Huh.

I take pictures of my food. 

A lot.

I have no idea what those meatballs consist of.

That wedge of lemon kind of says greek, 

therefore lamb, to me.

Beyond that, I'm stumped. 

But somehow, I seem to think they were good.

I'll let you know

if I ever figure them out.

:)

Sun Dried Tomato Tapenade Pasta

How's this for a dinner on the fly?

This part was not on the fly.

Most decidedly not!

I found myself with an overabundance of cherry tomatoes.

I decided to dry them in the oven and worry 

about what to do with them later.

This picture is a bit deceiving because

after I set them out so nicely on the pan, 

I decided 

to squeeze the seeds out. 

All that wet was gonna take forever to dry out!

So, squeeze I did and then I tossed them with 

olive oil, salt, pepper and oregano.

I lined the pan with parchment paper and began roasting

away at 250 degrees for a couple of hours. 

But then I had to make dinner, so they finished 

up at 375 for about 15 minutes. 

They were beautiful.

Now for the pasta!

I cooked off 

1/2 pound of spaghetti 

to al dente and then tossed with about

 1/2 a 6 ounce jar of olive tapenade, 

1/2 of the dried (chopped) tomatoes,

1/2 a shake of red pepper flakes and

1/2 cup of shredded parmesan. 

Actually the name should be the 

half-a, half-a, half-a, half-a, half-a

pasta.

Kale with Roasted Beets and Bacon

Everything about this sounds and looks good.

Except the kale was not stellar.

I don't know if I just don't cook it enough or

if I am doomed to not like the 

texture of kale.

I also felt it could have used a little kick.

Maybe some garlic or pepper flakes?

I'm going to give it a try again with spinach.

Cause beets and bacon, 

Oh Yeah!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/guy-fieri/kale-with-roasted-beets-and-bacon-recipe.html

Cake Batter Cookies

I haven't been baking sweets much lately.

They don't fit with an anti-cancer diet.

But my son sent me this recipe and asked.

That's all it takes.

This is actually the best picture of them.

and the best couple of pieces of advice

from the recipe.

#1- form the dough into tall blobs, and 

#2 (the hint I didn't take)

refrigerate at this point before baking. 

The purpose of these items is to 

hopefully, in the end, wind up

with fat cookies.

Not theses.

Flat cookies.

The baker did a fair amount of research and 

determined you can put too much

stuff in the batter among other observations.

It's a fairly interesting read if you are into

cookie baking.

http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2012/12/09/recipe-round-2-cake-batter-chocolate-chip-cookies/

Taste wise, I'm not convinced the cake mix made 

that big a difference in the taste.

But, I may be piling high and

refrigerating my chocolate chip cookie

dough in the future.

Such as my future in sweets is.... 

Pickled Beets

And pink pee.

I won't post a picture of the pee.

Beets seems to be a great divider.
People love them or hate them.

I love them.

Pickling them is super easy.
First roast them, whole or, if they are huge,
cut into halves or quarters.
Place them on a big piece of foil, drizzle with
olive oil along with a quartered red onion
scrunch up the packet and roast at
350 degrees for about an hour.
You want them to get tender.
Then let them cool a bit and peel and slice.

While the beets  are roasting
combine
1 cup apple cider vinegar,
1 cup water and
1 cup sugar
in a sauce pan.
Bring the mixture up to a boil
and then let it simmer for 5 minutes.

Allow the liquid to cool before pouring over sliced beets.

I like them to sit for a bout a week before I start digging in.
And peeing pink.

Chimichurri

Every which way but loose.

So, I started out with equal parts cilantro and parsley.

Chopped it up and set some aside for the potatoes.

The I added, 

2T red wine vinegar

3 cloves garlic,

1/2t red pepper flakes,

1/2t oregano,

salt and pepper

and spun it with 1/4 cup olive oil.

Put that on top of pork tenderloin medallions.

(or a shoe)

Next, add some cut up avocado and put that

on some thick tomato slices and 

WALA!

Chimichurri 

every which way but loose.

It's not often I name a meal.

PS, the one item not 

chimichurri-ized was that

delicata squash.

Not sure it could have saved it. 

Not a fan.

Tomato and Corn Custard Pie

File this under the heading:

Something really good that I will never make again.

I found the recipe in Food Network Magazine.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/tomato-and-corn-custard-pie.html

With the abundance of tomatoes this time of year

anything that even remotely 

uses a tomato is worth a look.

But whereas this was a very tasty dish, 

it took 2 plus hours to create

and too many prep utensils.

Yep, 

not doin' it again. 

But, yum!