Oops, I did it again! Oven Cured Tomatoes

I have a confession. Again. Oh yes, my peeps, we’ve been down this road before. Here goes ...

(Insert a deep breathe here) I made an entire oven tray’s worth of Oven Cured Tomatoes and I .... I ... ate them. Right. Off. The. Tray. I've done this before. Oh super, I'm a serial cured tomato stealer.

Why do I do this? Why? I’m a responsible person. I strive for good manners, healthy living, exercising good judgement, etc. So what is it about these blasted oven cured tomatoes that causes me to completely loose control.

Well, *sigh*, it’s simple. They are heavenly. Way, way, WAY better than store bought sun dried tomatoes. Someday, I vow, in my lifetime, I will make these and not devour them straight from the oven.

For those of you who have mastered your self control far better than I, let me assure you that these are super easy to make. One caution, though. They take hours to cure. Some folks like to put them in the oven before going to bed at night, but I’m not fly with the idea of having something cooking, albeit at a low temp, in the oven whilst I sleep. I just pop them in the oven first thing in the morning, and let them do their thing for about 7 hours.

Ideally, these should be made with roma tomatoes. Romas are a meaty variety, and dehydrate to a lovely, chewy, tangy texture. Today, I wanted to use up the last of my tomato garden bounty which was just regular ole toms.I sliced them up into medium thin wedges, slathered them with high quality extra virgin olive oil, sprinkled them with sea salt, onion powder, garlic salt, and black pepper. I don’t add herbs to mine so that I can use them in various recipes. Use them, that is, if they could ever make it to the storage jar.Spread the oiled up ruby gems on a rimmed baking sheet and pop them into a preheated 400 degree oven. Immediately, turn the oven down to 200 degrees and leave them alone for 6-8 hours. Today’s batch took 7 hours.

One side note, let’s say you want to make these but about half way through the curing process, your aunt mabel calls to remind you that you promised to bring her dinner tonight. No worries. Just pull these babies out of the oven, combine with some pasta and herbs, top with grated cheese and you're good to go.Here’s what they look like at the half way mark. Lovely. Come to mama. Even half way done, they would make an awesome, awesome roasted tomato sauce.

That said, if aunt mabel does not call, let them cure the full amount and you will have the most delectable, addictive cured tomatoes ever. EVER. Oh, and obviously, these are gluten free.Just look at this perfection. Here, here ... just try one. You’ll be hooked. Forever. I wonder if this was how it was for Adam with Eve in the Garden. Perhaps it wasn't an apple afterall ... perhaps it was a cured tomato. They are both red, you know. And lots of stuff gets lost in translation. *sigh* I'm in big trouble now.

On a different and less blasphemous note, here are some pics of my boy. He has no trouble refraining from eating the oven cured toms. In fact, he won’t touch them. He grew this big on meat and potatoes, baby. And corn. The boy loves his corn.

Anyway ... my young fella played in a soccer tournament this past weekend. It was a soccer extravaganza on Saturday and Sunday. Our weather was gorgeous both days; in fact, we are all a little sun kissed after being out and about at the games.Can you see the outline of magnificent Mt. Hood in the background? I just had to throw in this shot so you all could take in the spendor of mother nature's Mt. Hood and the adorableness of my mountain of a boy. It seems really strange to not see snow on the mountain. Every summer, there is less and less. However, the rainy season is supposed to return this week which means rain here in the valley and snow up at the mountain. With luck, this time next week, Mt. Hood will be covered with snow.Whew, it was hot that afternoon. Lordy, when did this kid grow up? Isn’t he my little fella that used to fall asleep on my shoulder? Those days are long gone, but fresh in my memory. This is game 2 on Saturday. A real nail biter, it ended in a tie. By the way, Saturday marked my 47th birthday! Happy birthday to me!