Phalaenopsis

I am now officially living in Glasgow and the Mighty Kitchen Garden belongs to a nice man named Tom.  It has been a strange month.  I don't have a garden space in my new city flat, so I am going to have to get creative with my planting.  I see window-boxes and a sill full of microgreens in my future...

In the meantime though, I just needed something alive to keep us company here.  As any new arrivals to a city (whose belongings will be on a ship for two months), this weekend saw the requisite trip to Ikea.  While there, I spotted a bunch of lovely, blooming Phalaenopsis available for sale.  Just the thing for our new bathroom and to add a little greenery to these dark December days.  So here it is, the newest addition to the Wee Kitchen Garden.

Packing and Planning and Slow-roasting Tomatoes

The last ripe San Marzano tomatoes, ready for a slow-roasting.

Things have been quite quiet around here, haven't they?  Since I last reported that chanterelles had arrived (and they were delicious!), we've hosted Thanksgiving for 14 adults and a two-year-old, gone to Scotland and back, found a place to live, and are attempting to pack up our lives in the next few days.  Yeehaw.

Some gardeny events have happened, too.  I slow-roasted the last of the ripe garden tomatoes, made a caramelized red onion relish, and found pineapple guavas growing on the trees!  A grand total of three pineapple guavas but we're calling that a WIN since the trees are less than a year old.  I'll tell you more about them soon.

For now though, I'd like to tell you about a magical food called slow-roasted tomatoes.  They have nothing in common with sun dried tomatoes.  Incidentally,  I hate sun dried tomatoes.  I really do.  I don't know what it is about them that I just cannot stand, but there it is.  The only type of tomato I don't like is a sun dried tomato.  As a result I wasn't very stoked on the idea of slow-roasting tomatoes because I feared they would become rubbery and weird-tasting.  But my fears were unfounded.  Slow-roasted tomatoes are amazing.  They just get really sweet and gooey and rich and delicious.  They are really worth trying.

They are also really easy to make.  You just need to devote a day to them so you can keep an eye on the oven (it would be tragic if you spent 4 hours roasting them and burnt them at the last second. Trust me, I know).  I have used this recipe from Willi at DigginFood with great results.  Basically, you just slice the tomatoes in half, coat them in olive oil, add some salt and pepper and let the oven do the work.  Brilliant.

For serving purposes, I love to just eat them plain.  They are great in sandwiches or gyros, especially a grilled mozzarella and slow-roasted tomato sandwich with basil.  Yum.  You can also blend or chop them up into a sauce or serve them as part of an appetizer platter.  They go very nicely with roasted peppers.  Slow-roasted tomatoes are also a nice way to add a twist to the universal appetizer favorite: bruschetta.  The bottom line here is you just can't go wrong with slow-roasted tomatoes.

p.s. I realize this is a summery kind of topic, but the reality of the MKG is that I made slow-roasted tomatoes, with tomatoes from the garden, in late November.  Part of me feels this post should be saved for next year but that's just silly.  I'm writing it the way I live it.  Also, I won't get this sort of weather in Glasgow (where they are currently enjoying "Hurricane Bawbag" {seriously}) so I might as well live it up while I can.