There seems to be such a difference in people’s gardening styles. The first tomatoes I got from my friend were soft, fully ripened and ready to eat. This second batch I got from another coworker is more on the unripened side, a little more orange inside and not quite there yet. But I can understand the reasoning for them to ripen on the counter and last a little longer.

Since they were a little on the unripened side I decided I needed to get the best possible flavor out of these guys. I remember seeing a Barefoot Contessa recipe in which she made a roasted tomato Caprese salad and I was enchanted. But I also wanted soup. So I used her method to roast the tomatoes and get the best flavor I could out of them.

If you’ve never had a roasted tomato then you are truly missing out. Its similar in flavor to a sun dried but not quite as intense and not quite as oily since I only drizzled them in olive oil and didn’t make them swim in it. I had to restrain myself from just picking them up from the pan and eating them.

I also loved how the soup came together in the food processor, very smooth but had a lot of body to it which I really think came from the roasted tomatoes. I think next time I’ll end up roasting the garlic and onions as well. Now I just need more tomatoes.

I also used a LOT of fresh black pepper. The pepper mill has become my absolute favorite thing in the kitchen. After the soup simmered with the pepper it had this wonderful deep roasted flavor but with this bite of heat near the end. Not really spicy but you could really taste the black pepper.

Good gods you have to make this soup.

Roasted Tomato Soup
Serves 6-8

• 12-15 Roma or Plum tomatoes
• 1/4 cup olive oil, divided
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 white onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1 (6oz) can tomato paste
• 1/2 teaspoon basil
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 bay leaf

1. Preheat the oven to 275F.
2. Quarter and seed all of the tomatoes and arrange on a foil lined baking sheet.
3. Drizzle with half of the olive oil and season liberally with salt and pepper and roast slowly in the oven for 2 hours. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
4. While the tomatoes cool, cook the onions and garlic in a pan over medium heat until the onions are translucent and the garlic is fragrant.
5. In a food processor add the tomatoes, garlic and onions and puree until very smooth. If using a blender add a small amount of broth to help blend.
6. Add the tomato mixture to a large pot and and the remaining ingredients and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove the bay leaf.
7. Serve soup hot with grilled cheese or garlic toasts.

Tomato season now makes me so excited, ever since my coworker brought me home grown tomatoes for the first time.

Last year I decided I was going to make something I had never actually tried, let alone try to make. Tomato soup. That’s right I had never eaten tomato soup and grilled cheese as a kid. Not sure why, I had a weird culinary upbringing.

I love her. And her tomato growing dad.

So when she brought me my first round of yummy, lovely tomatoes I proceeded to give myself heartburn before I had to stop eating the cherry tomatoes and I knew I just HAD to make more tomato soup this year.

The soup I made last year and instantly made a place in my cook book was tomato basil. Basil is my favorite flavor, besides garlic. The fact that tomato, basil and garlic go so well together makes my life very happy.

The sad part is I was so excited to make the soup is that I forgot to take pictures! Sometimes that happens. The excitement overrides my common blogger sense and I just go for it. But I assure you it was damn tasty!

Tomato Basil Soup
Serves 4-6

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1/4 cup minced onion
• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 4 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 1 cup diced fresh tomatoes
• 2 teaspoons dried basil
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 cup half and half
• 1 teaspoon corn starch

1. In a large pot over medium heat, cook garlic and onion in oil until onion is soft and translucent.
2. Stir in tomato paste and cook until the color is rusty and paste has softened. Add the tomatoes and warm through.
3. Let soup cool slightly and add ingredients to a blender or food processor. Add 1/2 cup of the chicken broth and process until smooth. Return to pot.
4. Pour in remaining chicken broth, and stir in basil, oregano, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes stirring frequently.
5. In a small bowl add the half and half and corn starch, whisk until the corn starch has dissolved. Add mixture to the soup and let simmer five more minutes for the soup to thicken.
6. Serve hot with grilled cheese or garlic toast

But now on to the pasta.

This was actually the inspiration for making the pasta. I bought this a few years ago with a friend when we were going to thrift stores. The thing I really love about it is the recipe and instructions that line the outside of the bowl.

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The recipe is ok, its not perfect and I could never get it to come out right. But then comes along Pastor Ryan and his trip to The Pioneer Woman’s place and made his own fresh pasta. This time I used that recipe and method of making the pasta. There aren’t any pictures of the process since I was home alone and my hands completely covered in sticky pasta dough.

Its a little hard to be a camera wielding maniac when you’re afraid of mucking up your camera. I’m such a weenie sometimes.

I made a double batch of pasta, a total of 8 eggs I think. Either way it was a LOT of dough. I really should just make things in smaller batches. I guess that’s just one of my charms though.

After I left it to rest for a minute (and cleaned up my mess) I put one bundle in the fridge to use later as ravioli (more on that later) and started working on one bundle to use as dinner of fresh pasta and leftovers.

My roller attachments made it so much easier to roll out the pasta. I only had it on speed 2 and it just went beautifully. I was in heaven. But then usually I do something stupid.

Like this. Really? You shouldn’t do that. All my dough did was stick together and force me to re-roll a good portion of it.

This would have been much smarter to do at first. Then they won’t stick nearly as bad to the counter as they wait their turn to be cut into lovely ribbons of deliciousness.

I’m really good at not thinking things through. Such as when I decide to roll out a ton of pasta and want to dry it but really don’t have anywhere to dry it. So the pasta ended up sitting on top of my mixer with a wooden spoon while I looked for some way to dry it. I had never dried pasta before so I really didn’t know what I was doing.

Sometimes I feel like the village is missing their idiot and some day I’m going to be dragged back kicking and screaming.

Don’t mock me. This is the only solution I could come up with. Its my clothes drying rack that I cleaned off and floured. It was my best solution at the time, but really there is a better solution.

Only make enough for what your actually going to eat! There was a LOT of pasta, especially since I just rolled everything out after I tried to make ravioli. Notice I said “tried”. It was a disaster so I ended up with just a whole lot of pasta. I ended giving a good portion to a friend so she could make dinner for her husband.

The pasta itself tasted great, and it cooks crazy fast which is nice for dinner. Next time I won’t be rolling them quite as thin, probably a little on the thick side for more texture.

This really has to be one of my husbands favorite dishes. He LOVES mac and cheese when we get it at restaurants or fast food.

Honestly? I don’t think I had ever eaten mac and cheese growing up.

Yes, I was a weird one.

But when you grew up with a dad who wont eat cheese, you generally don’t have a dish that is mainly cheese flavored. So I went without. Now, after moving out and being with my husband, I realize that I like cheese.

So I decided to make my own version of mac and cheese. Lovely, wonderful, warm and gooey mac and cheese.

The recipe I went off of was one from Alton Brown, and it was a very basic recipe. Starting with a traditional white sauce, add onion, mustard, bay leaf, paprika, egg, and cheese. Add pasta, top with bread crumbs and bake. I tried to make the recipe exactly as stated the first time, and it went over wonderfully. The only alteration I had to do was use instant oats that I crumbled up instead of bread crumbs since I didn’t have any. Husband and his friend went back for seconds, and that’s a great compliment.

So for the second time I made it, I did a few alterations. I used three types of cheese (equal amounts) and use half instant oats and bread crumbs for the topping, to give it more texture. I also used less butter to try and lighten it up.

For the cheese, I used a mixture of Monterey Jack, Sharp Cheddar, and Dubliner. Dubliner is one that a friend of mine turned me onto, it is like an aged cheddar, mixed with Parmesan and a little Swiss in flavor. Fantastic cheese! I think just about any cheese will be good with this, so try making your own blend and see what happens.

This last time I made this, I used double the amount of pasta needed by accident. When I get going cooking and I’ve done it at least a few times before, the recipe is more of a reminder of what goes in, and the amounts get a little fuzzy. But it still tasted great! The recipe calls for a half pound of pasta, I used a whole pound and it was great so somewhere between those two amounts would be perfect. Remember to use a good pasta with ridges on it, either the ripple kind or spirals work great.

My body doesn’t like a high cheese/high fat content food, so I can’t really indulge the way my husband does with this dish. But that’s just fine. I get just as much enjoyment out of making it as I do eating it.

Mac and Cheese
Serves at least 6

• 1/2 – 1 pound small pasta
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 3 cups milk
• 1 teaspoon mustard
• 1/2 cup onion, finely diced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 large egg
• 12 oz. cheese, shredded (sharp cheddar or a mix of cheeses)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Fresh black pepper
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup instant oats
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al-dente.
2. While the pasta is cooking, in a separate pot melt the butter. Whisk in the flour, 1/2 cup milk, and mustard. Keep whisking for about five minutes, removing any lumps, adding extra milk as needed to keep the mixture moving. Stir in the remaining milk, onion, bay leaf, and paprika. Simmer for ten minutes stirring constantly over medium heat. Remove the bay leaf.
3. Temper in the egg. Stir in 3/4 of the cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Fold the pasta into the mix and pour into a 2-quart casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese.
4. Take the oats and break up the pieces using your fingers, until it resembles coarse bread crumbs. Mix oats with the bread crumbs.
5. Melt the remaining butter in a saute pan and toss the crumbled oats and bread crumbs to coat. Top the macaroni with the crumbled oat mixture. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and rest for five minutes before serving.

I’m referencing one of those times where you make the dough yourself, everything is made start to finish (well except cheese, I don’t know how to do that yet).

We made our first pizza a few days ago, and I have to tell you I’m in love.

Normally I have a hard time eating delivery pizza. The grease really doesn’t sit well with my stomach and usually the toppings just aren’t up to par with what I’m craving. You also then have the whole topping issue. It really is rare to get people to agree what to have on a pizza (other than cheese).

This cheese was wonderful and didn’t upset my stomach at all! My half had bell pepper, grape tomatoes, and mushroom. My husband went for pepperoni. I really enjoyed my veggie side more than the pepperoni (less greasy) but it really had great flavor.

I do have to admit to making one mistake. I got the recipe from AllRecipes and I didn’t read far enough into the comments to realize that it made 2 medium size pizzas or one REALLY BIG pizza. From the picture you can tell what I did. That sucker took over my pizza stone and expanded over the sides! Next time I would definitely make it into 2 pizzas and make them thinner. This pizza was a beast!

The leftovers really weren’t as good as the first day, but I still liked it.

Note to self… Read before doing… ha!

I’ve had some apples living in the bottom drawer of my fridge for a few weeks, but had no urge to eat them at all since they seemed rather squishy. I HATE squishy apples. They have to be almost under-ripe and super crunchy for me to eat them.

So I went to town and sliced up all my apples. There were about 5 large ones, and it made quite a bit of apple chips…

But sadly enough these were all that survived. I made them the same day that my friend helped me to make some ice cream sandwiches, and in between steps we kept munching on them. I have to say I was REALLY full by the time we were done making those sandwiches.

Imagine eating 2.5 apples worth of fiber! That’s a whole lot of fiber!

Most of the time when you find dried apples in the stores, they are thick and chewy and covered in chemicals so they don’t turn brown. My versions are generally thinly sliced and almost over dried, making them slightly crunchy chips. And who cares if they are slightly brown! Yum!

I also like using tart apples for this, it gives it a little more flavor and not too sweet. A friend of my husband mentioned in passing that he always had too many apples due to the trees on his property, hopefully I can get some of those this year and make an arsenal of apple chips!

I just have to remember not to eat them all in one day…

I don’t know why exactly, but I suddenly got the idea to make pancakes. Not just any pancakes, but banana pancakes! I’ve never had or made banana pancakes but it seemed like a great way to have a sweet pancake without adding a whole lot of sugar to them. The natural sugars from the bananas really come out when you cook them, and you really don’t need syrup.

So off I went into the internet and came upon a very simple recipe for banana pancakes on All Recipes. Lovely. I also had JUST enough flour to make one batch of the pancakes.

I have to say they taste pretty darn good. The texture is SO different from regular pancake. Because of the banana bits it’s rather gooey on the inside, which is not really a bad thing texture wise. I also now have pancakes in the fridge to warm up for breakfast tomorrow!

I want to make them again, but possibly use half whole wheat flour instead of only all-purpose flour. I think that will give them a nice and nutty flavor along with the sweet banana. Not to mention it will give it some extra fiber. I also am thinking of using applesauce instead of the vegetable oil, more fiber and less fat.

This could be one of my favorite sweet breakfasts, paired with some fresh strawberries and powdered sugar.

Banana Pancakes
Makes 10 pancakes

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Combine dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix together wet ingredients.
2. Stir dry mixture into wet mixture; batter will be slightly lumpy.
3. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium heat. Pour 1/4 cup of batter into the pan for each pancake. Cook until pancakes are golden brown on both sides; serve hot.

It’s the breakfast of champions! Well maybe not, but it’s what I had for breakfast this morning after craving it for weeks. What I call the Italian Grilled Cheese, others would probably call a Panini. To me that’s just a super fancy grilled cheese. Call it what it is people, a grilled cheese!

I have started having a love of tomatoes when I was given tomatoes from a friend’s garden. They taste nothing like the tomatoes from the store, but more flavorful and sweeter. It’s sometimes hard now to buy tomatoes from the store, but sometimes you just have to buy them and make your favorite dish.

I first started making these using fresh garden tomatoes, along with some super fresh artisan bread. I first used fresh basil, but found that unless it’s chopped very small, it tends to get pulled out of the sandwich when you bite into it so I ended up using dried basil instead.

I love how the cheese melts, and you get the kick of spice from the basil, garlic and pepper. I know there probably should be a proper recipe for this one, but it’s more of a “soul food” type of dish. A little of this, a pinch of that. I don’t follow a recipe but more of a method and I know what I like. Much of this is just to taste, and I can be very heavy handed on the garlic and basil, but its personal preference.

Method/Recipe
Makes 2 sandwiches

• 4 slices rustic bread or home made bread
• 2 tomatoes (or one if it’s large)
• Fresh grated parmesan
• Shredded Mozzarella cheese
• Fresh cracked black pepper
• Garlic powder
• Dried basil
• Butter/Margarine

Directions

1. Preheat a pan over medium heat.
2. Lightly butter one side of each piece of bread, this will be the outside. On the non-buttered side of 2 slices spread a little parmesan cheese and mozzarella. Sprinkle with garlic powder and pepper. Slice the tomatoes and layer tomato slices on the parmesan, covering as much of the bread as possible. Add another layer of parmesan cheese and mozzarella. Sprinkle with dried basil and top with the other slice of bread (butter side out).
3. Add the sandwiches to the preheated pan. Optional: cover with a piece of foil and press down with a heavy skillet or pot to make it like a Panini. Check the bottoms of the bread often, when they become golden brown, flip the sandwiches to cook the other side.
4. Remove from heat when both sides are golden brown. Let the sandwiches sit for 1-2 minutes to cool before slicing.
5. Enjoy!

My husband turned me on to Artichoke Spinach Dip a few years ago. I had never had it and suddenly I was hooked. I love the warm, cheesy gooeyness eaten with chips or crackers. Who could hate that? Plus the added bonus of having the vegetables in it makes it seem not as bad for you.

There are so many recipes for this dip out there, yet so many of them made me wary. They all contained mayonnaise. For some reason, the thought of cooking mayo just really doesn’t sit well with me. I finally found one that had sour cream instead. I had to do my own modifications to it, such as low/reduced fat items and reducing some of the items as well.

It turned out pretty well and even made it for others and they loved it. I achieved my goal of making it better for you, and not have anyone notice.

Spinach Artichoke Dip
Serving size: 3 tablespoons
Total recipe makes: 26 tablespoons (about 5 cups)

• 1 10oz package frozen chopped spinach, partially thawed
• 2 cloves garlic (minced or use a garlic press)
• 1 14oz can quartered artichoke hearts, drained
• 1 8oz package low fat cream cheese, softened
• 1 16oz container light sour cream
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• Black pepper to taste

1. In a medium sauce pan, stir in the oil, garlic, and spinach. Chop artichoke hearts into desired size and add to the pot. Cook until tender, about 5 minutes.
2. Mix cream cheese and sour cream into the spinach mixture. Stir in Parmesan cheese and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 10 to 15 minutes. Serve warm with bread, or chips.

Tips

• Don’t use fat-free cream cheese, it takes much longer to melt and I’m not as fond of the taste vs. the reduced fat varieties.
• This recipe makes quite a bit of dip but it survives the freezer very well.