growing tomatoes

we are attempting to grow tomatoes. a spur of the moment purchase that my eyes landed on in the store. i don't know if i should admit this or not but it's the 'as seen on TV' kind. but they are sprouting!

here they are on our porch. *sigh* I'm so proud of them. i haven't quite developed the habit of taking pictures of food before I eat it. i have a few pictures of chopped up veggies for a coq au vin i made and than put in a pastry puff. somehow i don't think chopped celery, carrots and pearl onion on a cutting board really gets across what the final picture looked like. maybe i can draw it. so...tomorrow definitely. oh and the clafoutis from a previous post, totally making it again for staff meetings at work. i think that should recommend itself as to how EASY (and delicious!) it is to make considering it's only been a week or so since I made it.

jameson toddy

when casey (creator of little c) and I went to ireland we went to not one but TWO jameson distillery's. i discovered my love of whiskey through the delicious irish coffee. casey ordered the toddy; recipe as follows:

Jameson Toddy:
1 lemon wedge
cloves (insert in lemon rind)
honey
jameson (a whole lot of it!)
hot water

southwestern pasta

adapted this from foodmayhem.com.

10 cherry tomatoes

2 poblano peppers

garlic confit (from food & style...I made only one bulb)

fusilli pasta

1 cup milk (to start)

olive oil

1/2 canned corn

1/2 canned black beans

cut peppers in half, cut tomatoes in half. place in baking dish with olive oil and broil. meanwhile... start the garlic confit. food & style said only small bubbles but I definitely had some big bubbles going and it was fine. i was also lazy and didn't 'blanch' them, boy did I learn my lesson, very difficult to peel.

you may have to take tomatoes out early. they should be well cooked maybe even slightly browning on the skin edges but not charred. when the pepper skin is charred and peal-able take 'em out and let 'em cool. peel the skin and toss 'em in the blender (I don't have a kitchen aid or a food processor) with milk, add however many cloves of garlic you want. i added five and wish I had added more, maybe seven or eight. and blend. my sauce came out fairly thick so I added some more milk. (the original recipe calls for heavy cream but after running around pike's place on a sunday sweaty and exhausted I didn't bother getting some and used milk instead). place sauce in small pot and keep warm.

start pasta. cook beans and corn together and keep warm until pasta is done. when pasta is done mix together pasta, sauce, beans and corn. i put the tomatoes on top. i actually used less tomatoes than the recipe called for and wish i had added more of that as well. it was tasty and not so hard and was a break from olive oil based sauces and red sauce.

NOTE: i had leftover oil from my garlic cookin' and saved it in our olive oil bottle for another tasty treat. i also had 1/2 can of beans and corn which was added to a salsa.

reaction: both casey and i liked it, but agreed it could use a little something else. an herb perhaps?? definitely more tomatoes. i've never broiled them before and it was crazy how flavorful they were. will definitely cook those again as i've got some sitting in my fridge now.

what do you think I should have added??

i know...the end picture isn't spectacular i was just so hungry i couldn't wait anymore.

clafoutis

a dessert that is near and dear to my heart. i've made it with cherries and apricots many a time but never with rasberries and as I couldn't even find cherries in the store...thank you Urban Spork for the inspiration. i followed the recipe exactly save for adding a teaspoon of vanilla extract when I beat in the eggs and using only half a lemon for zest which I still felt was a bit much....but delicious and so so easy nonetheless. i know I know it was over cooked but really, once you sprinkle powdered sugar on top you don't can't even tell! honest. still super moist inside. a dessert fairly impossible to overcook and definitely impossible to keep around the house. i am fairly confident this will be gone before I go to bed. what?! it has fruit in it, it's totally healthy.

falafel + pita with other goodies

i may have cheated. i used the box falafel mix here with a tahini based dressing (the recipe comes on the can.) with some sauteed peppers and onions and lettuce and pita. it was tasty good and super easy. i could definitely make this during a week night. in retrospect I should have added some tomatoes and beans.

warm pear + onion spinach salad

to start my blog I wanted a few recipes to know I could actually cook often enough to post 'em. so I have few for my very first posts. i've been seeing copious amounts of pear salads so I wanted to try my own. i don't eat pears nearly often enough. i didn't necessarily base it off any recipe but rather just put together ingredients that I though went well together. i don't think this really needs a recipe. put as much or as little as you want of everything.

-pears (i used Bosc and Anjou)
-red onion
-almonds and walnuts
-spinach
-olive oil-balsamic vinegar
get some spinach in a bowl.
oven+nuts until toasty...keep warm
pan+olive oil+pears+red onion until onions are soft and translucent and pears are soft. place on top of spinach.
add balsamic vinegar to the leftover olive oil in the warmed pan + salt and maybe some pepper, but none for me thanks. don't forget the nuts!
I served this with some warm garlic naan.