Roasted Tomatoes – Two Ways

I’ve got comfort food coming your way today.

Over the weekend, I headed home to spend some time with my family and cook with my mom. Believe it or not, we roasted 10 lbs. of tomatoes with a broken oven. We each had a separate plan for our tomatoes. Me – tomato sauce, her – tomato soup.

Both turned out wonderfully.

Doesn’t eating soup from a mug make it taste even better?? Not that it needed to — great job mom!

With this sauce on hand, pasta will be happening very soon.

Method

For the soup and for the sauce:

Start with:

2.5 lbs. assorted tomatoes

Olive oil

A head of garlic

2 sweet onions

Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400*. Cut tomatoes into large chunks and place on a baking sheet. Place two whole cloves of garlic on the baking sheet. Slice onions and place on the baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast in oven for 20 minutes, or until tomatoes are soft.

*You will need to do this in multiple rounds, or on more than one baking sheet at once, for all 2.5 lbs. of tomatoes. Place two garlic cloves and some onion on each baking sheet you do.

For tomato soup

1 quart stock (vegetable or chicken)

1 T. butter

1/2 c. chopped basil

1/2 c. heavy cream

Salt and pepper

Grated asiago cheese

Place roasted tomato, garlic and onion mixture into a large pot. Add stock and butter and bring to a boil. Simmer for 15 minutes. Add chopped basil. Turn down heat and, using an immersion blender, blend until smooth. Add heavy cream and stir. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with grated asiago cheese.

For tomato sauce

15 basil leaves

Place roasted tomato, garlic and onion mixture into a food processor. Add basil leaves. Process until smooth, or desired consistency is reached.

Enjoy!

Almond Butter

1 Reply

Raw almonds are so photogenic, aren’t they?

I hope you’re okay with another almond recipe. This time around, almond butter.

I’ve always been a huge lover of peanut butter, so this is a nice change of pace.

My favorite uses for almond butter? On toast, in oatmeal or for apple dipping.

Method

Start with:

1 c. almonds

2 T. maple syrup

1 T. honey

Preheat oven to 300*. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine almonds, maple syrup and honey, and roast on baking sheet for about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for about 30 minutes.

Place cooled roasted almonds in a food processor and process until the almonds butterize, about 15 minutes, scraping down sides when needed.

1/2 T. honey

1 T. maple syrup

2 T. canola oil

1/2 T. pumpkin pie spice

1/4 t. salt

Add the honey, syrup, oil, spice and salt to the food processor and process until smooth.

Recipe adapted from Edible Perspective.

Enjoy your almond butter!

Almond Milk

15 Replies

I’ve had my eye on making my own almond milk for awhile.

Anything that can be made rather than bought catches my attention. I don’t drink a lot of milk (unless with cookies) but I do always have it on hand for cooking. So, for now, I’ll have almond milk on hand, a great dairy alternative and also refreshing.

I used this recipe, from a blog I really enjoy, Edible Perspective. I followed the method exactly.

What do you think? Is this something you would try?

New Camera, Buddha Grid

2 Replies

Last week I got my first camera.

I am on my second photography class and I had been using my brother’s camera, so I knew what I wanted. You can check out the camera I got, here. I am really enjoying it so far.

Below you will see what I am calling my “Buddha Grid.” I took the same picture of the same Buddha with six different white balance settings on my camera. I did no other editing to the photos.