Tomatoes... take 2

Okay... I'm here talking about tomatoes (yes, again). I mean the weather up here has been nuts, first no tomatoes, then we had tons.... then it seemed that summer was over and yet here we are again with 80 degree temps and the tomatoes that I had written off for the year are ripening on their vines!

So I racked my brain for an easy chock full of tomato recipe and of course I thought of Bruchetta! I remember my parents loving this when I was a kid. Which of course meant I wanted nothing to do with it. Uncooked tomatoes... little pieces of bread... ick! Clearly much too grown up for me.

My how times have changed... Okay so there's no official recipe here. I honestly threw some stuff together:

Lindsey's Bruchetta:
A few juicy/ripe tomatoes
handful of basil
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp minced garlic
kosher salt and ground black pepper to taste
1/4 c shaved or shredded parmesan
1 loaf of fresh bread (preferably the crusty bakery kind)


First, turn your oven to broil. While it's heating up, dice your tomatoes and basil. Add all other ingredients in a bowl. Stir to combine.

Try not to slop over the edges of the bowl like I did!

Set the bowl to the side and let the flavors mingle a little bit. Slice up your bread and lay slices on a baking pan.



Pop these under the broiler for a few minutes to crisp the bread. Be sure to watch them... burnt bread=no good! If you want to be extra fancy and garlicy then you could also rub a sliced clove of garlic over the bread before crisping.

As soon as you pull your crisped bread out of the oven, spoon your tomato mixture onto each piece. Top with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese.!


Ah I feel so adult!!

Tomatoes Part 1

Tomato salad?!



Tomatoes
Blue cheese
Caesar dressing or vinagrette









Top with some fresh basil!

Chops!

What do you do with a pint of blackberry juice (leftover from my canned blackberries that were used for cupcakes)??

Make a marinade of course!


Pork Chops in Blackberry Marinade:
4 pork chop cutlets
16 oz blackberry juice
1 tbsp red pepper flakes
seasoning salt to your liking


Easy stuff here, toss all above ingredients into a ziploc freezer baggie and swish a bit to mix up. Let rest in the fridge 24 hours, turning baggie once to mix.

End result? An extremely juicy pork chop - slightly crunchy on the outside from the carmelized sugars. Though I can't take all the credit, hubby did some amazing grilling :)





Source: a Lindsey Nicolescu original!

Bacon, Egg & Toast Muffins

Made these little beauties for Mom & hubby. They are great because you put them all together, then just pop into the oven - and you can make as many or as few as you need!

Unfortunately I don't really have any (ie: none) process pictures. I blame mom for yacking my ear off while I was cooking. Not like perfect little ol' me would ever be so forgetful while trying to document for my blog... *gasp*...

Anyway here's the recipe:

Bacon Egg & Toast Muffins (yeild: 6 total or 3 servings)
3-6 slices of bread (your choice here, but let's try and be healthy and go for some whole grains ok)
6 eggs
6 slices of bacon
1/2 cup cheese - shredded (I went with good ol Tillamook cheddar)

Basically here's what you do...

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease up a muffin pan. Don't be shy here because I'll tell ya, mine ended up sticking even after liberal butter application.

Use a round cookie cutter or the mouth of a drinking glass to cut 6 rounds out of your bread. You want them to be about the size of the bottom of your muffin pan.

Place your bread rounds in your greased muffin pan. Take a slice of bacon and wrap it around the edges of each bread round. The idea is the bacon is the sides of your muffin and the bread is the bottom. You'll need to tuck the bacon between the bread and the sides of the pan. (I know I know, this sounds very tricky... and well, it is. But this is the hardest part I swear!)

Now sprinkle a bit of your cheese onto the middle of each "muffin" and pop each one off with an egg.

Ta-da!! You're muffins will look like this after being assembled.




Slide these bad boys into the oven for 10-15 minutes. This part really depends on how done you like your eggs. Check them regularly and take them out when the bacon and eggs are cooked to your liking.







Fresh out of the oven... errr...minus the three I ate already!!











Yum yum.




Some notes on what I would do different next time:

I'll probably opt for english muffins as the base. My 12 multigrain bread was just a little much. Also in an attempt to avoid giving my family salmonella I overcooked the eggs... so be careful how long you leave yours in for :)

I Have Returned Victorious!!

So my work decided to have a cooking contest today... and of course that meant I was in it to win it...

The theme was "Summer's Bounty" - anything fresh from the garden/farmers market. I chose blackberry cupcakes for my entry!!

Cupcake Ingredients (yeild 24):
18oz blackberries (mine were freshly picked a few weeks prior and then canned)
1/3c milk
6 egg whites (scramble up those yolks for breakfast like I did, yum!)
2 tsp lemon juice
2 1/4 c flour
1 3/4 c sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
12 tbsp butter (melted)




First thing, puree all of your blackberries in a blender or food processor. Then you'll want to strain them into a new bowl through a fine mesh seive (the idea is to nix those funky seeds - I've got nothing against seeds mind you, but they really ruin the texture of cupcakes). You want to end up with close to 1 cup of blackberry puree.


Preheat your oven to 350 and prep 2 muffin pans with nonstick spray or butter.




In a mixer, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt until just combined.









In a new bowl, mix 2/3 cup of the blackberry puree with the egg whites, milk and lemon juice until well combined.








Now, add the butter to the dry mixture in your mixer and mix until combined. The batter at this point will look crumbly. Scrape down the sides of your bowl before the next step.

Add in the wet egg/blackberry mixture and mix at medium speed for 1-2 minutes until well combined. Scrape down the sides of your bowl as needed.

You'll end up with a lovely mauve colored batter. You'll want to fill up your muffin pans or liners about 3/4 full. Pop these in your pre-heated oven for 20 minutes.




Allow your purple cupcakes to cool while you make the frosting.








Blackberry Frosting Ingredients:
16 tbsp butter - at room temp
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (use the real stuff here gals - no skimping!)
1/4 tsp almond extract
4 1/2 c powdered sugar
1 tbsp cream of tartar (ok I know this is a weird ingredient - but it helps keep your frosting together, trust me!)
1/4c + blackberry puree (this should be about what's leftover)
24 (or so, depending on how many you end up eating) whole blackberries as toppers





In a clean mixing bowl whip the butter, vanilla and almond until very fluffy and smooth. Mix in powdered sugar 1 cup at a time. Add in cream of tartar and crank that baby up to high for about 3 minutes. You want to get your icing as smooth as possible.

Now, add in the blackberry puree and mix another minute or so until well combined. You'll end up with this pink looking stuff!





Frost your cooled cupcakes at your leisure. I had a fun time experimenting with my new icing set!

Of course as the cook, you get to try one like I did!







Top each cupcake with a blackberry (for presentation's sake!). Serve and enjoy!!


Oh and for the record, the cupcakes were a hit!!







Recipe adapted from foodiebride.