Tomato Tart - Tasty Tuesday!

I am not a pie lover.  Shh, don't tell anyone.  Most pies are ok, but it's rare that I'll voluntarily choose to eat pie.  That said, I love making and eating my apple pie (which is really a crisp).  And peach pie is one of my favorites, but I'd rather go savory.  I'm much more of a quiche girl, which really is just pie as a meal instead of pie as a dessert.  So does it surprise you to learn that I made a tomato tart last week and ate almost all of it by myself over the course of three days?

I didn't think so.  But hey, tomato tart.  That's healthy.  Ish.  Kind of.  Ok, more so than French silk pie, right?  Help me justify.  I need to, because it was that good.  And I'll probably do the same again.

Is it the prettiest pie you've ever seen?  No, but if you'll recall, this was the pie dough I made last week when I had my migraine.  And that food processor pie dough is pretty darn tasty.  Even if it wasn't so pretty this time around.

Tomato Tart

Ingredients:
1 pie crust, my recipe, your recipe, or another method
6 large ripe tomatoes with lots of flavor, preferably something heirloom
3 cloves garlic
2 T extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
1 1/2 c bread crumbs (again, I've used Panko for 15 years, and it's still my favorite - and no one's paying me to say that... yet!)
1 T herbes de Provence
1 1/4 c Parmesan cheese, shredded (shred your own, it melts better and tastes better) - and I just might have not even measured this and just put on enough until I liked it.

Directions:
Start by preparing your tomatoes.  You can go ahead and put  your crust into the pie pan or tart pan, but then stick it back in the fridge so it stays nice and cold.  You want to peel, seed, and dice your tomatoes.  It's not nearly as hard as it sounds.

To peel your  tomatoes, you need to quickly blanch them.  Get a pot of water simmering on the stove.  Then cut a shallow X on the bottom of each tomato.

Have an ice bath ready for the tomatoes for when they are done blanching.  Easiest way?  Get a decent size bowl, fill it with a bunch of ice from your freezer.  Add water, swishing the bowl as you do so to ensure that the ice doesn't freeze into a giant block and instead stays separate cubes.

Now your're ready to blanch the tomatoes.  Using a slotted spoon, carefully place a couple tomatoes into the water.  Let them sit for less than a minute before you fish them out.  Immediately place them in the ice bath.  I get into a rhythm with this where I will have two tomatoes in the ice bath, two tomatoes in the water, and two tomatoes being peeled and the timing of it works for me.  Figure out what works for you.

Once the tomatoes have cooled for a couple minutes, pull one from the ice bath.  You'll notice that the skin around where you had made your shallow X is peeling back by itself.

Simply take the skin, and pull it back. You'll be amazed by how easy it is to peel.  This also works for other fruits like peaches and the like, when you need to peel those.

Now the tomatoes are ready to seed and dice.  You want as much liquid out of the tomatoes as possible.  To do this, the first step is seeding.  Cut the tomato into pieces.  For a medium size tomato, six is usually enough.  For a larger tomato, I may need 8 or even 10 to ensure that each seed membrane is accessible to me.  Pick up a slice, run your thumb on the edge of the seeds, and they all pop out.  Do this for each tomato.

Go ahead and dice them.  You want them about a quarter inch square, but exactness isn't important.  Once they're diced, I like to wait a little to get the more water out.  I'll put them in a colander and let the juices seep out for another twenty minutes or so.  Although the breadcrumbs help keep the tart from being soggy, the more juice you remove up front, the better.  While you're waiting is a good time to go ahead and mince your garlic cloves.

Now you're ready to put it all together.  Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Mix the breadcrumbs with the herbes de Provence and 1/4 cup of your Parmesan cheese.  Place this in the bottom of your pie crust, evenly covering the surface.

Now that your tomatoes have released their juices, go ahead and place them into a small bowl.  Add the olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper to your tomatoes.  Stir it up and taste to make sure the salt and pepper is at a good level for you, remembering that you're still going to be adding a ton of Parmesan, so the salt can be a little light.

Place the tomatoes gently onto the bread crumbs, ensuring it is in an even layer.  Place the rest of your shredded Parmesan atop the tomatoes.  Place the tart into your 400 degree oven, and bake it until slightly browned, around 45 minutes or so.

This is great while still hot, or you can serve it room temperature.  Trust me, it's awesome either way.  This works wonderfully as an appetizer, or you can be like me and eat it for your meals.  Yes, it makes an awesome breakfast.  Just sayin'.

Enjoy this and more with Blessed With Grace and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday.  Rachel from A Southern Fairytale has an awesome Mouthwatering Monday linkup that I participate in, too.

Tapenade And Goat Cheese Crostini - Tasty Tuesday!

It's summer, which means entertaining season and barbecues and more, right?  Except some of us are still boycotting our oven.  Did I mention that we're expected to break yet another heat record in Chicago today? And the heat index will be around 110?  I'm all in favor of entertaining, but I'm going to minimize what I do to increase heat in my house.  Instead, I'm offering up appetizers that don't require cooking, and we're using the grill for as much as possible.

This time?  It's all French -  goat cheese and tapenade crostini.  It's crunchy and salty and cool and just overall yummy.  Best of all, it's a snap to prepare and it doesn't require the oven.

So wait, what is tapenade anyway?  Basically, it's olives chopped up with other ingredients to make something like a paste.  There are all sorts of different ones, but I love this one paired with the goat cheese.  Tapenades are great on bread anytime.  This one has garlic in it, but if it doesn't, I'm a fan of scraping the crostini lightly with garlic to give it a little more kick.  It may not be the prettiest, but it's awfully yummy!

Goat Cheese and Tapenade Crostini

Ingredients:
1 clove garlic
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1 T capers
1 t anchovy paste (trust me on this one)
1 T parsley (fresh - dried doesn't work as well here, but if you have to, use 1 t instead and let it sit for several hours before you serve it), chopped
1/4 c olive oil divided
1 c kalamata and good quality green olives, pitted (total of 1 cup)
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 baguette - though Italian will work in a pinch
4 oz goat cheese

Directions:
Turn on your grill - remember, we don't want to heat up the house.  If it's cooler, go ahead and preheat your oven to 350.  Slice the bread about a half inch thick diagonally to make pretty slices.  Place them on a jelly roll tray (to keep them from sliding off - or is that just my issue?) and brush each side lightly with olive oil.  Season the bread with salt and pepper.  Place the bread on the grill (or in the oven) until it is just barely golden brown.  This will take ten or so minutes, so keep an eye on it.

While the crostini are toasting, go ahead and make the tapenade.  Pull out your food processor, and toss in the garlic while it's running.  Once it's minced, add the lemon zest, lemon juice, capers, anchovy paste, olives, and 2 T of the olive oil.  Process until you have a semi smooth paste.  Add the parsley and pepper, and either stir to mix or gently pulse to incorporate it.  Taste it to see if it needs more pepper (you don't need to add any salt!) and adjust as needed.

While the bread is still warm (because you can totally make the tapenade in way less time than it takes the crostini to toast), spread goat cheese atop each slice so that it is covered.  Place the tapenade atop the goat cheese and gently press to have it adhere just a little bit.

Serve immediately, and watch them disappear.  Tell me these don't look super fancy and unique, but they are so easy to make, no?

Enjoy this and more with Blessed With Grace and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday.

Tasty Tuesday! - Cheese Fondue

Last week was spring break for us, and to celebrate the (near) end of it, I invited a few friends over for a "Moms Need Spring Break, Too!" party. Because after being home with children who can't run and play outside as we planned due to the fickle weather for a week, we need some quiet and sanity. What better to provide it than a fondue party? So yes, I made fondue - both cheese and chocolate - along with my guacamole and buffalo chicken dip. There were some happy mommies leaving my house.

I rarely make fondue, but only because Mister Man won't eat anything cheese and Little Miss can't eat dairy because of her allergy. This is perfect party food because it takes minimal prep and is ready super fast. Plus, it's another one that looks like you worked really hard even though you didn't.

Traditional Cheese Fondue

Ingredients:
1 pound Emmenthaler or Gruyere cheese, shredded (or Jarlsberg or toss in a little goat or white cheddar for a fun extra flavor)
2 T cornstarch
1 1/2 c dry white wine (I used a Chardonnay - use a wine you'd want to drink)
1/8 c kirsch (optional if you don't have any and don't want to buy any, but it's a perfect finishing touch)
nutmeg and pepper to taste


Directions:
If you have a fondue pot, awesome (I love my electric one because I can control the heat really well). If not, you can do this in a heavy pot on the stove.

Mix together the shredded cheese (I shred it myself with my Cuisinart's shredding attachment because it's fast and easy, but please buy a block of cheese and shred yourself one way or another; it makes a difference!) and cornstarch and set it aside for a few minutes. You want this prep done first.

Heat the wine and kirsch together until they start to steam but do not let it boil. Turn down the heat just a little bit, then add a small handful of cheese and stir until melted. Keep adding cheese and stirring until it's incorporated until all your cheese is gone. If you add a hunk of cheese at one time, you will have a hunk of cheese and the liquid alcohol and it will be very hard to incorporate properly (although it is possible to do so if you make a mistake, but it takes patience and a really good whisk). Once your cheese is fully incorporated and smooth, add nutmeg and pepper to taste.

Serve immediately while still hot. I serve mine with chunks of bread and apples, along with baby carrots. It always goes quickly. This enough for a main-ish course for four people or up to eight people as an appetizer. And if there are leftovers? Yes, you can reheat it and enjoy it yourself the next day, just reheat it in small servings so you don't burn the cheese or cause it to separate.

Enjoy this and more with Blessed With Grace and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday. Also posting now with A Southern Fairytale and her Mouthwatering Monday.

Tasty Tuesday - Asparagus Goat Cheese Pizza

I tweeted last week about what I was making for dinner, and I got some interested responses. Then I posted a picture of what I made, and people wanted the recipe. Who am I to deny anyone? And yes, I've made this again since that time. It's so good and light and fresh and just flat out yummy.

Goat Cheese Asparagus Pizza

Ingredients:
Dough for 1-2 pizzas (or more)
10 stalks asparagus
2 T olive oil
2 oz goat cheese
1 oz mozzarella
salt and pepper to taste
Cornmeal for dusting

Directions:
Prepare your pizza dough. I actually am making not my normal pizza dough anymore but the pizza dough from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day - my favorite bread bible now. Any pizza dough will work, but I like making mine with a bit of olive oil in place of some of the water to give it a bit of extra spring and chewiness for this pizza.

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees (cooler than my usual 500 degrees, by the way).

Get your asparagus ready by breaking off the ends and washing them. Heat a saute pan with a little olive oil, and break the asparagus stalks into the pan. Lightly salt and pepper the asparagus in the pan, and saute on medium heat until the asparagus is just starting to turn a brighter green. You do not want to overcook it, as it will cook more in the oven, but cooking it just a touch before it goes into the pizza means it isn't crunchy and undercooked in your pizza.

Do you see how the color changed to a brighter green? That's all you want. No mushy asparagus for our pizzas!

Roll out your pizza dough to a nice circle, about a quarter inch thick or so. Place it on your pizza peel (or onto a pan if you aren't sliding it onto a stone) coated in cornmeal to keep it from sticking. Lightly brush it with olive oil to the edges of the crust.

Sprinkle the mozzarella over the olive oil, just a little bit. Add the asparagus and arrange so that it's evenly distributed over the dough. Crumble the goat cheese atop the pizza, and you're ready for the oven. (Do you see truly how little cheese is on this pizza?)

Bake at 450 degrees for 8 minutes, until the goat cheese is a beautiful golden brown. Cut and serve immediately. I don't know how long it lasts after this, as we haven't had leftovers yet. Go fig.

Enjoy this and more with Blessed With Grace and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday. Also posting now with A Southern Fairytale and her Mouthwatering Monday.

Tasty Tuesday - Tomato Basil Cups

I love the holidays and entertaining and baking. This past week, I hosted a cookie exchange (the cookie recipe comes next week, I promise) with friends, and we had a blast. I also made a Pillsbury recipe (see my post on why over on my review blog) - or at least my take on a Pillsbury recipe. It was absolutely delicious and so easy to prepare. In fact, when I hosted bunco on Friday, I made it again because it was so quick and easy and yummy.

Pillsbury has the original Tomato Basil Cup recipe on their site, but you know me. I had to adjust it and tweak it. And I think I like my changes.

Tomato Basil Cups
1 8 oz package cream cheese
1/2 c fresh Parmesan (or, ahem, more)
12 cherry tomatoes (or more)
1 1/2 T dried basil
2 T milk
1 package Pillsbury Grands, original flavor
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease your muffin tins. This makes 16 servings, so grease the right number of tins. If you have only 6 count tins, add a bit of water to the cups that will be empty to keep the tins from warping in the oven without something baking in it.

Make sure your cream cheese is as room temperature, and mix it with the basil, milk, and Parmesan. Add a little salt and pepper to taste. It doesn't take much, as the Parmesan is already salty.

Gently split each Grand in half, peeling it apart with your fingers. Stretch each round of dough slightly and place it in an empty muffin tin so that the edges are atop the tin. Place a dollop of the filling inside the Grand. Remember that the cream cheese and Parmesan will be very rich, so don't put too much in there.

Quarter the cherry tomatoes, and carefully place three tomato quarters atop each cup. Or cut up more tomatoes and put more there, but three seemed to be a good fit, though these were large cherry tomatoes.

Bake at 350 for 10 or so minutes, until the dough is a beautiful golden brown. Serve immediately or at room temperature and watch them disappear!

Enjoy this and more with Blessed With Grace and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday. Also posting now with A Southern Fairytale and her Mouthwatering Monday.

Tasty Tuesday - Strawberry Goat Cheese Pizza

There are some things that I see on menus or at events where I go ummm, I think I'm just gonna skip this one or pass over. This recipe was one of them initially, but ... since I was at a strawberry event, I did feel the need to at the very least try a piece of the goat cheese pizza they served, especially since I sort of have a major love affair with goat cheese.

I'm really really glad that I did. It was so good. So so good. It's possible that I ate slightly more than my share of the pizza. I was most definitely going to repeat this one at home. The question was when... Fortunately I had a potluck to attend the next week after the strawberry event and was supposed to bring an appetizer.

Guess what I made!

I altered the recipe to some degree - of course - because I can't not do that. The original recipe made a lot of appetizers. I don't generally need that much. The way I cook and host, I tend to have a lot of variety of foods and don't need quite so much as it was going to make. I also made extra of the balsamic reduction because I do so love balsamic. That and ... even Mister Man liked the reduction, shocking!

The version posted below is my adaptation. The original recipe can be found in Strawberry Recipes for Everyday published by California Strawberries. And I actually have a copy of this cookbook to give away as soon as I put up the post on that. Annnnd post is up. Go enter the cookbook giveaway.

When I put this out at the potluck, it got a few "ummm what is this?" looks at the start. Once someone dug in and took a bite though? Let's just say it disappeared. I had more requests for this recipe than I have in a long time. My husband overheard a compliment from someone else that was over the top awesome. This is definitely one I'll make again, and not only because it's so unique.

Strawberry Goat Cheese Pizza

Ingredients:
1/3 c hot water (not steaming, but 110 or so degrees)
1 T yeast
1/2 t sugar
1 c flour
1/2 t salt
1 T olive oil (divided)
1 T white balsamic vinegar
1/4 c "regular" balsamic vinegar
4 oz goat cheese, divided (set out 2 or slightly more to soften, keep the rest cold)
1 c strawberries, hulled and quartered
1/2 c arugula
pepper

Directions:
In your bowl, add the water and sprinkle the yeast atop it. Add the sugar and 2 t of oil over it. Stir briefly, then add half the flour and stir until combined. Add the salt and mix again until it's incorporated. Add the remaining half cup of flour slowly, stopping when you have reached a good consistency (depending on humidity, you may need more or less flour - you want it not sticky but not dry). Keep mixing on low with your dough hook for five minutes until it feels soft (or knead by hand for 10 or so minutes). Let it rest, covered, for 20 to 30 minutes while you prep the remaining ingredients.

Set out 2 ounces or a little more of the goat cheese on the counter to begin softening. In a nonreactive saucepan, place the white balsamic and heat simmering until it's reduced by half. Whisk in the remaining 1 t of olive oil into the balsamic. Pour this over the hulled and quartered strawberries. Stir to ensure they're all coated, then let them sit. Reduce the balsamic the same way, simmering until it's reduced into a nice thick syrup, a little over halfway reduced (not so much that it's solid and umm burned like I may have the first time I did it because I wasn't paying attention).

Remove your dough from the bowl and roll it into the shape you desire - I like a long rectangle for this appetizer - on a lightly floured surface. The dough shouldn't be too thin, but you want the rectangle to stretch about 8x14 inches or so - rough measurements on my part. Bake in a 400 degree oven for ten or so minutes. You want the crust to just start browning.

Once removed from the oven, immediately spread the softened goat cheese on the crust to within a half inch of the edge. Do this while it's still hot, and the goat cheese will spread much more easily.

Arrange the strawberries on the goat cheese crust, not perfectly, but no clumps either. I found putting them cut side down helped in cutting the pizza later - and it looked nice, too. Bake this again for another seven or so minutes.

While the pizza is baking a second time, get your arugula ready (yes, this is really sad looking arugula. It was all I had on hand, and I was desperate. Good news, you want it to wilt a little on the hot pizza, so it was fine). I like this chiffonaded, as it makes the arugula easier to eat. To do this, simply gather your arugula together in a pile...

Then you roll it into itself so that it makes a nice log. Once you have it like this, use one hand to hold it and the other to slice it like you would a roast. This makes great ribbons and can be used for any leafy thing you want to cut quickly and prettily.

Once the pizza comes out of the oven, sprinkle it with the remaining goat cheese that you've kept cold. Just crumble it with your fingers over the pizza. If you need more, go for it! Goat cheese is yummy. Add a little black pepper atop this, then distribute the arugula.

This works to serve immediately, although it can also be held a couple hours and served room temperature or cold from the fridge. Trust me on this one. It disappeared quickly.

Enjoy this and more with Blessed With Grace and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday. Also posting now with A Southern Fairytale and her Mouthwatering Monday.

Enter to win a strawberries cook book

Tasty Tuesday - The Best Guacamole Ever

As I've mentioned recently, I discovered some rocking guacamole recently. And I've made it a few times since. Like twice in less than a week few times. I may make it again before the weekend. It's not quite the original recipe from Boudro's, but rather my version of it and my husband thinks it tastes just as good as the original.

So.

Rockin' Guacamole

We start with four avocados. If you have decent sized ones, you can use two or three. The ones in our grocer right now are pretty skimpy.

The rest of our ingredients:
3 limes (mine were small, you can get away with two if they have a decent amount of juice)
4 T chopped red onion
1/2 large orange (or a whole smaller one)
1 t salt
4 tomatoes, roasted
1/2 poblano pepper
1/3 c chopped cilantro



So first. That roasting of the tomatoes. It's really not that hard. I cut them in half, drizzled some olive oil over them, added some dried Italian seasonings (ironic, I know) and put them in the oven at 300 degrees for twenty minutes. I put the seeded and halved poblano so it would get roasted at the same time.

Cut the avocados in half and remove the seed. Pull them out of the skin and dump them in a bowl. Juice the lime and orange over the avocado. Use a knife to cut the avocado into 1/2" pieces (or so).

Chop the tomatoes and poblano, and add them to the avocado mix. Add the salt and chopped cilantro. Stir the mixture gently, and you're done.

YUM. Y.U.M.



This is enough to serve about four for a large appetizer. Unless you're sneaking some while making it. Then it might only serve three. Or two.

Enjoy!