Posts Tagged ‘bacon’

Heirloom Tomatoes

Saturday, February 11th, 2012

We love heirloom tomatoes, but…in the winter? Really? Well, yes. Our friends at Frieda’s – The Specialty Produce Company are offering beautiful garden-fresh heirloom tomatoes this month, and they were kind enough to send us some to sample.

Heirloom tomatoes – known for their odd shapes and mottled colors – are the classic first generation tomatoes that you might recognize from your grandparents’ back yard. They are plump and full of real tomato flavor (no hothouse staleness here).

We were a little torn about what to do with our heirloom tomatoes because on the one hand, they’re so flavorful you want to enjoy them uncooked. But on the other hand, it is winter, and we’ve been craving comfort food. So we split it down the middle – We made a family dinner with these “BST Sandwiches” – bacon, spinach, tomato. And yes, the kids ate the spinach and the tomatoes. True fact – they’ll eat just about anything to get through to the bacon.

BST Sandwich (we call it “Best Sandwich”)

1 long baguette loaf, sliced lengthwise

8 oz. bacon, cooked and drained

2 medium heirloom tomatoes, thinly sliced

1 cup fresh spinach leaves

1 small handful basil leaves

Rosemary mayonnaise (see note).

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Toast bread in the oven, open-faced,  for 7 to 10 minutes or until it is light golden brown and crispy. Distribute bacon evenly across one side of the bread; repeat with tomatoes, spinach, and basil. Spread the other side of the bread with a light coating of rosemary mayonnaise. Close the bread, then slice the bread into individual sandwiches. Serve immediately. Serves about four.

*Note: You can make your own rosemary mayonnaise, but we just added some finely chopped fresh rosemary to some mayonnaise we already had on hand.

Love these heirloom tomatoes? If you’re near a Ralph’s grocery store, you’re in luck – Ralph’s will have them on special for the rest of the month for $2.99 per pound.

Posted Under: Just For Fun | Tags: , , , ,
This post was written by jollytomato on February 11th, 2012

Endive, Four Ways

Sunday, December 18th, 2011

Some people bid on auctions to win things like cars or diamond jewelry; I recently bid on an auction to win a year’s supply of endive from the California endive growers (hey, it was for a good cause!). And I won. So for the next year, in three-month intervals, I will have a LOT of endive on hand.

Actually, I love endive. These perky little heads have a nice crisp texture and a very mild flavor. They are incredibly versatile, whether you eat them raw or cook them. And the word is fun to say: on-DEEV. Yes, the vegetable we’re talking about is also known as Belgian endive and it’s pronounced en-DEEV. It is a member of the chicory family and it has whitish leaves, due to the fact that its final growth takes place in the dark. The other endive, the one that’s pronounced EN-dive, is also a member of the chicory family  but it has curly green leaves (and is sometimes called curly endive).

We’ve eaten a lot of endive in the Jolly Tomato household so far, so I thought I’d share some of our favorite ways to eat it.

1. Stuff it! Even the kids like to munch on these stuffed endive leaves. It makes a great brunch appetizer:

Date-Stuffed Endive

2 heads Belgian endive

6 ounces whipped cream cheese

4 large dates, finely chopped

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

Wash the endive heads and pat them dry. Gently remove the leaves, one at a time, taking care not to break them. Arrange the leaves on a platter. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix together the cream cheese, dates, and cardamom. Carefully spoon about 1 teaspoon of cream cheese mixture onto each leaf. Garnish each leaf with a few crumbles of bacon. Serve immediately, or chill until serving. Serves 6 to 10.

2. Braise it! This is the time of year for comfort food, and braised endive is a great way to warm your spirits. Discover Endive has a very simple recipe for braised endive, and it is easy to adapt to your personal tastes. We braised our in chicken stock and then topped it with pine nuts and grated Swiss.

3. Chop it! Winter foods can get so drab; sometimes you need something bright and crispy as a pick-me-up. This salad is tasty and is a nice break from the ordinary:

Endive, Orange, and Red Onion Salad

2 heads purple endive

2 large navel oranges

1/2 red onion, diced

1/4 cup olive oil

2 T fresh-squeezed orange juice

2 tsp. rice vinegar

Chop the endive crosswise (into discs) and divide. Peel and slice the oranges, and separate the segments into triangle-shaped pieces. Distribute the endive, oranges, and red onions among four salad plates. Meanwhile, whisk together the olive oil, orange juice, and rice vinegar until well-mixed. Drizzle the dressing over each salad. Serve immediately, or chill until serving. Serve 4.

4. Make it into pirate ships! OK, this probably isn’t on the growers’ association’s approved list of recipes, but it’s a kid favorite in our house nonetheless. These pirate “ships” are filled with tuna salad and trimmed with pretzel sticks. Depending on your kids’ tastes, you can change the endive into Cinderella carriages, Santa sleighs, or bunny ears. Because let’s face it, after a while you start seeing uses for endive everywhere you look.

Posted Under: Just For Fun, Nutrition | Tags: , , , , , , ,
This post was written by jollytomato on December 18th, 2011

Fun Food Saturday: Scuffins

Saturday, April 16th, 2011

When is a muffin not a muffin? When it’s a scuffin, of course. A scuffin is defined as a cross between a scone and a muffin — and beyond that it’s wide open to interpretation. Some people like to make their scuffins like muffins (soft, cake-like texture) that are in scone shape. Others prefer their scuffins in a traditional muffin shape but with a scone-like batter (more dense, biscuit-like texture and not as sweet). Either way, we wanted to try making some because we just like saying the word “scuffin.”

For the first round, we tried some muffins shaped like scones with these Pumpkin Chia Spelt Scuffins from Oh She Glows. Angela did a side-by-side to show how she made the original recipe (white flour, sugar) healthier (whole wheat spelt flour, agave nectar, and chia seeds for a little boost). Bonus tip: She baked some on a stick and decorated them with faces to make a great little kids’ treat. We didn’t have chia seeds on hand, but we still got thumbs-up from our kid tasters for the “healthy” version.

This next recipe is almost the opposite – a scone batter baked in a muffin shape. From Fragrant Vanilla Cake, we have these Blueberry Almond Scuffins. We substituted fresh blackberries for the dried blueberries, and in the end they did kinda taste like regular muffins, but still they were unbelievably tasty when they were fresh out of the oven. It also prompted our wise seven-year-old to propose making “cuffins” – a cross between cupcakes and muffins.

For a savory option, we like these Asiago Cheese Bacon Scuffins from My Bizzy Kitchen. The goal here is to make something that is scone-like but without quite so much butter. These puppies are almost a meal in themselves (you’ve got your protein, your dairy, your fruit…) and would be great to pop in a lunch box.

Conclusion? Even if they’re not radically different from your traditional breakfast baked goods, scuffins are pretty cool and it’s sure fun to talk about them. Oh, and we want to give a special thank-you shout-out to Little Ladies Who Lunch for the inspiration with their Bacon, Cheddar and Chive Scuffins.

Fun Food Saturday: Because food should be fun.

Posted Under: Just For Fun | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
This post was written by jollytomato on April 16th, 2011
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