Tomato Broil

Dinner at our house is pretty routine Our meals usually consist of either Italian or Mexican - with an occasional sandwich or melt thrown in.

Three words: cheap, fast, easy.

Sure I may change up the vegetable in the sauce with the pasta, or throw a new ingredient in the quesadilla's, but it's basically all the same. My husband doesn't complain, and in fact often thinks the meals I pull off are amazing. But I know better.

I've gotten some really nice cookbooks lately and a couple magazines subscriptions boasting delicious new recipes. And boy do they look tasty. However, as I was marking the ones I wanted to try I realized that I probably would never really cook them because they veered from the staple items I keep in stock. Also, some of the ingredients and food combinations are a little more venturous than what my taste buds are used to.

Thinking about it, I realized I want to know more about all of these dishes. Heck it's time to expand my horizon and try new things. So I've become resolved to, once or twice a month, randomly pick a recipe out of a cookbook or magazine, and no matter what it is or what's in it - cook it! And as an added bonus, I'll blog about it too!

Tonight was the first recipe and I actually got it off the back of my Italian cheese package. It wasn't a random pick, but I had all the ingredients and I had some tomatoes that needed to get used up. And that's how experiment Tomato Broil began.

Funny thing is, I HATE tomatoes. I love tomato sauces and can stand small bits of cooked tomatoes or the occasional THINLY sliced tomato on a hamburger or sandwich...but these things? GROSS. And yet, I had to try; I had made the commitment.

You aren't really supposed to scrape out any tomato but I really didn't want TOO much tomato-ness in mine, so I hollowed my tomato out until about half way down. I scooped a shallow dip in the rest so the filling wouldn't topple right off.

Next I mixed the filling.

Some Italian bread crumbs.

Some of the Italian cheese blend.

Then a couple teaspoons of Italian seasoning. (I know- lots of Italian. I guess this an Italian dish and therefore not venturing from my normal menu, but I swear I would NEVER normally make this. When I say Italian staple what I really mean is pasta)

Mix all of that together and start stuffing the tomatoes.

Until they are full/overflowing.

You were supposed to drizzle with olive oil after this. I don't know why because it didn't work out too well. The olive oil just ran off the topping and down the tomato into puddles on the pan. 

Oh well. Next you are to sprinkle with desired amount of black pepper.

Then you put them in the oven to bake for fifteen minutes or so.

I put mine in with some cornbread muffins so my cooking time was a little different.

And they come out looking like this. They looked pretty good...

...but I was still very skeptical of the whole tomato thing.

I knew we had muffins as back-up in case I just couldn't muscle it down.

And I'm so VERY glad we did have the muffins - because this is as far as I got. 

I could only eat half of the tomato and I was gagging the whole time. But half is really good for me. In the old days, I would have barfed after one bite.

However, if you like tomatoes, Brigham said it was delicious and scarfed down the two giant ones and the second half of mine and Lydia's (Lydia's reaction was about the same as mine and she literally gagged her half down as well...even though every time Brigham declared he loved it she emphatically said she did too. Her twisted up this-is-so-nasty-I-can-barely-stand-to-keep-it-in-my-mouth face told the truth).

So I'm not a fan. Will NEVER make this one again. But it was super easy. And I ate the last ice-cream sandwich to make up for it and I feel much better now :)

So my experiment has began. Here's to hoping future recipes with be MUCH more appetizing.