Greetings Treat-A-Weekers,

Well, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I am trying my hand at writing a fiction novel. Who knows if it will go anywhere, but it’s getting my creative juices flowing and I am enjoying researching aspects of the story! The bad news is that I have been spending all my spare time working on it, which means I have not been updating my beloved blog. Never fear, I will continue to do blog posts, but for a while, it may be that this is more Treat-A-Month than Treat-A-Week phenomenon. Please bear with me! Since the posts will be less frequent, hopefully the content will really resonate with you. Sometimes less is more?

As for today’s treat, I am really feeling the cold of winter this year, and so I have been doing a bit more cooking than usual. I am also trying to be more healthy when and where I can so I’ve been making and storing a treat-like snack and a really zesty salad dressing that I love to have whenever I have the munchies or am in need of a quick salad lunch. Both my snack and my dressing involve a key ingredient — balsamic vinegar. I know many of you are very familiar with the allure of balsamic vinegar, but I came to know and love it more recently and it has added so much more flavor to my life and healthy-ish food repetoire. Below find the two recipes that are getting me through this winter! The cherry tomato recipe first came to me in a form from my dear friend Allison, who slow roasts tomatoes with olive oil and salt and pepper and puts the carmelized topping on french bread with goat cheese and serves it as an appetizer. Yum. The recipe below is slightly different than the one Allison makes but is still super tasty. I have it with roast pita bread chips that I make in the oven (break up pita into bite size, drizzle with olive oil and some kosher salt and bake for about 12 minutes at 350) or terra vegetable chips.

Carmelized Cherry Tomato Dip/Chutney/Bruschetta Topping

Ingredients

• 2 cups, or a bunch of cherry or grape tomatoes;
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• black pepper to taste
• 1-2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• pinch of red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp honey
• 1/4 fresh basil leaves sliced into ribbons
• 1-2 tbsp olive oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spread out washed and pat dry cherry tomatoes on a roasting pan. Drizzle with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake in oven for about an hour until caramelized. Scrape all the tomatoes and juices off the pan and add minced garlic cloves, balsamic vinegar, red pepper flakes, honey, basil leaves and a bit more olive oil if needed. Stir and serve with pita chips or french bread and goat cheese. (My version of this before mixed in final form is pictured).

Zesty Salad Dressing

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• salt to taste (kosher preferably)

Directions

Mix all ingredients well. This makes about 2-3 servings, so I use a third of it and save the remainder in the fridge. I typically add a scoop of store bought chicken or tuna salad to salad greens (or whatever roast, grilled or baked leftover fish, or chicken I have from dinner the night before), a few croutons for crunch, whatever roast veggies I may have in the fridge, perhaps a little goat cheese and pour a little of this dressing on it and walaah — a delicious, yummy salad that satisfies all my flavor cravings is born!

Let me know what you think if you try either of these recipes – hope you will enjoy them!

Until my next post, I remain, very truly yours,

M