Toe and Don's Cheese & Cracker Stuffed Tomatoes

This is one of my beloved family recipes. My Grandmom Toe and Grandfather Don lived outside of Meadville PA. Her family had a restaurant in the 30's and I believe that is where this came from. You can take the pulp of the tomatoes and make a casserole with it and extra cracker mixture if you want. This was my Grandfather's favorite. They are just as good re-heated and it's one of those things that I have to keep eating until it's gone! YUM!

• Ready In: 1 hr 10 mins
• Serves: 7

Ingredients

• 7  medium tomatoes
• 80  saltine crackers (two sleeves)
• 12  ounces sharp cheddar cheese (DON'T sub low fat for this recipe, it's too dry)
• 4  tablespoons butter

Directions

1. Cut tops off of tomatoes and scoop out pulp leaving shell.
2. If you want to save the pulp, put it in a casserole dish at this point.
3. Crush saltine crackers (I just do it carefully right in the unopened sleeve) to say pea size, put in bowl.
4. Grate the cheese into the bowl, turning with your hands every few minutes so the cheese doesn't stick together and gets mixed in nicely with crackers.
5. Carefully but firmly stuff tomatoes with mixture.
6. Dot each tomato with a pat of butter.
7. Bake 1 hour or until tomatoes are soft.
8. If making the casserole cut tomato count to six and use extra crumbs on pulp.