This week I bought some cherry tomatoes that were on sale at Stop&Shop. Now, I love tomatoes, but I’ve never been a fan of these little guys.
Not raw anyway, but if you toss them in a 400º oven and roast the little suckers in olive oil and a little kosher salt, that’s an entirely different story.
Roasting them eliminates the gushy centers, which is what I don’t love about cherry tomatoes. Also, when you roast them they sort of caramelize and sweeten up a bit.
At this point you could call it quits. Just grab a crusty loaf of bread, some good cheese, a bottle of wine, and have at it.
That’s exactly what I’d do if it weren’t for the fact that the kids would never, ever call this dinner. They would make rotten Parisians.
Therefore, a protein is in order. And my protein of choice for this meal was chicken thighs. Chicken thighs seasoned with rosemary from my patio garden.
A few cloves of garlic, some kosher salt, fresh chopped rosemary, a few cranks of black pepper and a drizzle of olive oil is all it takes to make the humble chicken thighs more noble.
The longer you let the chicken hang out in the seasoning, the better. Ideally I’d let this sit overnight. That way the garlic and rosemary have a chance to get it on and do their thing. I hear Barry White playing already.
While I was grilling the chicken, I got a little distracted while watching the girls play ball together. I was so mesmerized by them actually getting along that I didn’t notice this happening….
Not optimal, but not a lost cause either. Once I got the two foot flames to subside, I peeled off the black charred skin and was happy to find perfectly cooked meat. I’m not quite sure how that happened, but I’ll take it.
On large dinner plates I placed some baby spinach, the roasted tomatoes, some freshly made croutons and the chicken which I shredded.
I dressed it with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and that was that. A simple summer salad that captured some of the best parts of summer. Fresh tomatoes, grilled chicken and bonfires.
Next time I’d rather have the bonfire in my fire pit, thank you very much. But I still have all of my acrylics, so there’s that. Bon Appetit!
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that looks AMAZING. totally made me hungry which is not nice
think i might be trying to do this one day
At least I’m tempting you with healthy food.
LOL, Melanie! I have had many “bonfires” like that in my grill, mostly when attempting to do chicken with skin on and 25 other things in the house at the same time. So glad you were able to salvage it! Your salad looks very delicious and I bet the flavors of rosemary and garlic went beautifully with the roasted tomatoes. I totally feel you on the gushy centers of cherry tomatoes. Completely grosses me out. Grape tomatoes don’t seem to have as much of that, so I usually opt for them for salads, but I’ll have to try out your roasting technique.
You know, that roasting technique works well for lots of veggies that I normally don’t like. Carrots are another good example. I don’t love them raw unless they’re dunked in a fab dip, but if they are roasted I’ll devour them.
Yummy! Great idea. I am growing a couple cherry tomato plants and will definitely try this out!!
Wow you saved the day! But boy does that look yummy! I love how the tomatoes looks…I’m going to try that. I’m actually heading over to Stop&Shop today to get tomatoes and more gas deals. Don’t you love this weeks gas points??
Yes! I wish they would have a weekly produce gas points deal. I think they’ve had way too many pet food and candy bar deals lately. But this week has been awesome. We’ve been consuming salad like rabbits.
Now that looks delish! Makes me want to oven roast my cherry toamtoes and I typically don’t like cooked tomatoes– so that’s saying a lot for this recipe!
Jen from Quincy
You know what else you can do Jen? Chop up the roasted tomatoes, some basil, and season it with oregano and mix it with some cooked pasta. It’s crazy delicious. Sort of like a pasta sauce, but not as heavy. So good.
THat looks fabulous!! I could also stop with cheese, tomatoes, bread and wine for dinner. I will have to make this salad before summer is over.
That is my idea of the perfect meal. Sometimes something simple like bread/tomatoes/cheese is so much more satisfying than a heavy meal!
That kind of BBQ i have nicknamed “inviting the fire deptartment to supper” ;p Very glad you save supper and yer nails eh. nice new site.
Yup! My sons were pretty impressed with my firefighting abilities. This reminded me to check my fire extinguishers. I’m glad you like the new site.
This is what I am making tomorrow…YUM! Mad fire fighting skills, Melanie!
Now I’m starving Melanie! Delicious looking ingredients and final product. LoL at the Barry White song for the rosemary and garlic getting it on. I will chuckle every time I have those ingredients together.
Great job saving the chicken without losing your nails or your hair for that matter!! I’m sure the kids were impressed that you had time to take a picture before saving the food and putting down the flames!! Great recipe and I too love the new look and the new blog. Keep up the great writing and beautiful pix!
Thank you. It’s all about saving the nails.
You are so cute Melanie! The grill is on fire, so instead of putting it out straight away, you take a picture to share with us before putting it out!
When you are a blogger you’ve got to take advantage of those photo opps, lol. I had to wait for the flames to die down anyway. And the red does look very festive.
We’ll definitely be doing this for dinner over the weekend – in fact you’d be amazed by how many times you’ve ‘appeared’ on our dinner table!
Love the blue, it’s sooooo more restful!
I love that I appear on your table. That’s like the ultimate compliment. Thanks!
I love chicken. I’m pretty sure that if I could only have 1 meat for the rest of my life that chicken would be my #1 choice. This looks so simple but so yummy!
If I could only have one meal forever it would be chicken enchiladas. I was born in the wrong country, lol.
This looks great Melanie! A little “char” only enhances the chicken they say (or is it that what I say and hope noone disputes?) Either way – it looks great and the oven roasted tomatoes – YUM!