Heirloom Tomato Caprese Salad

In my humble opinion, 'aint nuthin' better than a caprese salad. It is one of my most favorite things in the entire culinary universe. I think it's so great because it combines some very simple ingredients to make a powerful yet subtle flavor combination.

The end of the summer is the perfect time to make a caprese salad, as you can easily pluck (or in my case, buy) a beautiful, sun-warmed tomato fresh off the vine. I particularly like heirloom tomatoes for this summer salad because of their variety in color and shape which makes for a beautiful, beautiful (did I say beautiful?) dish. See above if you don't believe me.

When I was buying these beauties in the supermarket (don't judge...they were organic I swear) the cute little teenage boy who was ringing up our groceries held them up and asked me what they were. "Heirloom tomatoes," I responded. So he rang up the two reddish purple ones and the orange one. Then he held up the yellow one and said, "And what's this? A pepper?" Uh, no, sweetie. In his defense, it was sort of shaped like one but that's what makes them so fun!

Ingredients
- Three to Four Heirloom Tomatoes
- Six to Eight round slices of fresh Mozzarella cheese
- A handful of fresh Basil leaves
- Drizzle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (this is when you bring out the best in the cupboard)
- Drizzle of Red Wine Vinegar
- A generous pinch or two of sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Slice your heirloom tomatoes into rounds. Slice the mozzarella cheese into rounds. Cut basil leaves into strips or keep them whole - depends on how you want it to look on the plate. Arrange the tomatoes, mozzarella and basil on a plate. drizzle with olive oil and red wine vinegar and sprinkle with salt and pepper. I like to let the salad sit for 30 min or so before serving so the tomatoes and mozzarella can soak up all the good stuff. Eat with knife and fork! And please, pair with a glass of red wine. Please.

I will fully confess that I ate the entire plate all by myself. Andy isn't a big fan of my "hippie food" sometimes and that's just fine with me - just means I get it all!

Also, I love making this as a lunch for myself for work. I put all of the ingredients in a Tupperware the night before and let it all marinade until lunch the next day. Those are the days when I think about my lunch every 15 minutes and then finally cave in and eat it at 11:30. I do not pair this with a glass of wine. But I wish I could.

Happy end of summer and end of tomato month! Phew...got this one in just under the wire.

Better-than-Spaghetti Dinner

I don't want to be here writing this. I want to be back on vacation at the lake, in the pool, or drinking bloody mary's by the river in perfect 80 degree weather with no wi-fi for miles. Alas, I'm back in the real world and back to the grind...but I'll waste a little more time blogging before I fully immerse into emails.

I figured I could slide in a tomato post before August ends if I incorporate it somehow into a meal during our week of vacation. As it turns out, everything tastes better on vacation, or this just happens to be the bomb dish -- either way, dinner was yummy!

I tossed stuff in without measuring, of course, but the good thing about this dish is you can't really screw it up...like you can ever have too much garlic or parmesan cheese....

Here's what you'll need for about 4 servings:

Half bag of spaghetti (or your fav noodles)
Large tomato, diced
1/4 to 1/2 head of garlic, cloves sliced
Package of seasoned sausage links (I used garlic herb chicken)
Herbs de Provence
Salt and pepper
Parmesan cheese
Oil
Butter

Here's what you do:

Cook spaghetti noodles.

Meanwhile, in a large pan, fry garlic in drizzle of oil. Add thinly sliced sausage (or crumbles) and let brown. Make sure garlic is tender.

Drain pasta and add to skillet with oil and butter. Dash of salt and pepper and stir. Sprinkle herbs and parmesan cheese over top and mix in.

Add diced tomato and mix in. Let it all cook together for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve it up hot!

Every ingredient combines perfectly to create a kicked-up, better-than-spaghetti dinner.The filling part of this dish was the yummy buttery pasta and the meat. A necessary sweetness came from the tomato, and the real winner in this dish is the garlic. Sooo good!

We left no noodle standing -- we devoured it. Even the toddler. All that hard work on vacation makes you hungry...

A second after I took this photo of Kelly devouring, I realized my son was eating a piece of broccoli in the background.
I feel like I captured a photo of Bigfoot running in the woods.

Would rather be here.

Sundried Tomato Sourdough Bread

My college roommate, Jenny, introduced me to The Renaissance Café in Leavenworth where the main attraction, in our minds, was their sundried tomato sourdough toast. We found out they bought the bread from a bakery in Cashmere so from there on out, anytime we passed through town we’d try to buy a loaf or two of their famous bread.

As I was browsing tomato recipes (gumbo, short rib ragu, homemade cream of tomato soup…), I came across a recipe for tomato bread made with sourdough starter. I instantly had flashbacks to that delicious toast and figured I could adapt the recipe by adding fresh and sundried tomatoes.

I have sourdough starter that I use for sourdough pancakes, but have never veered off to try it in any other recipe. I’m not even 100% sure it’s the same thing, but it worked! If any of you need starter, I’m your gal, I’m happy to share!

Like all homemade bread, this took awhile. But it’s super easy, you just need to have time to let it rise—2 ½ hours to be exact. So wait until you’re home on a weekend with nothing else to do so it will be a relaxing, enjoyable experience. I was very domestic while my dough was rising; I worked in the yard, did laundry, picked blackberries and finally, finally watched the final episode of The Bachelorette. Spoiler alert if you still have it on your DVR: I loved Arie, he was super hot, but I’m really happy Emily picked Jef and can’t wait for them to get married and have lots of babies! Good stuff.

Hmmm, I wonder if Emily would eat carb-loaded sundried tomato toast smothered in butter? 

Sundried Tomato Sourdough Bread
Makes 2 loaves 

INGREDIENTS
1 ½ cups sourdough starter
1 cup warm water (110 degrees – mine came out of the tap at 120, so I let it cool off for a few minutes before adding the yeast)
1 (25 oz.) package active dry yeast
Fresh tomatoes blended to equal 1 cup tomato juice
½ cup sundried tomatoes (I used ¼ cup because that’s all I had, but it could have used more. I also chopped mine, but next time will leave them whole.)
2 teaspoons white sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 cups all-purpose flour
Cornmeal
PAM and/or Crisco

DIRECTIONS
1. Dissolve yeast in 1 cup warm water, set aside.
2. In large bowl (Kitchen Aid Mixer): mix sourdough starter and pureed tomatoes. Add yeast mixture, salt, garlic powder, sugar and stir well.  Add the olive oil and dump in the sundried tomatoes.
3. Add 1 cup of flour at a time and beat well to develop the gluten (I used the dough hook). Continue to beat until a stiff dough forms—about 5 minutes.

4. Turn into greased bowl (I used Crisco to grease the bowl) and lightly grease top (I used PAM for the top), cover with a towel (I wet the towel and also sprayed PAM on it so it wouldn’t stick to the rising dough) and place in a draft free area for 2 hours. (I warmed the oven for a few seconds and put the bowl in there to rise.)

The rising dough will double in bulk.

2 hours later

5. Punch down and divide dough in two, form into rounds and place each on a baking sheet that has been sprinkled generously with cornmeal.
6. Let rise ½ hour, rub top lightly with flour and slash with sharp knife.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 45-60 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned when checked (45 minutes did the trick for me).
7. For a soft crust, cool under a clean dishtowel. For a harder European style crust, cool without.

Tomato bread makes a killer breakfast sandwich

For more homemade bread recipes, check out Jolie’s Dutch oven bread and Amber’s rosemary bread.

Caprese Torta

This is not my official tomato post. This is a classic, so delicious and so easy that I couldn’t resist sharing. And it only has four ingredients! But don’t worry, I will try a tomato recipe that’s new to me and post about it before the end of the month!

For this fabulous sandwich that’s perfect for an easy weeknight dinner (no dishes!) yet fancy enough to serve when girlfriends come over for lunch, all you have to do it pick up four simple ingredients from Costco:

#1: Torta Rolls – my new favorite sandwich / Panini bread

#2: Fresh tomatoes – if you’re like me and your home grown tomatoes are still green

#3: Pesto – this is one of Curtis’ new and improved items at Costco and one of my very favorite foods!

#4: Mozzarella – if they have fresh buffalo mozzarella in brine, get it. But when it’s in, it goes quickly so this is a good back up.

Caprese Torta 
Turn on your broiler. Spread one side of the sliced torta with pesto and put a few slices of mozz on the other side. Broil just until the bread is slightly toasted, the pesto is bubbling and smells divine and the cheese has started to melt. Take it out of the oven, add a few slices of fresh tomato and voila! One of the best food combos known to wo-man. And it’s that easy!  Note: Curtis says you’re not supposed to heat up / cook pesto, but add it to hot food after the fact. So he toasts his bread and then spreads on the pesto. But I don’t listen to him.

And I’m a purist, but Curtis likes to omit the tomatoes and replace them with salami!

And as long as you have pesto, tomatoes and mozzarella on hand, you can also make Pesto & Tomato Frittata from The Little Yellow Kitchen. That's what I plan to do this weekend!

August Ingredient: The Tomato

I have always envied great garden's.  To me it seems to be a great mystery that some folks can really be great at.  There are so many variables that it tends to overwhelm me and I leave it up to my husband to be in charge of.  But the one thing I see everyone grow is tomato's!

How do you grow your tomato's?  Is there anything to the newest upside down growth method?  We were so busy this year that we just bought the half way grown ones and they seem to be doing really well.  Is there any way to get them to not all ripen at once?

This month let's really explore this "vegetable" and then we will all have ideas for what to do with all those tomato's when they are ready.
This is for those of you that get confused by the fruit/vegetable debate from Wikipedia:

The tomato fruit is consumed in diverse ways, including raw, as an ingredient in many dishes and sauces, and in drinks. While it is botanically a fruit, it is considered a vegetable for culinary purposes (as well as by the United States Supreme Court, see Nix v. Hedden), which has caused some confusion. The vegetable is rich in lycopene, which may have beneficial health effects.