Tomato, Tomahhhhhhhto

I am a food blog skeptic. Not because I haven't found some tummy-rumbling, drool-inducing recipes that have become staples in our weekly menu, but because of the ingredients. Well, it's not even that. It's the brand of the ingredients that drives my frugal self into a budgeting tizzy. There is no need to spend 40 dollars on a jar of grey sea salt when the stuff in my shaker does the same job. Suffice it to say, I have believed- please do not mentally berate me until I am finished- that all canned tomatoes are the same. (I cried just a little-even now- after living in darkness for so long.) So, when I was reading one of my favorite foodie fanatic's recipe for a simple tomato sauce (www.smittenkitchen.com), I didn't just scoff at her artsy pictures of strikingly bourgeois San Marzano tomatoes. I guffawed. Spend 6 dollars on a can of tomatoes when I can 20 for the same price at Shoprite? You must be off your rocker.

Until...

I was shopping at Whole Foods and stumbled across the-you guessed it- the cans of San Marzano tomatoes, regal and stacked with purpose at the end of the aisle. Shock of all shocks, this was the day fate decided I was much too thick-headed for my own good and cleverly displayed a neat little sign handwritten on organic recycled paper: On sale, 2 for $6. Reluctantly, I placed two cans in my basket and my life will never be the same.

Dearest friends. Stop kidding yourselves. Put the shoprite brand of whole, peeled, tasteless tomatoes aside- or serve it the neighbors that let their dog pee in your front yard. Only use these tomatoes. You will thank me, as I, now, owe an entire internal apology to the food blog gods. You were right. You were right all along.