All posts filed under: tomatoes

Heirloom Tomato and Herbed Ricotta and Goat Cheese Tart

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August is playing a trick on us.  It’s usually a million degrees here, but between overcast skies, afternoon thunderstorms and temperatures hovering around 100 degrees, I’ve almost convinced myself that Autumn is right around the corner.  So pervasive was this thought that I actually turned on my oven and made this Heirloom Tomato Tart! I know I’ve been waxing poetic about heirloom tomatoes these last few weeks, but I cannot resist! Tomatoes are just so juicy and sweet and plump this time of year that I cannot help myself. Fresh tomatoes are here and we are stuffing our faces with them every chance we get! Before long, it will be October and all we’ll have are canned tomatoes or at worst, those awful mealy, off-season tomatoes at the grocery store!  So, I hope you’ll bear with me for one more week while I continue to gorge myself with vine-ripened heirloom tomatoes! This tart was inspired by a dear friend and coworker who makes the most amazing comfort foods!  She is the Queen of Cream; the Baroness of Bacon!  Everything she makes is just filled …

Heirloom Tomato and Burrata Caprese Salad and That Time I Broke the Cat.

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DIY and I just don’t get along and I’ll tell you why.  Home improvement projects, on the whole, are NEVER as easy as they look, and sometimes, when you’re me, they can cause a cascade of unfortunate events that just might make you decide that the ugly wallpaper in the bathroom just might be fine for another year. It all started last Saturday morning.  It was that glorious, early morning golden hour, before the cats were awake and meowing, before breakfast needed to be made.  HGTV was on in the background, I was reading the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens on my iPad and then an article popped up on my Houzz app that gave me 11 (really awesome) reasons to paint my interior doors black!  Do you know Houzz?  Houzz is awesome.  It’s a huge database of Things You Want to Do To Your House But Should Really Call a Contractor for.  “This is a great idea!”, I thought. “This is going to be an easy, low budget update!”  So, with visions swirling …

Grill-fried Chicken Wings with Tomato Salad

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I bet you’re wondering what “grill-fried” chicken wings are.  Well, it was an experiment that went very right, and although I don’t normally blog my weekday meals, this one was particularly pleasing and I thought I’d share it with you.  The idea for these wings came from a pizza place that was in business here for a very short time, called Anthony’s Wood Fired Pizza. It was one of our favorite pizza places and we would go there more often for their wings than for the pizza.  The wings were simply well-seasoned with lots of garlic and topped with a mound of caramelized onions.  They weren’t bathed in sauce and there wasn’t any dipping sauce.  They were perfect just as they were.  The restaurant closed down a few years ago, but I still make these garlicky chicken wings topped with caramelized onions to this day.  I usually make the wings in a 425 degree convection oven, which makes them crispy and golden, but with this continuing heat wave, you couldn’t pay me to turn my …

Summer Vegetable Tian

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This simple dish is a wonderful way to take advantage of peak season summer vegetables.  I’m happy to say that I picked the eggplants, tomatoes and zucchini from our little garden!  Yes, you heard that right–I actually grew two more zucchinis! Huzzah!  The most difficult part of this dish is the assembly and that’s only if you’re slightly impatient, like me, and get tired of layering seemingly endless slices of vegetables, but the finished product is so worth the extra time. For this dish I used: 1 large zucchini, sliced  4 medium sized green tomatoes, sliced (Roma tomatoes would be great for this dish) 3 small eggplants, sliced–mine were rather small and I had two Japanese eggplants and one Black Beauty 1/2 red onion, sliced 3 cloves garlic, minced 3 sprigs thyme, stems removed, lightly chopped handful of fresh basil, stems removed, chopped olive oil splash of white wine softened butter First, cut a piece of parchment paper to fit the top of the gratin or casserole dish you plan to use.  Butter the dish …