Take those tomatoes and stuff 'em!

The inspiration for this dish came to me as I was thinking  about tomatoes and various things people use to stuff them. I have a deep appreciation for both crab and scallops, so decided to use both for this really easy to make meal.

I picked up the tomatoes, lettuce, celery, and goat cheese from my local farmers market, and I used Monterey Jack cheese as well as the scallops and crab meat.

First, I cut the tops off the tomatoes and set them aside. Well, that's not completely true. I set some aside and ate the rest with a bit of salt on them. :-) While munching tomato tops, I scooped out the tomatoes then chopped up some celery which I had decided to add for both color and crunch. A dish like this definitely needed some texture, and celery came to the rescue nicely. I then shredded the Jack cheese and crumbled the chevre (goat cheese), then set both aside.

That done, I sautéed the scallops in butter with a touch of olive oil (olive oil helps the lycopenes in tomato become soluble and thus more easily absorbed into the body) and just a dash of white wine. Once done, I tossed in the crab, celery, and Jack cheese and mixed them together just long enough to warm the crab and slightly melt the cheese.

Next step was stuffing the tomatoes, which was easy. I added the chevre to two of the tomatoes just before popping it into the oven. Chevre is a creamy cheese that melts easily, so I didn't want to add it too soon and have it become too watery. I covered two of the tomatoes in shredded Monterey Jack and covered the two with chevre with slices of the Jack cheese simply so I could tell them apart since my son doesn't like chevre. I placed all four tomatoes on a stone pizza sheet and put them in the oven at 250 for about ten minutes... just long and hot enough to melt the cheese without softening the tomatoes too much. I cut the tops I hadn't eaten in half for garnish and served them on a bed of lettuce.

This slightly indulgent dinner was quick and tasty. I'm looking forward to making it again, though I'm considering other meats with which to stuff the tomatoes, perhaps ground beef with cheddar cheese and a little onion and green pepper? We'll see!

Smoked ribs and tomatoes

Sundays are the days I tend to get the most creative when it comes to cooking. There's something about not having to run around like a madman trying to accomplish 100 things in a day that gets my creative cooking juices flowing.

Today's dinner was smoked ribs covered in a wasabi lime marinade from O'Hara's Jams and Jellies in Durango, CO. I boiled up the ribs for a while to tenderize them, then put them in my smoker with chunks of hickory for a while to get them all nice and smoky. Halfway through I covered them in the marinade to let it soak in and glaze itself onto the ribs.

While waiting for the meat, I mixed organic basil with olive oil and brushed the tomatoes with the mixture. I sliced mozzarella cheese, put them on a pizza stone, and popped them in the oven at 250 for about five minutes; just long enough for the cheese to melt but not long enough to actually cook the tomatoes.

The meal wasn't super difficult to make: a few simple ingredients, but I often find that simple meals are often the ones I enjoy the most. There's something to be said for keeping meals simple. I think that could well be one of the reasons most people tend to avoid cooking: "it's too complicated." It doesn't have to be at all. Just a few simple things and you end up with a super tasty meal.