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Saturday, September 1, 2012

Cherry tomato tart.



Do you ever grow so many cherry tomatoes that you start to wonder what you're going to do with all of them?  Here's a simple and beautiful recipe.

1.  Take a 9x10 prepared puff pastry and roll to fit 9x13 quarter sheet pan.  Prick with fork all along bottom and cover with parchment then weight with dry beans or pie weights and cook in 375 degree F oven for about 15 min.

2.  Remove beans and parchment and sprinkle par cooked pastry with 1/4 cup grated parmesan and bake for another 5-10 min until cheese melted and just golden.  Take this out of the oven and let it start to cool.

3.  Then take 1.5 lbs of cherry tomatoes and add about 1 TBSP olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste on a sheet pan and put into the oven on broil for about 10 minutes, until tomatoes start to blister.  Shake pan and rotate as needed.

4.  While the tomatoes are working mix fresh herbs to amount to about 1/2 cup finely chopped green herbs.  I used 2 parts parsley, 1 part basil, 1/2 part chives 1/2 part fresh oregano.  Add 1 clove finely chopped garlic and a pinch of nutmeg and mix.

5.  When the tomatoes are soft and blistered, remove from pan with slotted spoon and place on pastry.  Then sprinkle herb mixture on top. Please back into 425 degree oven for about 5 min, just until everything is hot.

Remove from heat, let cool slightly.  Slice up and serve.  Delicious.
I'd recommend eating all of it on the day prepared because the pastry loses that nice crisp texture after the tomatoes sit on top for a day or 2.

Recipe adapted from Saveur.com


Winter, finally (and seriously)

I planned to start this blog last spring as my garden flew into action, but then got into the actual work of gardening and abandoned the task. However, today its winter, really winter. I'm wearing long underwear and sitting under a blanket and I'm still cold.
Today is the shortest day of the year so from here on in it gets better. I look forward to longer days, that's for sure. But I'll also tuck in and enjoy winter's freeze and snow, it does mean skiing after all. Maybe more importantly is the snow pack - without snow there isn't water for the West.
The end of the year and the solstice are a good time to think back on the last 365. I have no reason to complain and feel really lucky about the last year and really hopeful about the year to come.