Balsamic roasted tomatoes and garlic

OMG guys.

{balsamic roasted tomatoes and garlic)

Have you seen this recipe? Tomatoes. yum. garlic. yum. This was amazing. I’m sitting here debating finishing this post or finishing up the left overs. But this is for posterity. {True confession: I promptly went and ate the rest after writing this}

So tonight I set out to try this with a few modifications. The original recipe calls for a drizzle of olive oil at the end, but I wanted to make sure that the tomatoes didn’t burn. So I cut the tomatoes and tossed them with some olive oil.

{EVOO}

Stuffed in some garlic.

{stuffed tomatoes}

Then I realized, what goes with tomatoes and garlic. Cheese. But that doesn’t work so well. Balsamic vinegar. I love me some balsamic vinegar. So once they were all set up in the skillet, I drizzled some over the tomatoes and garlic.

{vinegar bath}

A little oregano (other spices would be good too).

{all dressed up}

Pop that in the oven.

{keeping that glass clean is so hard}

Now I also didn’t want to crush everything per the original recipe. I wanted little tomatoes stuffed with garlic that I could pick up individually. So I didn’t know how long this was going to take.

15 mins.

{just the beginning}

30 mins.

45 mins.

1 hour

1 hour 15 mins. and I say done. Most of the liquid had cooked off and things were starting to get a little brown (which isn’t a bad thing)

Toasted some bread on the panini press.

{love bread}

Loaded it up.

{come to momma}

Devoured it.

Seriously this is absolutely worth making.  I can’t describe how delicious this was. The flavors were so concentrated I didn’t even need cheese. bam. Do yourself a favor and make these.

Recipe (adapted slightly from here)

Ingredients:

• 1 pt. tomatoes (cherry or another small variety)
• 1 head of garlic
• oregano
• sea salt
• 2-3 splashes good quality olive oil

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cut a X into the top of each tomato.
3. Toss tomatoes with olive oil.
4. cut the garlic cloves to fit into the tomatoes (I cut most in half).
5. stuff the garlic into the tomatoes.
6. Fill a cast iron skillet with the garlic-stuffed tomatoes, slit side up.
7. Drizzle balsamic vinegar over the tomatoes.
8. Sprinkle on oregano (or other spices).
9. Roast tomatoes until most of the liquid is evaporated.
10. Smash on bread, crackers and probably a lot of other things.

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State of the Union

It is terrible to say that I was disappointed that the State of the Union Address was on tonight? I absolutely intended to veg out and watch TV after work tonight and the SOTU wasn’t what I had in mind.

So off to craft I went.

I had pinned this adorable tutorial a while ago. And in my New Years purging I realized that I had too many pairs of jeans. 2 went into the resale bin and one is going to the thrift store. And one is getting a makeover.

{old jeans}

Although the original tutorial is great, I didn’t have the heatbond, so I experimented with some invisible thread and decided to sew the lace on.

{I love the vintage label. This is from my grandma's stash}

So here’s what I did:

bought some lace (this is from hancock fabrics, the closest place for a quick fix for me)

{1.5 yard, 3.75'' width}

Turned the jeans inside out and pinned on the lace. I left a little bit hanging over the edge so the jean hem wouldn’t show.

{a little overlap}

I used cream colored thread on top and the invisible thread in the bobbin. I picked the part of the lace that was the most dense and used a zig zag stitch. First at the top.

Then at the bottom.

I folded over the end and zig zaged up the seam. Turn those suckers inside out and you’re done!

{a little peak of lace}

{finished fancy pants}

As you can see the invisible thread isn’t completely invisible, but it’s pretty good!

{invisathread}

Now go clean out your closet, get an old pair of jeans, and try it yourself!

{my feet look weird-shaped}

up next

Well pinterest has done it again. Since I can’t find this, I’m going to have to make it.

Yo Momma Cookies

{Yo momma cookies}

This is not a fancy recipe. But they could be. These cookies are delicious and oh-so customizable.

I got this recipe from one of my best friends after her mom sent us  her a tin of them. And we ate them all. So they’re really Molly’s Momma’s cookies, but I just call them Yo Mommas.

{perfect little puffs!}

The original recipe calls for yellow cake mix. I’m using white cake mix here because it was on clearance at Target and that’s how I roll. You can add anything to these cookies which is why they’re so great. Chocolate chips, nuts, bacon, cheese, etc. Ok I haven’t tried the bacon or cheese, but I feel like that’s very foodie of me to suggest.

{dough is also delicious}

Recipe (courtesy of Karen):

• 1 box cake mix
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 Tbsp water
• 2 eggs

Instructions: Heat oven to 350. Mix ingredients together. Scoop* onto cookie sheet. Bake for approximately 9 mins. Enjoy!

I like a little more sugar on my sugar, so I dab a little bit of this on.

*I use a 1 1/2 Tbsp cookie scoop