We used some of our tomatoes in the cheese pie I mentioned yesterday. This is the result and I wish you could taste it, because it was awesome.

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Last week I was checking upon our tomatoes and I discovered a huge oil puddle in my closet.. Rats! the oil came from the jar we were keeping our tomatoes in. I took the jar out, opened it very carefully and that was very smart. It almost exploded, but not as bad as it could have been.

It looked like this:

So after I cleaned all up, and closed the lid again, I put it back in the closet, this time in a huge glass bowl. So if it was to overflow again, at least it would not get on my shelves again.

Today Dan_e and I checked the tomatoes again. It looked fine and it tastes soo yummeh!

I scooped out a bit to fill a 0.25 litre jar to give away as a birthday present for a friend we are going to visit tonight. We are going to make a cheese quiche with it tomorrow. We’ll keep you posted.

I also bought some yarn for my friend, as she is a knitter too. We went to De Afstap and I only bought yarn for her. I have a huge stash and I was very brave to not add more yarn to it. After that we walked through de 9 straatjes (the nine streets) and in one of the many awesome shops I found me a thread can. And some cute sheep in a games shop:

In the lid is a small hole you pull your yarn through. Then you knit, knit, knit and your thread never gets knotted. I love it The little sheep is just cute.

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You’ll need 3 kg tomatoes, cut in half and spoon out the seeds:

Put them on a baking tray, add cloves of garlic, flowered sea salt, and powdered sugar. Sprinkle with olive oil. Bake for 2 hours on 80 °C.

Take the trays out of the oven, flip the tomatoes over and put them back in the oven for another 2 hours.

Put the tomatoes and garlic in a jar (mine can containe 2 litres and its full to the brim) which can close air sealed, add fresh herbs like basil, rosemary, estragon, thym and fill the jar with warm olive oil untill all the tomatoes are covered with oil.

When all is cooled off, close the jar and wait 3 weeks. Yes… THREE weeks..

I found the recipe here, via Coté Passions. I was some puzzle, because neither Dan_e nor me speak very good French, and the translators are very erm.. let me say “funny” in times We will let you know in three weeks how it worked out

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Yesterday Dan_e and me made the spinach empanada’s and the potato-tortilla from the Dutch Kamerkook website.

The recipe is for approximately 6 persons.

Spinach empanada’s

You’ll need:

• 15 gr raisins
• 15 ml olive oil
• 1 tea spoon shallot finely chopped
• 200 gr spinach coarsely chopped
• 1 garlic clove finely chopped
• 15 gr roasted pine nuts (roast them in a dry hot frying pan)
• 1 beaten egg
• 250 gr puff pastry
• salt and grated pepper
• 1 tea spoon capers
• 15 gr grated parmezan cheese
• some chopped almonds to cover the empanada’s with

Pre-heat your oven on 180 °C

Put the raisins in a small bowl with warm water and let it stand for about 10 minutes. Drain and chop coarsely. Put the oil in a frying pan or wok and when its hot, add the shallot and spinach. Let it simmer while you keep stirring it until the water is evaporated. Add raisins, garlic, salt and pepper and stir for another minute.  Remove it from the fire, add raisins, capers, pine nuts and the cheese. Stir and let it cool off.

To make the empanada’s I have this awesome tool called a dough shaper:

You put the shaper open on your dough and it cuts out a circle which fit exactly in the hollow top. You fill it with the mixture you just made (not too much), wet the edges a little with water so it’s a bit sticky and fold it. After you open it, you have a perfect empanada filled with your spinach-mixture. You can of course put anything in it, and made all sorts of filled dough-half moon shaped yummieness.

Beat the egg and smear it on the empanada’s. Sprinkle the chopped almonds on top. Put it in the middle of the oven for 15-20 minutes.

Tortilla de patatas (potato tortilla)

You’ll need;

• 12 tablespoons spoons olive oil
• 1 medium sized onion, cut into circles
• 4 medium sized potatoes, cut into thin slices
• 7 eggs
• 1 clove garlic finely chopped
• 30 gr parsley chopped

Heat the oil in a frying pan (leave about one tbl sp. for later) and add the onions and garlic. After a minute add the potatoes. Make sure its just barely covered with oil. Turn your fire low and let the potatoes cook while stirring every now and then. The potatoes need to become done, but stay firm! Don’t let them bake.

Drain the potato/onion/garlic mixture. Beat the eggs in a large bowl, add salt, parsley and the drained mixture and stir to prevent the egg to coagulate. Let it rest for 15 minutes.

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in the frying pan and put the mixture in the pan. Make sure the whole bottom of the pan is covered equally. Turn your fire low again and let the tortilla become done until the underside is lightly brown.

Put a lid on your pan (or a large enough flat plate) and flip the pan. Let the tortilla slide back into the pan and bake on a low fire until it’s done.

Garlic mayonnaise

You’ll need:

• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 egg yokes
• 1 tea spoon of grated lemon peel
• 3 table spoons lemon juice
• 10 ml olive oil
• 10 ml sunflower oil

Put the egg yokes, garlic, sea salt, lemon peel and – juice in a high bowl and mix it with a mixer or with the kitchen machine. Slowly pour in the olive oil, while you keep beating the mixture with your mixer until all oil is in the mixture and it has the thickness of mayonnaise. Season with salt and/or more lemon juice.

Enjoy your meal!

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