The perfect cherry tomato, roasted garlic, dog pix

I am officially getting sick and tired of this stupid cut. It has really put a damper on my cooking. Fortunately, I have a lot of freezer staples, so I've been defrosting them for dinner and making salads... although, the washing of the produce is not necessarily good for the cut.

I was THRILLED to stumbled upon some awesome cherry tomatoes. I know for many of you, this early spring is birthing beautiful produce, but up here, in New Hampshire, we are not that lucky, so to find a true tomato is a good thing, even if it's a cherry tomato.

I figured I'd share a tip on garlic since I'm not doing much cooking. I use roasted garlic in a lot of food to replace oil. The texture is similar and the flavor is heady and satisfying. Often, I roast the garlic in the toaster oven as I'm baking other things, but sometimes, I just buy the garlic cloves my grocery store so generously offers (at a mere .99/lb for peeled garlic) and make a pint jar at a time. This is the low cal way. First of all, I spray the cast iron skillet and heat to 2.. and add the garlic, kosher salt/pepper and red pepper flakes. I slowly allow it to come up to temperature and brown the garlic. There is a FINE line between browned garlic and burned garlic. When you start to smell a delicious aroma, the garlic will probably be browned to perfection. Next, I add some water and allow it to reduce down. This will take about 30 mins or so. If you don't care about calories, adding EVOO would be sublime. I care, so I add water. When the cloves are soft, mash them and store them in a covered container for a maximum of 5 days. I actually do this several times a week for my recipes. The calorie bang for your buck is big time, baby!

My sweet baby, basking in the sunlight (PS, this is also where I take most of my food pics. The natural light makes a difference.. sometimes, I use a rice paper filter on the window as well..)

Hi Momma! Why are you waking me up?