It's Raining Cherry Tomatoes

This year I planted my first square foot garden. I planted peppers, jalapenos, eggplant, watermelon, plum tomatoes and cherry tomatoes.  I also planted spinach and lettuce, which never sprouted... so in their place, Zinnias may bloom before season's end.

Off the bat, we got a nice little crop of jalapenos, which hubby has been adding to his quesadillas. Also a couple cute little eggplants, which turned to mush when I did not cook them fast enough.

And now - cherry tomatoes galore! Hundreds of them. So I did what any normal person would do - googled for tomato recipes. The "Slow Roasted Tomatoes" sounded delicious... and this was the best article: Slow Roasted Tomatoes and 10 things to Do With Them. And BONUS: per this article, cooked tomatoes are better at fighting cancer to boot!

So I cut all the little suckers in half (this took forever, so the 3rd time I made them, I just left them whole and it worked pretty well too)... drizzled them with Olive Oil, sprinkled with some Kosher salt, pepper and threw on some cloves of unpeeled garlic (I used more than 6 as hubby requested extra garlic) and let them scent up the house for about 3 hours. On a second batch, I added some fresh Basil leaves I had also grown - even better!

I put some in a Weck jar because, yes, I have a complete & utter addiction to jars. Put anything in a jar and it's the closest an inanimate object will come to puppy-level cuteness.

Ok, not quite, but still..

The tomatoes came out soooo delicious, a great addition to our pasta.  I plan to slather them on some sliced baguette drizzled with olive oil and lightly toasted and have a fresh and delicious Bruschetta.

Up next... keeping an eye on the two adorable watermelons that are growing in the garden...

Hubby has been watching alot of Giada De Laurentiis on the food network... Everyday Italian and Giada's Weekend Getaway... for at least two very obvious reasons (Pollo con Fenditura anyone?)... but I don't mind, because it has inspired him to cook.

He's made Calzones... Italian Sausage... Poached Pears... Refried Spaghetti... Fried Ravioli... and his now-signature dessert, Nutella Ravioli - dollups of Nutella put into a won ton wrapper, deep fried, and sprinkled with powdered sugar. (I don't like Nutella because I despise hazelnut flavor, so he makes me straight up chocolate ravioli - YUMMY).


Here are some pictures of the entire Nutella-Ravioli-making process...