Deliciousness

Yum..no, double yum.
Roasted Juliet tomatoes.
SLOW roasted Juliet tomatoes.
Took about 5.5 hours in the oven at 200 degrees.

These amazing little tomatoes are from a family farm down the street. I stopped in last week and looked for them, but none were to be found. The old farmer (the real deal--muddy overalls and all) happened to walk in just then and I asked him if he had any of those delicious little tomatoes that he had the week before. "Oh the Juliet's, you mean?" Yes! I said.
He told me he hadn't had a chance to pick any yet that day. I must have looked crestfallen because he said. "Hang on, I will go pick some for you". I waited about 10 minutes and he came back with a giant basket of beautiful Juliet tomatoes. Bigger than cherry tomatoes, but smaller than plum.
I took them home, washed and sliced them in half, drizzled them with olive oil, threw on a couple of springs of fresh thyme from my herb garden and a few cloves of whole garlic. Roasted them for a very long time.
They were SO incredible I can't even begin to tell you. Chewy, with an intense sweet tomato flavor. On top of pizza? Wow. Mixed with grilled veggies and pasta? Oh yes.
I found the idea on a blog called Prudent Baby. Recipe HERE.

Her ideas for these tomatoes?

"I like to spread them on french bread with goat cheese and a few fresh basil leaves, but you can toss them on pasta with olive oil, or eat them on a bagel with cream cheese, or stuff them into a wheel of brie and bake. You can do anything you want with them, but you will love them."

Go make some; you won't be sorry.

Tuesday "Dish-of-the-day" Tutorial

There is one item that I make 

that is liked enough to get multiple requests for the recipe from friends and family. 

So many requests that I have even been asked "Why isn't it on your blog?"

Well, as of today, I can say "Glad you like it...check my blog for the recipe!"

The recipe is one of my favorites too: 

Asian Salad Dressing 

(and/or Marinade)

Simple, and yet, oh so yummy. 

Six ingredients. 1000 degrees of flavor.

All are staple foods that I always have in my cabinets or freezer. 

(I know you may be wondering about the freezer ingredient, but hang on)

So, without further ado, here is the step by step tutorial. 

 The six ingredients are, left to right:

1. honey 2. soy sauce 3. fresh ginger 4. canola oil

5. rice wine vinegar 6. granulated garlic [garlic powder] 

 By the way, one of my favorite vessels for salad dressing is a one pint Mason jar.

Did you know you can buy separate white plastic covers for Mason jars?

With the measurements built into the jar, there is no need to dirty measuring cups!

One less thing to load into the dishwasher is fine by me.

First up, soy sauce.

Add 2.5 oz or about 1/3 cup.

Next, add equal amt (2.5oz or 1/3 cup) of rice vinegar.

You should have about 5 oz or around 2/3 cup.

If it will set your mind at ease, I will tell you that a little extra

[or a little less] of any of these ingredients doesn't matter a bit. 

Really.

Add 1 tsp of garlic powder.

Do you have a microplane?

 If you don't....oh boy. Ask for one for your birthday. Or Valentine's Day!

(Am I the only crazy gal who likes to get cooking stuff for Valentine's Day, my birthday, or Christmas?)

It's wonderful for grating cheese, garlic, lemon zest, and fresh ginger.

I just lay the Microplane on top of the jar...

 And I simply grate the ginger right into the jar.

About 1-2 tsps of ginger. I just eyeball it.

I store my ginger root in my freezer. It keeps for months in a freezer bag.

I also do not peel it. Ever.

Just grate. And enjoy.

DO NOT substitute powdered ginger in this recipe.

It would be heresy!

Of course, if you had to, you could, but it won't taste the same!

Here it is on my freezer door.

It gets a little icy...but no biggie.

Next ingredient is honey. 

You could substitute Splenda if you wish.

 Add about 2 teaspoons of honey.

 Last ingredient--Canola oil. 

At this point you should have about 3/4 cup (6oz) of liquid. 

 Add 3/4 cup of oil to this.

You should end with a half and half mixture.

Half oil, half other stuff.

 Cover with your handy dandy plastic Mason jar cover (I found them at Walmart).

 And shake well.

Behold.

A jar.

 

 A jar of deliciousness.

Super fantastic salad dressing, as well as an awesome marinade for chicken, steak or salmon.

Real Men DO eat quiche!

Some of my favorite recipes are those that I end up
tweaking either a little (or a lot) to make the finished product
taste even better.

This recipe for Crustless Cheddar Broccoli Quiche is one of my favorite recipes to change up.

The original recipe is basic, and simple, and best of all, forgiving.
(Essentially, forgiving means that you really can't screw it up) And, as a bonus, it is lowfat, and tastes delicious.
You don't even miss the crust. Really!

Start by heating 2 tsp olive oil in a saute pan on med heat.

Now comes the tweaking.

The original recipe calls for 1/4 cup chopped onion, and 1 pkg of thawed frozen broccoli.

What I do is check out what veggies I have in my frig, and use
just about any combination I like.
Leftover veggies are perfect.

Here I started by chopping 1 red pepper into a rough dice.

Throw it into the pan and start it going.

Next, a bit of red onion, chopped.
Now, I LOVE onions, and ordinarily I would put twice as much as this, maybe 3 times..but...keep listening..cuz we are adding a
little somethin-somethin in a bit.

Into the pan go the onions...

Checking out the very back of my veggie drawer, I saw a bit of leftover fresh broccoli.
I chopped it a bit, and put it in the microwave for 1 min to steam a bit.

And then chopped it up....

..and added it to peppers and onions.

In this recipe, I am using TWO ingredients that can take your
recipes from good to sublime.

Here's the first one:
Caramelized onions.
Heaven in a dish is what I call it.

Chop up some of this deliciousness and

add that to the pan too.
If the peppers and onions have softened, you can shut the stove off.
They just need a light saute.

Now back to the basics.
Eggs and cottage cheese.

Normally I use egg whites (which the recipe calls for) and add some whole eggs.
This morning I realized that the only egg whites I had were frozen.
Yes, I realize I could have made my own egg whites out of whole eggs, but I'm too lazy.

The basic recipe calls for 2 cups of egg whites (Egg Beaters), but I ended up using
just 6 whole eggs.
This is why I call this recipe forgiving.
You can tweak it all you want and it
still comes out OK!
Just you wait and see.
(Normally I might use 1 cup of egg whites and 3 or 4 eggs.)

Here I am pretending to pour frozen egg whites into the mixing bowl.
(This is just in case you might want to use them someday when you tweak YOUR recipe!...hhahaha)

Now for the cottage cheese..the recipe calls for 1/2 cup..but I use 1 cup.

Add it to the eggs...

...and mix.

Salt and pepper are nice....

...so I add them here too.

Now here is the SECOND ingredient that can take your recipes to the next level.

Sun-dried Tomatoes!
yummmmm.

Chop them finely....

...and add to the egg mixture.

Now the recipe calls for 1/2 cup shredded
cheddar cheese...but here comes more tweaking.

I used 3 kinds of cheeses...about 2 TBLS of leftover romano cheese, 1/4 cup of feta, and 1/2 cup of a shredded 3 cheese lite blend.

Stir that into the egg mixture too.

Take your sauteed veggies and put them into the bottom of a pie dish....
(spray the pie plate with Pam spray first)

..and pour the egg mixture on top.
Do not stir!

Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes or so.

Real Men in this house LOVE this quiche.