Showing posts with label tomatoes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tomatoes. Show all posts
We had a lovely weekend weatherwise last weekend. Salad weather. Well, I thought it was salad weather anyways. Todd was not so sure! It was nice to have drier, sunnier days however, and to me that spells Salad weather! I do love my comfort food in the Winter, but long about this time of year I start to craving salads!
This simple and easy to make salad encompasses all of the things you love about the classic BLT Sandwich.
With lovely chunks of ripe tomato, bits of crisp bacon, and crunchy romaine lettuce, chopped red onion, all mixed with some cooked pasta and a fabulous punchy lemon mayo dressing. Some crunchy croutons (I used bacon flavoured ones this time) are it's crowning touch!
*BLT Salad*
Serves 8
black pepper to taste
100g of dry pasta shapes (3/4 cup)
1 (20g) pack of crisp bread croutons ( about 1/2 cup)
Note - If you wish to make this ahead, leave out the lettuce and the croutons until just prior to serving. Bon Appetit!
This recipe today is one of those economical dishes that is not only quick and easy to make but which are real family pleasers. The original recipe comes from a cookery book that I have had since I was seventeen years old and since I am now sixty-one, that is a very long time! This is truly a recipe which has stood the test of time!
My last year in High School there was an offer in a magazine to purchase the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook library. You would get one book a month, which would arrive via the post, which you could then pay for at a fair price by return post. I collected all of the volumes.
This one comes from the volume entitled, "Good Food on a Budget." I have adapted it a bit through the years by adding some oregano and onions to the sauce, and the way I layer it together. I like to have the cheese on the top. In the original recipe they have the sauce on the top.
I have also cut down the servings of the recipe because there are only two of us now in this house and one of us is not a real pasta lover. SO instead of serving 6 to 8, it now serves 3 to 4.
Other than that it is basically the same recipe as the original. It is quick and simple to make and goes together in a flash. It is also a dish which most people love. With its hearty meat sauce and simple cheese filling/topping it is a real pleaser! All you need on the side is a salad and some garlic bread if desired.
You will want to use a sausage in this that has plenty of flavour! Over here I favour Cumberland Sausage because it is nice and peppery, but you can use whichever sausage meat you like. A sweet italian would go very well.
*Mock Lasagne Casserole*
Serves 3 to 4
1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
225ml tomato passatta (1 cup, tomato sauce)
60ml water (1/4 cup)
1/2 tsp each dried basil, dried oregano, onion powder, garlic granules
salt and black pepper to taste
100g dry macaroni (Uncooked, 1 cup)
Because the passata/tomato sauce for this is such an integral part of the recipe, you will want to use one which has nice flavours. I use Cirio and I know you must be tired of me saying this, but it is a well favoured Passata made with only the finest fresh Italian Tomatoes,ensuring that your dishes will have a full bodied and rich Italian flavour! It also comes in a new PET bottle which means you can use as little or as much of it as you like, simply popping the lid back onto the bottle and refrigerating the rest for another day, which works well for this recipe which basically only uses 225ml/1 cup of passata/tomato sauce. The PET bottles are also recyclable and unbreakable. I used the Passata Classica for this recipe.
I really hope you will give this a go and that if you do your family really enjoys it. Bon Appetit!
After a really busy and full week last week, I found myself craving something simple for tea on Saturday evening. A store cupboard meal and something which would not take a lot of time to knock together. I have this recipe binder that I have had kicking around for a very long time and this recipe comes from that. It is perfect for those lacking in inspiration nights and for nights when you are feeling very lazy but still want to eat something delicious! Tex-Mex Bean Bake. I have no idea where the original recipe comes from, as it is hand written and I didn't make note of the source back when I was doing my binder. All I can tell you for sure is it is very tasty and very old . . . written on a page that is splattered and torn! A testimony to it's deliciousness!
I confess I have only ever really had Cassoulet once. It was when we were visiting my son in Canada and it was delicious. He's a good cook, and he's not afraid to try new things. He's always been that way. Normally Cassoulet contains duck and takes hours to prepare. This delicious casserole uses chicken thighs and tinned beans and uses only a fraction of the time of this traditional French stew.
We had a windstorm a week or so ago and our tomato plants all blew over. I was force to pick them all. Most were green. I had thought to make some green tomato chow, but alas time got away from me and they ripened in the bowl before I could get that done. That was okay however because I love tomatoes and I am never at a loss as to what to do with tomatoes!
I quite simply love tomatoes and have been collecting ways to use them for years and years and years. This recipe today comes from a small green notebook which is filled with lovely home style old fashioned recipes, laboriously copied by myself years ago from books I took out from the local library. Unfortunately I was not quite so good at keeping a record of which book they came from. I can date this notebook to the years I was living in Meaford, Ontario, and I think it might have been from a book called Canadian Cookbook by Elizabeth Baird, but I could be wrong, so do forgive me if I am. In any case it is a delicious recipe.
I had in mind to make some tomato jam with the tomatoes from my tomato plants, but it ended up that I would not have had enough fresh tomatoes to do it.
We have been far too greedy with eating them fresh and they have been so very good. I had a real hunger for tomato jam however . . . a real hunger . . . it sounded so tasty . . .
One ingredient I do have plenty of however is tinned tomatoes. Lovely tinned Italian tomatoes, and so I decided to feed the hunger which could not be dampened and I created a tomato jam using them.
I am no stranger to making jams and chutneys. I have been making them for years.
In fact, one of the things we learned to make when I was doing my chef's course, was chutney.
I decided to apply some of the same principles, albeit with some different flavours, to this tomato jam, and . . . I hasten to add, with EXCELLENT results!
It turned out fabulous. It is nice and thick . . . . and sweet without being too sweet . . . and just spiced right, with a tiny bit of a kick. Ohhh . . . just lovely.
I was so very pleased and so was my husband. He is really enjoying it, with cold meats, cheeses, in sandwiches, with his potatoes, etc.
It's a real winner! It doesn't make a lot, but it's nice to know that I can easily make it any time I want to, and that I won't have to rely on fresh tomatoes being in season either.
I hope you will try it! It's a lovely taste of tomato sunshine!
I hope you will try it! It's a lovely taste of tomato sunshine!
*Tomato Jam*
Makes about 1/2 pint. (1 cup) Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and simmer until
nicely thickened. Taste and adjust seasoning as required with salt and
pepper. Cool and then pour into a jar. Keep refrigerated.
Cirio Chopped Tomatoes . . . authentically Italian. They are so good I could just eat them out of the tin with a spoon, and do from time to time. (Don't judge me!) In a recipe where the tomatoes are going to be one of the stars, you want really good ones, and these are the best!
I really hope you will make some of this delicious tomato jam, if not for yourself, then for someone you love. You won't regret it! Bon Appetit!
This is a recipe that I have made on here before, but it was so long ago and the photos are so poor I wanted to do it again, using the fresh tomatoes from our garden. This is a winner of a recipe and one I just love. It is so good that I felt it deserved a new write up and updated photographs!
I love this time of year when we blessed enough to be enjoying an abundance of fresh local produce! I grew my own tomatoes this year and I have to say I did a really great job of it! (Not to brag or anything!) I took advantage of some of them, as well as some which I bought to make up the difference, to make a delicious homemade crock-pot marinara sauce.
I've been in the process of downsizing my book collection for a number of weeks now, this involves going through all of my books and making the agonizing (for me) decision of which ones to keep and which ones to give away. The ones I give away go to the charity shop. Of course most of them are cookery books . . . and that makes it even more difficult to decide, and it takes a lot of effort on my part and yes, sacrifice. I have decided though that if there are not more than one or two recipes in a book that I would actually cook, no matter how beautiful it is, it has to go.
I love recipes like this which are so very simple that you can throw them together at the drop of a hat, and yet they end up tasting like you have taken a great effort to put them together. I guess it is the simplest things in life which bring me the most pleasure. I don't think cooking has to be complicated in order to taste good. I don't really enjoy jumping through a bazillion hoops to get to where I want to be and that goes for cooking too! I did enough of that when I was working. Now simple and tasty will do it for me.
What can I say . . . there are times in life when I just long for . . . indeed crave . . . a bowl of pasta. And sometimes it can be as simple as a bowl of hot spaghetti adorned with nothing but butter, salt, pepper and a bit of parmesan and sometimes it can be something a bit more complicated . . . it just depends on my mood and how quickly I want it on the table.
When I was growing up my mother used to treat us every now and again to a steak supper called Swiss Steak. It was delicious and one of my father's favourite meals. Easy to do . . . it involved beating tougher cuts of steak to tenderize them, browning them and then braising them in a mix of tinned tomatoes and onions. When I had my own family, I added peppers and herbs to the mix. Everyone loved it.
One of our favourite suppers when I was growing up was my mother's homemade baked beans. Oh my but they were absolutely gorgeous. She would start the night before by soaking the dried beans overnight and then early the next morning, often even before anyone else was up, she began her magic with them . . . putting everything together and into her bean crock and into the oven, so that by the time we woke up we could already smell the deliciousness that was waiting for us later in the day!
In my later years I have developed a much more interesting palate and there are things I would cook and try now that I wouldn't have even thought of trying when I was younger. We also have such beautiful produce, eggs, etc. here in the UK, and such a wide variety . . . that I just enjoy cooking and eating with gusto! (And it shows blah . . . )
Because of my present eye problems, I did an online grocery shop at the end of last week. I just didn't feel like pushing a grocery cart through a shop with all the poor lighting etc. I don't mind shopping online . . . but this time most of my fresh items arrived with short use by dates. That I DO mind. YES I am one of those annoying people who pick the produce etc. from the back of the row where it is fresher when I am shopping!
One of the nice things about having someone else in the house is that Ariana likes Pasta and now I have the perfect excuse to cook it and not feel guilty about it. Today I made this simple and yet incredibly tasty pasta dish that Ariana and I both really enjoyed, and the Toddster dined on leftover meat and potatoes. Everybody was happy!
I just love fresh Spring asparagus. I don't eat asparagus any other time of the year because there is just no comparison in flavour. I believe in eating seasonally. I don't think asparagus that has been shipped over from Peru in the depths of winter has any flavour at all really. The taste never justifies it's high price in my opinion!
That's why I get so excited when Spring rolls around! Not only are the days getting longer and the temperatures warmer, but I know it won't be long before I am able to enjoy our delicious British asparagus at it's best! British Asparagus season lasts officially from about the last week of April til the third week in June, so it's not long, but I try to get as much of it as I can during that time!
I believe that British Asparagus has rightfully been described as the best in the world. (Along with the carrots and strawberries in my opinion!) Tender and sweet, there really is no comparison! What you want to look for are firm green spears with tight green tips. If they are limp and sad looking, don't buy them. They're old. Blah! And if they look in the least bit slimy, run, run as fast as you can away from them. Bad, Bad. (Don't laugh. I have seen this!)
As it's grown in sand, you will want to wash your asparagus well. I just lay them in a dish of cold water and swish them about a bit. The sand should fall right off. The ends of larger ones can be a bit woody, so just snap them off. It's not hard to tell where that part is as the spear will naturally break at that point. If you are at all afraid you can trim the bottoms a bit with a carrot peeler. I also like trim off the points as they can have a tendency to be a bit bitter sometimes.
This is a beautiful salad which I like to make each year which showcases this lovely vegetable beautifully. I quite simply adore roasted asparagus, and it shines in this simple and quick salad, which also contains roasted cherry tomatoes, and al dente farfalle pasta. I make a simple dressing for it by mixing some lemon mayonnaise, ranch dressing and a bit of fresh basil pesto. Tossed together and garnished with some freshly grated Parmesan cheese you would be hard pressed to find a tastier salad! Hooray for Asparagus Season!
*Pasta Salad with Roasted Tomatoes and Asparagus*
Serves 4
A deliciously different Pasta Salad. Easy to make, quick, colourful and very tasty!
1 punnet of cherry tomatoes, halved (about 2 cups)
1 pound of asparagus, washed and dried
2 TBS olive oil
2 TBS chopped fresh basil, plus more for garnish if desired
flaked sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 TBS mayonnaise with lemon added
2 TBS prepared ranch dressing
1 tsp of basil pesto sauce
1 pound of farfalle pasta (bow tie)
freshly grated Parmesan cheese to taste
Preheat the oven to 220*C/425*F. gas mark 7. Have ready a baking sheet which you have lined with foil and lightly sprayed with oil.
Cut the asparagus into 2 inch lengths, put the into a bowl with the tomato halves. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Add the fresh basil. Toss all together to coat. Spread out into a single layer on the baking sheet, making sure the cut sides of the tomatoes
are facing up. Roast in the heated oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until the tomatoes start to blister and the asparagus is tender crisp. Set aside
to cool.
Place the pasta in a pot of lightly salted boiling water and cook to al dente, according to the package directions. Drain well, rinse with cold water
to cool down, and rinse again.
Whisk the mayonnaise, ranch dressing and pesto together in the bowl you tossed the vegetables with the oil in. Add the pasta and toss to
coat. Fold in the asparagus and roasted tomatoes. Sprinkle with some freshly grated Parmesan cheese and serve garnished with fresh chopped basil
if you wish
There are normally only two of us eating in this house and so I normally try to cut recipes in half for us, or create dishes which are simple and make just enough for two. It's not that hard to do really. And you can normally multiply up with no problems at all.
I found myself with an abundance of cherry tomatoes on Saturday last and so I decided that I would incorporate them somehow into our supper. I also had chicken breasts. Chicken and tomatoes go really well together. One only need to look at delicious recipes such as Chicken Cacciatore or Chicken Parmesan to see that this is true.
This recipe goes together very quickly so I would suggest you have all of the ingredients ready and hand before you start. The chicken breasts are cut into two escallopes horizontally which makes for quick cooking . . .
The cherry tomatoes are cut in half as well, for quick cooking. I saw a really interesting and helpful little video on how to that really quickly the other day. You can see it here. It's a slap on the forehead, why didn't I think of that kind of a thing! (It really does work!)
The tomatoes are quickly frizzed in some olive oil along with some garlic. You dust the chicken pieces with some flour and salt and pepper and then brown them in the same pan, along with some sage. It doesn't take very long at all as they are only half as thick as they normally are.
A splash of white wine, a few capers . . . . bubble bubble bubble, a handful of chopped parsley and presto chango, you have tender moist chicken with a delicious sauce of cherry tomatoes and capers, that will please any meat loving man. The Toddster loves this. I always serve it with some boiled new potatoes. It goes down a real treat, and goes together lickety split. If you are looking for a quick, easy and delicious supper and are feeling a tad bit lazy, this is your perfect meal! Looks like you slaved all day, but took literally minutes.
I found myself with an abundance of cherry tomatoes on Saturday last and so I decided that I would incorporate them somehow into our supper. I also had chicken breasts. Chicken and tomatoes go really well together. One only need to look at delicious recipes such as Chicken Cacciatore or Chicken Parmesan to see that this is true.
This recipe goes together very quickly so I would suggest you have all of the ingredients ready and hand before you start. The chicken breasts are cut into two escallopes horizontally which makes for quick cooking . . .
The cherry tomatoes are cut in half as well, for quick cooking. I saw a really interesting and helpful little video on how to that really quickly the other day. You can see it here. It's a slap on the forehead, why didn't I think of that kind of a thing! (It really does work!)
The tomatoes are quickly frizzed in some olive oil along with some garlic. You dust the chicken pieces with some flour and salt and pepper and then brown them in the same pan, along with some sage. It doesn't take very long at all as they are only half as thick as they normally are.
A splash of white wine, a few capers . . . . bubble bubble bubble, a handful of chopped parsley and presto chango, you have tender moist chicken with a delicious sauce of cherry tomatoes and capers, that will please any meat loving man. The Toddster loves this. I always serve it with some boiled new potatoes. It goes down a real treat, and goes together lickety split. If you are looking for a quick, easy and delicious supper and are feeling a tad bit lazy, this is your perfect meal! Looks like you slaved all day, but took literally minutes.
*Chicken with Cherry Tomatoes and Capers*
Serves 2
Quite simply delicious. Quick to make.Serves 2
through the middle into two escallopes (4 pieces in total)
salt and black pepper
Add the wine and return the tomatoes to the pan along with the capers and parsley. Let it bubble up a bit and evaporates somewhat. Cover with a lid and set aside off the heat for several minutes before serving. The juices of the chicken should run clear. Divide between two heated dinner plates. I like to serve with boiled and buttered new potatoes. Simple and delicious.
Note - This can easily be doubled or even tripled if you have a pan large enough. Don't worry about the wine, it bubbles off. If you really don't want to use it you can use chicken stock, or even water.
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