How to dice a tomato (without the watery seedy stuff)

Some of you may already know how to do this, but it changed my life (and my pico de gallo) back in college, so I thought I'd share it with you all just in case.

When I first learned this trick, I was participating in a chili cook-off with my friend Emily, and we wanted to add diced tomatoes to our chili--but we didn't know how to leave all out the watery seedy stuff*. So we did what all people do when they don't know how to do something: we searched for it on youtube. It was a while ago, but I'm pretty sure this is the original video.

*definitely the scientific term

Feel free to watch that, but here are some step-by-step photos to walk you through it.

 

Supplies: you'll need a tomato and a knife. and a cutting board. your counter tops will thank you.

 

Step one: use the point of the knife to wedge out the stem of the tomato.

 

Step two: cut around the inner "seed ball" of the tomato by cutting a C shape from the top of the de-stemmed tomato to the bottom. Do that a few times all the way around the tomato. If you're me, you'll do a hack-job of it and still have some watery seedy stuff, so just use your thumb to scoop it out.

 

 Step three: throw away the "seed ball" and stem and chop up the remaining parts. Voila, you have beautiful, watery-seedy-stuff-free diced tomatoes.

Happy chopping!

    

Go to there: Buttermilk Kitchen

Since the first time I saw this logo, I've wanted to eat here. 

Vasily and I went to Athens on Saturday, but had no time for the pilgrimage to Mama's Boy. After I was finished pouting, I realized that we could still get a yummy brunch on Sunday! So I suggested we check out Buttermilk Kitchen. And holy cow am I glad we did.

Located off of Roswell Road in Buckhead, this little gem is a breakfast and lunch concept from chef Suzanne Vizethann who, I learned mid-bite-of-biscuit, won Season 8 of Chopped! 

from Buttermilk Kitchen

I was too excited about the food to take pictures. 

We ended up sitting at the bar and had so much fun peeking into the kitchen (couldn't see everything, but I knew things were happening.) 

Bartender Brian told us his favorite things on the menu and all of them sounded freaking amazing -- I ended up getting the Pimento Cheese Omelet and Vasily got the Chicken Biscuit. (Not just any chicken, though -- the chef soaks the chicken in sweet tea overnight! YUM) Both were fantastic. The atmosphere was really fun, too. 

Even the woman at the other end of the bar was singing Buttermilk Kitchen's praises -- she said this was her third day in a row to eat there and she takes a to-go biscuit every time. She was superskinny though, so the biscuits are probably zero calories. In fact, they're probably so good / good for you, I bet you burn calories eating them. Yes. So I should go every day. 

pulled from Buttermilk Kitchen's site

This is definitely my new favorite brunch place. You've got to check it out. 

Oh and don't go without me.