I love to cook and decided this would be a good place to post some recipes.

CARMELIZED ONION, ROASTED GARLIC, AND TOMATO QUINOA

I make this for myself a lot.  Quinoa is an incredible super grain.  It’s nutritious and proteiny and gives me lots and lots of energy without much letdown.  This salad can be eaten hot or cold.

Ingredients:

2 cups quinoa

5 cloves roasted garlic

4 roasted tomatoes

2 tbsp. olive oil

3 tbsp. capers

2 ounces fat free feta cheese

1 yellow onion

salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste

Instructions:

First, roast garlic cloves and tomatoes.  I like to keep both of these items on hand in the fridge, as they can enhance almost any savory dish.  Recipes for both follow this one.

Halve onion and remove unusable outer layers.

Slice each half into thin half-moon slices.

Place sliced onions into pan with 2 tablespoons hot olive oil.  These will cook on low/medium heat until the very last minute or until carmelized.

-add 2 cups water to dry quinoa in a saucepan

-bring to a boil

-simmer about 10 minutes with a lid on, or until it’s fluffy, but still slightly moist.

while it cooks:

-dice roasted tomatoes, mince roasted garlic, cube cheese into small, salad-style chunks

-mix all ingredients into cooked quinoa

-when onions have carmelized, remove them from heat and add to the mix.

I like to chop fresh basil and sprinkle it on this salad.  It’s also good with cooked chicken or the addition of sauteed zucchini.

HOW TO ROAST GARLIC

There are awesome ways to roast whole heads of garlic, including the tutorial here.  I do this for dinner parties and stuff like that, but for day to day use, I usually roast a big ass batch of it from one of those containers of the pre-peeled cloves from Costco.  I usually do half of one of those containers at a time and it lasts me two weeks or so.  I spread roast garlic on sandwiches, put it in pasta, salads, on crackers with cheese, and in other dishes.

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.

spread peeled cloves of garlic across a shallow pan

drizzle lightly with olive oil

roast for about 2 hours or until brown and slightly mushy.

store in an airtight container.

BADASS ROASTED TOMATOES

These, I make ALL the time; like, for every dinner party I’ve ever thrown or been to, every time my brother comes to town (he’s obsessed with them), every time I see my parents, and by constant request of every single one of my friends.  They are good on and in everything, including that quinoa recipe above.

Preheat your oven to 275.

Start with 3-4 pounds tomatoes.  You can use any kind.  I usually use whatever’s on sale, but of course the best kinds to use are the most flavorful.  I use heirloom mixes in the summer, sometimes grape or cherry, but usually organic roma or tomatoes on the vine.  Don’t use the hydroponic ones, if you can avoid it, because they just don’t have a good flavor.

Slice tomatoes about 1\3 inch thick.

Arrange them in packed rows going the long way, laying atop each other like scales, in a 9 by 13 cake pan.  You can usually get about 4 or 5 rows into one pan and then tuck all the non-round slices into any unused space.  You want the rows of tomatoes to really fill up the pan, as they need to cook in their own juices.  You may have extra tomatoes, so just slice them up and put them in an additional pan in the same style.

Sprinkle all the tomatoes liberally with salt (I use about a tablespoon for a pan), oregano and red pepper flakes, if you like.

Coat with about 1\4 cup of olive oil (more if you want a more bruschetta-friendly mixture).  To stretch the amount of oil on all these tomatoes, use a basting brush to coat all of them, then dump the remainder in.

Pop the tomatoes in the over and keep them there for about 3 hours.

Take them out every hour and press them down into the liquid in the pan, so they don’t blacken.

They’re ready when they look shriveled and dark, dark red with orange edges.

Store them in an airtight container, with their liquid.

These tomatoes make a delicious appetizer with rosemary bread or crackers, with goat cheese, or as a replacement for mayo on sandwiches, or in wheat pasta or salads or just about anything.