My journey of cooking, gardening, preserving and more
Fresh spring rolls, sometimes called summer rolls, are beautiful, aren’t they? No matter what you decide to fill them with, they become these gorgeous stained glass works of edible art. I’ve made spring rolls a number of times because I love their crunchy freshness as …
Have I mentioned how much I love eggs? Probably. And, rest assured, my cholesterol levels are spectacular. Mix them with some gorgeous vegetables, especially from your garden, a bit of cream and a touch of cheese and hello easy meal. Not only is this a …
It was not a stellar year for my tomato plants this season. Though I harvested quite a few, it was certainly not a typical year. Cool nights, flooding rains and cooler-than-average daytime temps do not make for happy, bountiful tomato plants.
The exception to all of this were my cherry tomato plants, which went absolutely insane. Typically, I only plant one cherry tomato plant but, somehow, I mixed up “Cherokee” and “Cherry” in my planting and markings, so this year I had 3. Yeah, 3. Holy moly.
What to do with an overload of cherry tomatoes? Aside from eating them like candy from the bowls on our kitchen counter (for the love of all that’s holy, do not refrigerate tomatoes, please) and tossing them into every single salad I make, we also gave a ton away. Still, the bounty overflowed. If you’re having a party, skewers of cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella balls, and a leaf or two of fresh garden basil make a lovely appetizer. You can also make an amazing fresh tomato salsa with cherry tomatoes, just like you would with their larger counterparts: toss with chopped onion, jalapeno, and cilantro, drizzle with lime juice, sprinkle with salt and serve. Of course, you can also make canned salsa with cherry tomatoes, but that’s a whole other post. Cherry tomatoes are a beautiful thing, so when you’ve exhausted all of the ways to use them fresh, you’ll want to preserve the rest of them.
Here’s one way that I like to preserve cherry tomatoes: roasting them with olive oil, salt, garlic, and fresh herbs. Very similar to my other oven roasted tomato recipe, this one simply involves cherry tomatoes instead of Roma tomatoes.
Cherry tomatoes are typically sweeter than larger tomatoes, but these still work great for soups, sauces, and spreads. And if you’re looking for a great way to preserve cherry tomatoes, this is certainly a delicious way to do so, as these freeze really well.
This is more of a “how-to-prepare” post than it is an actual recipe. How you do this will depend on how many tomatoes you have, how much time you have, and what herbs you’d like to add.
I like to crush the herbs with my hands at this point – it helps release their flavorful oils.
Roast in oven until they begin to break open and caramelize on the tops and edges. I usually speed this process along by gently pressing the partially-cooked tomatoes with a large spatula. Be careful though or you’ll end up with an oven full of hot tomato juice.
I’ve done these long and slow in a low oven and done these fast in a very hot oven. Either way really works, as long as you’re keeping an eye on them and don’t let them burn. If you do them in a slow oven and they’re cooked well but not caramelized, pop them under the broiler for a few closely-watched minutes and they’ll brown right up.
Also, if I’m using whole herbs, I take them off if they roast faster than the tomatoes. Inevitably, some of the roasted herbs break off into the tomatoes and that’s just fine.
Remove from oven and cool.
Transfer to the freezer-safe packaging of your choice and refrigerate until well chilled and then freeze.
These are also great in soups, stews, and sauces. I’ve done numerous trays in the oven at one time, which helps me justify turning the oven on in the middle of summer.
Beautiful stuff, right? This is one of my favorite ways to preserve the fresh summer bounty of tomatoes. I hope you love them, too!
If you’re just finding me now at my old WordPress site, I hope you’ll join me in my latest posts at lolarugula.com
Every year I’m in awe of just how many eggplants one plant can product and this year is no different. Here are a couple of shots of some of the eggplants I harvested out of our garden last year: Beautiful, aren’t they? This past weekend, I decided …
This is a popular summertime recipe in my house because the only thing I have to truly cook is pasta. This no-cook tomato pasta sauce is simple, flavorful and delicious, especially when you use sun-ripened tomatoes and fresh basil from your garden or farmers market. …
There’s not been much time for blogging for this girl lately. First there was painting, to get ready for new living room furniture. Then veggie gardening, followed by flower gardening. And in between, I’ve been working on refinishing a cool side table I found at a flea market; pictures of which I hope to post when the project’s complete!
In the midst of all of this, I’m still cooking fresh, delicious food, without a lot of fuss. It’s summertime and the living should be a little bit easy, right?
So this, my friends, is a roundup of some of the dishes I’ve been making. The photos all came from my Samsung Galaxy, so cut me a bit of slack where the quality is concerned, will you? 🙂
First up, with our influx of spring asparagus from the garden, is an easy, but beautiful asparagus frittata recipe.
Preheat oven to 375°
In a bowl, whisk together everything but the asparagus. Pour into a 10-inch (or close) non-stick pan. Gently press the asparagus spears into the top of the mixture.
Bake in oven about 20 minutes, just until edges start to turn golden brown. Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes before slicing and serving.
Don’t sweat this if you don’t have pencil-thin asparagus! Just dice up your thicker spears and add them to the mix. Maybe not as pretty but, trust me, still delicious. I’ve done it both ways and it works like a charm. If your spears are super-huge, try blanching them first.
Next up is what I call “Italian Salsa”. This is delicious simplicity at its best.
This is a recipe where you’ll just have to figure out the proportions on your own. I’ve never come close to measuring this, as sometimes I make a little and other times I make a lot. Just start off easy on the garlic…
Mix everything but the bread together in a bowl and let sit for about 30 minutes, to let the flavors develop and the cheese soften. Serve on fresh or toasted bread slices.
Next on the list is grilled whole rainbow trout. Grilled seafood is one of summertime’s true pleasures and, if you usually only grill meats, I highly recommend you try this. Again, not an exact recipe, but super easy to make with stunning results. I have a fantastic fish basket that’s made for the grill, but you can do this right on the grill grates, if needed; just make sure you’ve oiled the grates well before placing the fish on.
In a small dish, mix garlic, herbs, olive oil and butter until well blended. Set aside and let soften.
Using a very sharp knife, make diagonal slices on the exterior of the fish, cutting just through the skin to the flesh, about 1 inch apart.
Using a brush (or your clean hands), brush the interior and exterior of the fish with your herb and garlic mixture. Place fresh lemon slices inside the fish, in a single layer. Squeeze one or two of the slices over the fish first, for extra lemon flavor.
Place fish on a hot grill and cook until skin is crispy, about 8-10 minutes. Carefully flip fish over and cook on the other side until skin is crispy all over. Remove from grill and let sit about 5 minutes before serving.
Last, but not least, is a favorite of ours: lemon and parmesan pasta. In the world of recipes, this has to be one of the easiest but tastiest recipes around. Have no doubt, this is for lemon lovers so, if you don’t like lemons, you won’t appreciate this. But if you do like lemons….oh, the sheer joy….
I’ve made lemon pasta a number of different ways and even posted another variation of it, with shrimp and broccolini, here.
In a bowl, whisk together olive oil, parmesan, lemon juice and black pepper.
Cook pasta and drain, reserving 1 cup of cooking liquid. Add pasta back to pan and toss with lemon juice mixture and 1/2 cup of your reserved liquid. Add lemon zest and herbs, along with steamed asparagus, and toss well. If pasta is still a bit dry, add remaining cooking liquid. Plate, top with seared sea scallops and serve.
To sear the sea scallops (preferably while the pasta is cooking), get a good cast iron or grill pan nice and hot. Drizzle a bit of oil (I also llike to add a pat of real butter) into the pan and add your scallops, which have been patted dry. Sear well on each side until golden and starting to brown just a tad at the edges. Be sure not to crowd the pan or the scallops will steam in their liquid, instead of searing. If scallops start to brown too quickly or burn, reduce heat. When scallops are cooked all the way through, move to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm.
Well, that’s some of what I’ve been up to this summer! How about you? Have your cooked, traveled, or been writing the great American novel? I’m sorry I’ve not had time to catch up with everyone, but hopefully I will soon.
Happy summer, everyone! Relax a little and enjoy!
Grrrr! Don’t you hate it when you have this easy, quick dinner of pork chops planned, but then they end up dry as a bone? I’ve totally done this and been so disappointed that I just want to throw the whole meal in the garbage …