Green tomatoes are so tasty when they are all fried up and crispy.  Barbara Hoffman, my former sister-in-law, can make them better than anybody I have ever known.  Of course Barbara can do a lot of things better than anybody I have ever known—she is an Aging But DANGEROUS™ woman extraordinaire.  She decided to let our followers in on her concoction: it’s simple, yet scrumptious.  It’s enough to make you hope they never turn red.

BARBARA HOFFMAN’S FRIED GREEN TOMATOES
6 green tomatoes
1 egg
3/4 cup cornmeal
2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
olive oil
 
Wash tomatoes and slice them about 1/4 inch thick.  Mix cornmeal, salt and pepper.  Dip tomatoes in the egg wash and then into the meal mixture.  Fry them slowly in olive oil until nicely browned, turning once.  Drain on paper towels and serve hot.   Serves 6

“RED”, the play, was dynamite!  Its 7 Tony Award nominations are well deserved.  Alfred Molina delivers a powerful message as he channels Mark Rothko’s passion, arrogance and intellect.  John Lahr, of The New Yorker, said, “Smart, exciting and scintillating.  Alfred Molina burns up the stage as Mark Rothko.”  “Tantalizing and astonishing.  Eddie Redmayne is perfect.” Says Michael Kuchwara of The Associated Press.  I agree! 

Before the play we had dinner at Frankie and Johnnie’s, (not the lovers),which is conveniently located directly across the street from the Golden  Theatre on W. 45th, between Broadway and 8th.  I’m not a big steak house fan, but this quaint upstairs, sardine can size haunt, opening originally as a speakeasy in 1926, serves legendary cuisine.  Plus, you are attended to by older, distinguished gentlemen in black tuxedos that are definitely throwbacks from Godfather II.  www.frankieandjohnnies.com

That fact alone was probably our saving grace for the fact that I had a plastic bag in my gargantuan purse that was labeled “Jean’s Head”.  No one in the restaurant even flinched. 

If you are in New York City in the near future, for an evening on the town,this combo  is going to be hard beat!

A study from the Columbia University Medical Center will appear in the June issue of Archive of Neurology, outlining certain foods that have been found beneficial for the brain and are effective at warding off Alzheimer ’s disease.  The study is based on previous research that has found correlations between certain foods and this debilitating type of memory loss.

Yian Gu, Ph.D., and colleagues tracked 2148 healthy adults aged 65 and older over a four year period of time.  None showed signs of dementia at the start of the study, but after the four years, 253 had developed Alzheimer’s.  The researchers compared diet and lifestyle of the patients and concluded that those who did not get Alzheimer’s had a diet rich in seven different nutrients:  vitamin E, vitamin B12, saturated fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty acids, omega-3 fatty acids, omega-6 fatty acids, and foliate.  They got the crucial nutrients by consuming plenty of fish, oil and vinegar salad dressing, nuts, tomatoes, other fruits and green leafy vegetables.  They ate little red meat, organ meat, high-fat dairy foods and butter.