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the life and times of J T Frey
Tomatoes and garlic submerged in olive oil in the compay of fresh basil and other herbs, cooked very slowly and at a low temperature: that's confit. The tomatoes have a sweet, unctious, jammy consistency to them. The garlic is ever-so-slightly toasted, sweet, and spreads like butter. And the oil — the oil is the stuff every Italian restaurant aspires to give you on that plate of olive oil that accompanies the bread.
Adapted from a recipe I found online (source: Ted's Bulletin, an upscale comfort food diner in Washington). My daughters love tomato soup, but aren't excited for any deviation from basic tomato flavor — I once added some ginger and was chastised for making the soup "too spicy." This recipe elicits high marks from the kids and the adults.
This recipe is a mashup of several salad recipes we found online and in cookbooks. The roasted squash, pumpkin seeds, and smoky gouda are meant to evoke a feeling of fall. We happened to have a bottle of grenadine on hand (Juliet had a thing for Shirley Temple sodas at one point) and the sweet pomegranate dressing went perfectly against all the other flavors.
Serves ~ 6 people.
Juliet was browsing a crock pot cookbook one day and came across a recipe for Indian-spiced lamb meatballs. Being a big fan of lamb curry, she voted it into our menu for the week. We're all glad she did. This variant of the original recipe tailors the flavor to our tastes and scaled-back to enough for our family of four.
Rather than buying a pre-made curry powder blend, why not make it yourself? That's what I thought when I read the ingredient list on an expensive bottle of the orange-yellow spice mix. This particular recipe mimicks the Spice Islands brand very closely.