Simple Eating: Pasta with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes, Spinach, and Blue Cheese

It's been a little crazy around here lately.  And there have been moments when I seriously thought life would never return to normal for us.

We had it bad enough with our basement flooding with sewer waste twice in one week.  But, many of our friends got it even worse.   And, although I promise to get to the food part of this post Very Soon, I do need to ask you for just a moment of your time -- during which I'd like for you to consider helping out a couple of friends of ours.

Tim and Jess Cigelske, who were just blessed with the birth of their baby daughter, Clara, not more than twelve weeks ago, came home after the flooding on July 22nd to find their house virtually in ruins.  I challenge you to read Tim's account and not feel move to action.  Fortunately, if you feel inclined, there's something very easy you can do to help out.  You can buy a t-shirt.

Tim is not only a colleague of mine at the university, but he also happens to be the co-owner of Teecycle.org, a company which reclaims cool pre-loved vintage T-shirts, and resells them -- with $1 of each sale going to help restore urban rivers and trails. Although Tim's home was destroyed, all of Teecycle's t-shirts managed to survive -- having been packed lovingly into waterproof crates and a large armoire that wasn't damaged by the flood waters.  I know that both Tim & Jess would be amazingly appreciative if you'd consider supporting their business.  Proceeds will go to helping them rebuild their home... including the room Jess painstakingly designed for little Clara.  And, if you feel moved to help in a larger way, feel free to email us and we'll get you additional information about how to help. 
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In the meantime, you might be curious about what we've been eating for the past couple of weeks.  And the truth is, it hasn't been pretty.  We've subsisted on lots of pizza, take-out, and a hodge-podge of other easy to put together meals. But, there have also been a few moments of peace and quiet when we were able to throw together easy meals from the produce we picked up at the farmer's market.  And this is a great example of one such meal.

Plenty of rain, along with warmer than average temperatures, means that tomatoes in Wisconsin are ripening at an astounding rate. And we've been pleased to see a bounty of cherry tomatoes -- both at the market and in our own little urban garden.  These delicious little 'matoes are bright red and sugar sweet -- perfect for eating out of hand.

However, if you've hung around the Burp! blog for any length of time, you'll also know that one of our favorite ways to use cherry tomatoes is to roast them.  So, you won't be surprised when I tell you that that's exactly what we decided to do here.

In addition to sweet summer tomatoes, we also found plenty of deliciously sweet local Walla Walla onions at the farmer's market.  A bit of carmelization, along with a handful of spinach wilted with a splash of white wine -- and all of a sudden we saw our veggie laden pasta dish coming together quite nicely.

Of course it doesn't hurt when you have a chunk of Gorgonzola piccante in the fridge to make things feel a little bit special.  Piquant and a little bit spicy -- this cheese is everything that I love about an earthy blue veined cheese. Woodsy, and moldy, and mushroomy, this aged cheese brings a little bit of sophistication to just about anything.

Despite my musings about the cheese, this isn't particularly fancy food.  It's not fussy or time-consuming. Heck, you don't even really need a recipe.  Just a few good quality ingredients and an eye for proportions. In our case, we used about 8 oz of whole wheat pasta, a pint of cherry tomatoes, a pound of fresh spinach, an onion, and maybe 4 oz of blue cheese. 

On a busy evening, this simple dish comes together in about a half-hour. And it needs little more than a slice of crusty bread as an accompaniment. Well, maybe a glass of wine.

In any case -- it's simply delicious.



©BURP! Where Food Happens

Rosemary's Smoky Baby Cheezy Mac

For me, macaroni and cheese is the epitome of comfort food. But, it seems I can't resist playing games with my basic recipe. Admittedly, sometimes my experiments flop. But, sometimes I happen upon something that's worth repeating.

The other night was one of those nights. It was on Friday, and both Peef and I had just finished a pretty hard week at work. The weather was rainy and cool. And we didn't have any plans, except snuggling up on the couch with some dinner and a good movie. The perfect sortofa night to slip into a steamy bowl of rich and creamy mac & cheeze.

Of course, one look at the kitchen counter showed me that we really needed to eat up a few cherry tomatoes. I knew I had a head of roasted garlic to use. And a glance toward the garden reminded me that the rosemary really needed a bit of a hair cut. So, I started to throw things together.

...
And so, Rosemary's Smoky Baby Cheezy Mac was born. You can thank Peef for the name.

This is one adult macaroni and cheese. Rich, dreamy, creamy, and herby. The rosemary really played well with the sweetness of the roasted garlic. And everything bowed before the slight smokiness of the Swiss cheese... which fell in love with the sweet wonder of the roasted cherry tomatoes. It's everything you'd want in late summer comfort food.

Make your own Rosemary's Smoky Baby Cheezy Mac

©BURP! Where Food Happens

Storing up Local Delights: Dehydrating Tomatoes

In addition to eating local fare during the Eat Local Challenge, we've decided that it would behoove us to do a bit of "putting up" as well (to supplement our supply of local foods during the long Wisconsin winter).

One of the things that we've been harvesting in abundance from our backyard garden is tomatoes. These lovely Italian drying tomatoes were just begging to be "sun-dried," so we decided to try our hand at some version of that process.

We were lucky enough to have inherited a food dehydrator from my mother a few years' back (she got it during the food dehydrating "trend" of the 1980's). So, we had the perfect vehicle for drying those sweet young things.
After chopping them in half and arranging them neatly on the dehydrator screens, we forgot about them for about 12 hours.
While we weren't looking, they transformed into these delightfully wrinkly little treats.To ensure that they make it through at least part of the winter, I've packed them up into bags and placed them into the freezer. Some of them will be noshed upon like raisins. Others will be re-hydrated in herbed olive oil and used in pastas, on bruschetta, and in sandwiches.
But, there is little doubt that, whichever way we choose to consume them, they will be a pleasant reminder of summer!



©BURP! Where Food Happens