03.16.12

Tonight I made delicious BLT sandwiches using our freshly made whole wheat pitas (well, freshly made yesterday.) These were no ordinary BLT sandwiches. I used a recipe for slow roasted tomatoes from a blog called "not without salt". The slow roasted tomatoes and the accompanying basil mayonnaise made these BLTs extraordinary.

Slow Roasted Tomatoes


6-8 roma tomatoes (no need for them to be really ripe)
a few thyme sprigs
1 Tbsp olive oil
salt

Preheat oven to 225° and prepare a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

Slice the tomatoes about 1/2 inch thick and lay them on the parchment paper. Sprinkle the tomatoes with the thyme leaves, drizzle with the olive oil, and add just a touch of salt.

Roast for about 4 hours. Let the tomatoes cool on the baking sheet.

The authors of "not without salt" suggest putting any leftover tomatoes into olive oil and keeping them in the refrigerator. We didn't have any tomatoes leftover!!


Since tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, I had to make a loaf of Irish Bread. I don't have a stitch of Irish blood in me, but I make this Irish Bread every year. My mom did too. She always made loaves for my and my 4 brothers' teachers every St. Patrick's Day. I don't know why.

I don't think this is a secret family recipe, and I love it a lot. So I'll share it here.

Irish Bread


3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
4 tsp Baking Powder
2 Tbsp butter or margarine--softened
3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 cups milk
1 cup golden raisins
2 tsp caraway seeds

Preheat the oven to 350°. Lay parchment paper in a standard size loaf pan--covering the bottom and two long sides with overhang on each side. Use cooking spray on the exposed sides of the pan. (I use this technique on all quick breads I make--zucchini bread, banana bread, pumpkin bread. When the loaf comes out of the oven, simply grasp the overhang of parchment and lift the bread right out of the pan.)

Mix all of the ingredients in a large bowl.  Spread the batter in the pan. Bake for 1 hour. Remove the bread from the pan and allow to cool slightly before cutting.

I couldn't wait until St. Patrick's Day to cut into the loaf