Tonight Josh and my brother are going to the Mavericks game against the Utah Jazz. Brother (yes, I call him brother, not Alex) even came over early for dinner and I got him to eat TOMATOES! Neither one of us have ever eaten tomatoes. Seriously, I even have book that my college roommate, Emily, gave to me titled
I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato. I display it in my classroom as one of my favorite books!!! It's a texture thing because we both love everything tomato flavored- ketchup, spaghetti sauce, salsa, etc.- just not tomatoes. Anyhow, several weeks ago I was having dinner at my friend Kelly's house and she made pasta with basil and tomatoes. I knew I hated tomatoes but I figured I'd better put on my big girl panties, be a gracious guest and force it down. So I did. And I loved it! I admitted to Kelly half way through the meal how nervous I'd been about dinner because of the tomatoes. I couldn't believe how much I liked them. I had to know what kind of magical tomatoes she had used. Well, they weren't magical as I'm sure you guessed. They were roasted tomatoes. She explained that they are roasted and then stored in olive oil with garlic and spices. Kelly buys her's at Whole Foods but I've discovered they also have them at the fancier Krogers. If your Kroger has an olive bar they probably have the roasted tomatoes too. My Kroger is in the middle of a remodel but I've been told the olive bar is coming soon :).
Anyway, tonight I made California Chicken Spaghetti. It is one of the first recipes my cooking coach, Esther, taught me but I haven't made it in a couple years because it calls for roma tomatoes. With my new found affection for roasted tomatoes I thought I'd give it another try. So I substituted roasted tomatoes for the roma tomatoes and voila, an instant hit. Joshua puts it in his top 5. We've had it twice in the last few weeks. Here's a link to the recipe
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/California-Chicken-Spaghetti
You should give it a try. Remember to try the roasted tomatoes!
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Look at all those tomatoes!! |