Fried Green Tomatoes!

So... I'd heard of the movie, but even though my mom grew up in the South, I'd never had a fried green tomato until last month! Remember that GARDEN we planted for Family Home Evening a while back? Well, despite desperate attempts by the local chipmunks to falter our gardening plans, it grew! Most of the veggies were eaten, dug up, or destroyed by our fuzzy enemies, but the tomato plants, herbs, and carrots miraculously survived their efforts. However, once the tomatoes started to ripen, the chipmunks started to munch on them! So we had to find a way to use them while they were still green... BEFORE the chipmunks ate holes through them! Thus, we searched the internet until we found the perfect recipe for fried green tomatoes, and here it is:

Fried Green Tomatoes

Ingredients

• 4 large green tomatoes (I used some that were semi red and they were much harder to cook because they got soggy, and they didn't taste as good. So if you can, I would go green all the way!)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 quart vegetable oil for frying

Directions

1. Slice tomatoes 1/2 inch thick. Discard the ends.
2. Whisk eggs and milk together in a medium-size bowl. Scoop flour onto a plate. Mix cornmeal, bread crumbs and salt and pepper on another plate. Dip tomatoes into flour to coat. Then dip the tomatoes into milk and egg mixture. Dredge in breadcrumbs to completely coat.
3. In a large skillet, pour vegetable oil (enough so that there is 1/2 inch of oil in the pan) and heat over a medium heat. Place tomatoes into the frying pan in batches of 4 or 5, depending on the size of your skillet. Do not crowd the tomatoes, they should not touch each other. When the tomatoes are browned, flip and fry them on the other side. Drain them on paper towels and then enjoy them as they are or with your favorite sauce! (We used Ranch Dressing. Yummo!).