Making Your Favorite Tomato Salad

What do you get when you mix together mayonnaise, crushed garlic, and tomatoes? You get a tasty salad meal that is cheap to make and fills you up on taste. Not too mention, by making home-made mayonnaise, you'll avoid the dangers associated with processed foods.

This quick to make recipe will take no longer than 30 minutes to prepare, and with the listed ingredients, you'll be able to serve up to four people. My favorite ingredient for these kinds of simple dinner recipes is garlic. I am a garlic lover by nature, the more garlic a recipe requires, the happier I am! Take two medium sized cloves of garlic and crush them, and dump the crushed garlic into a small bowl. Ideally, you should have a timer, and you should set that timer to ten minutes. When the ten minutes are up, that's when it's ideal to eat your garlic raw or add it to your dish. In another bowl, add the minced chives and the teaspoon of sweet basil. Dice up the celery next, and to the chives and basil.

Fresh mayonnaise will take some work. If your arm isn't up to whisking for several long minutes, you might want to take the shortcut and just buy mayonnaise from your grocery store. For those that want fresh mayonnaise, do proceed! Fresh mayonnaise is not hard to make, but it takes a little finesse, and a lot of patience. First, drop a single egg yolk into a bowl. Add a half teaspoon of salt and a half teaspoon of dry mustard. Now whisk!

While you're whisking, add a single drop of the peanut oil, and then add another drop. Keep whisking! And keep adding the oil one drop at a time. As long as you don't rush this process, you'll make delicious, fresh mayonnaise. Keep whisking, and keep adding the oil until the full cup of peanut oil has been added to the mix.

When the mixture begins to thicken, that is the point when you can add the oil at a faster rate. Be warned! If you try to add the oil too quickly, you'll ruin the process and you'll have to start over. So, be patient. Add the oil slowly, and don't stop whisking. Your arm will certainly be tired by the time the mayo is ready to eat, but once you taste it, you'll become a fresh mayonnaise addict and won't settle for store bought mayonnaise ever again. On a side note, a couple of drops of lemon juice can be added when you first start whisking to help stabilize the process.

Now you'll need four jumbo tomatoes. Wash and rinse them, and then slice them in half. Drain the juice, but scoop out the pulp and seeds and put into another bowl.

By now your 10 minute garlic timer should be complete. Add the crushed garlic, minced chives, diced celery, and basil to the bowl of tomato pulp and seeds. Mix together, and then add as much fresh mayonnaise as you like. Salt and pepper it to your preferred taste.

Now, fill up the four tomato halves with the dressing, and then place them into the refrigerator. You'll want to chill them for at least thirty to forty-five minutes before eating. If you have any left over mayonnaise, place it inside a plastic container and keep it in the refrigerator for later use. Fresh mayonnaise will only last a few days, so use it sooner rather than later.

While the above recipe creates a great tasting dish, you can also add fried bacon, parsley, almond slivers, and even cayenne pepper.

Fresh Mayonnaise

1 egg yolk

1/2 teaspoon of salt (sea salt is okay to use)

1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

1 cup peanut oil

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Tomato dressing

2 cloves garlic (crushed)

1 cup diced celery

2 tablespoons of minced chives

1 teaspoon basil (minced)

You'll also need:

4 jumbo tomatoes