsp of yellow mustard for flavor and a little added color. It gives it that little extra bite that it needs. For this I used honey wheat bread today. I don’t like using the regular white breads the wheat gives it a little more flavor. I never add salt to anything however I do sometimes add steak pepper when I want to use pepper for this, today was not one of those days.
Bon Appétit !
A wonderful lettuce and grape tomato salad. Just perfect for a light lunch. With NO dressing, just a lemon wedge for a little extra flavor.
I used Brooks Beans this time. I added a lot of dark brown sugar and a large medium fine chopped onion. The beans will be dark in color because of the dark brown sugar which makes it look good. Instead of the spices I usually use I changed and used a pint jar of my spicy tomato sauce instead. It was great. The spice was just perfect. I pre baked it at 350 for 45 minutes then alter reheated at Sandi’s. 
I used partial white rice and partial brown and wild rice. After they were cooked I sautéed 1 vidalia onion finely diced and about a pound of broccoli tips. When they were almost done I roughly chopped mot of a pound of mushroom caps. I didn’t peel them like usual and left hem in larger chopped pieces. It was just fine. When that was done I added 8 – 10 ounces of heavy whipping cream. The rice was then mixed with the vegetable mixture and was placed in a 9 by 13 oblong baking dish. I grilled chicken breasts earlier and sliced them to put on top of the rice mixture. I then topped that with a little pepper jack cheese. Bake at 400 for about 15 minutes to melt the cheese and make sure the other stuff got heated the rest of the way since it had been a little while since it was cooked.
Take tomatoes and cut off both ends then cut the tomato in half. I put basil olive oil in the bottom of the pan then placed the tomatoes in the pan. I made sure both sides had the oil on them, then seasoned with Italian seasoning and baked in the oven for about 10 minutes. They can also be grilled on the grill for 5 minutes on each side. Top with mozzarella cheese and let melt. Serve with your favorite meat and or vegetables.
