Garden Tomato & Sweet Onions

wow, those new labels look awesome. They make me think of boxcars on a cool old train, or a shiny diner with sleek, clean lines. Love them labels!! What i love more, though, is the flipping salt! I know that there is a tomato scare out there right now, but if you're lucky enough to have a garden, it is quickly becoming yummy eating time. Joni's salts are the perfect accompaniments for fresh tomato salads of all kinds (they're the perfect touch to all fresh veggies, but we'll get to those recipes later).
Summer is upon us and that means parties and barbecues and picnics, left and right. It is crucial to have a small, reliable stash of light, summery, recipes: fresh appetizers, some main fare, even quick and easy desserts.

Using the wonderful selection of salt's from Saltistry opens the door to a candy shop of opportunities. With these salts you can pair salt flavors with food flavors that are complimentary, or with flavors at opposite ends of the spectrum...whatever you choose, the choice is all yours, no wrong or right answers. The world is your oyster, especially with a light sprinkling of mushroom herb salt, perhaps...or smoked salish, or with lime flake salt and being washed down with a nice, chilled shot of Patron silver, yummmm!!

okay...back from salty tangents. Here is a quick and wonderful recipes using garden tomatoes. I know...tomato scare out there, but for this recipe you should use nicer, organic, locally grown tomatoes that you can get from a farmer's market. This is for an appetizer for a BBQ or picnic or potluck, so you want to use tomatoes that are nice enough to stand on their own, and if they are locally farmed, chances are, they are not using intense fertilizers and are not exposed to the same elements that the bigger farms are. Use big fresh tomatoes, any color you want and slice them like for sandwiches, pretty thin. Then slice a red onion, also like for sandwiches, as thin as you can get them, while keeping them whole, complete slices, if you care about that look,that is, slice them however best you can and they will be fine. Then layer alternating between tomato and onion, in a flat dish with a bit of a side, casserole dishes work well. You can add a little bit of salt at this point, lime flake is yummy, but I love the heirloom tomato salt, because it adds a nice bit of tomato sweetness sometimes missing from the bigger tomatoes. If you chop up fresh herbs and then mix them in a small bowl with the salt before you put it on the tomatoes, it really brings out the flavor of the herbs, like rosemary, thyme, oregano, all excellent, but save some for the very end to top off your dish. Then get a nice yummy extra virgin olive oil and, holding your thumb over the opening, shake a little oil over all of the tomatoes and onions. Next sprinkle a nice red wine vinegar, add the rest of your salt concoction, and viola!! Yummy, summery, fast and easy appetizer, using the most wonderful of salts.