DORIE’S YANKEE DOODLE DANDY: TOMATOES PROVENÇAL
Tomatoes Provençal
Glancing through cookbooks penned by some favorite chefs, Ina, Julia, Martha and Jacques, I found recipes for Tomatoes Provençal. While admittedly it’s a French classic, have you ever visited a 4th of July buffet table that didn’t include this tomato dish? Think of it as our appreciative tip of Uncle Sam’s hat to the Marquis de Lafayette and French support during the Revolutionary War.
Fifteen minutes to throw together and less than an hour in the oven. How good does that sound?
This week’s French Fridays recipe, an appropriate flag-waving choice, is Dorie Greenspan’s take on Tomatoes Provençal. In her own words, “Every French cook who makes oven-roasted herb-topped tomatoes has his or her own recipe, but the fact is it needs no recipe at all.
A weekend adventure to Rocky Mountain National Park and the Continental Divide.
There are a few givens,” Dorie explains. “The tomatoes, to be sure, olive oil to moisten them and make a little basting sauce; herbs to top them, and garlic to set your culinary compass to the South of France – but which herbs you use, how you cut your tomatoes, whether you roast them until they’re almost melted or leave them a little firmer are all up to you.”
DonnaC and Francine are unable to explain why an overnight trip with four women requires all this luggage.(So, they smiled instead.)
What’s intriguing about Dorie’s is what she doesn’t do. She doesn’t remove the seeds after halving the tomatoes. And, she doesn’t include breadcrumbs in her topping. It’s all about the tomatoes (juicy), herbs and garlic (fresh) and olive oil (top-quality). Think simple, rustic and toothsome. (If the juices run down your chin, grab a napkin or use your sleeve.)
Forget anything? DonnaC, our in-house dental professional, gifted us with a dental kit.
TP can stand alone or be an accompaniment to any dish, eggs, salads, fish or meats. It’s delicious hot, cold or presented at room temp. It was my lunch (with a salad), then, breakfast, with eggs, and, finally, dinner, with lamb chops.
DonnaG (r), is having a “geologic moment” to explain 300 million years of recent geologic history. (Well done, friend).
In the spirit of the 4th of July, to honor our country’s Independence, I am sharing through pictures one of America’s great treasures and strengths – our National Park system. As a kid growing up in Iowa, my parents took my brother and me on many vacations. Etched forever in my memory bank, however, are our trips to Yosemite and The Great Smokey Mountains National Parks. With my own family, I visited many more, also introducing my Iowa girls to skiing, hiking and the grandeur of the American West.
The well-earned 6p.m. cocktail hour after a full day in the Park.
After moving to the Colorado mountains in 1988, it’s no surprise that I morphed into a total tree-hugger, would rather be outside than in and since becoming a volunteer forest ranger, strut around in my uniform as if I’m John Muir incarnate! My Melissa married an outdoor-sorta-guy and is raising my two granddaughters in a small town in the Sierra Nevada’s. It’s a good life with weekends of hiking or skiing, camping and exploring. Our family Thanksgiving’s are always spent in Death Valley, my favorite Park.
The evening’s entertainment, Bird Bingo, complete with prizes. Light’s out at 9p.m. (We never claimed to be hell-raisers.)
These federally protected outdoor spaces have helped mold me, delight me, and sustain me. That’s why I joined my like-minded friends, all volunteer rangers and belonging to our nature study group, for last weekend’s trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. Located 200 miles northeast of Aspen, RMNP is 265,873 acres of magnificence. We all registered for a one-day field seminar entitled “Wildflowers of the High Country: Tundra in Bloom”, an outdoor class taught above 11,000 feet. The question: Would our brains even work above 11,000 feet?
Our Sunday day-long Alpine Wildflower class, above 11,000′ complete with 30 MPH winds. Not kidding. Our instructor found a small hideaway where we could eat lunch and review our morning’s work.
To give ourselves every opportunity to succeed, we booked condos, planned a menu of home-cooked nutritious meals, chose appropriate brain-stimulating wines and put together our itinerary. Using each of our strengths: DonnaC and Francine, wildflowers; DonnaG, geology; and, me, birds, we parceled out our own teaching assignments. One day to see the park. One day of class. A perfect weekend of friendship, scholarship and beauty. More memories for my bank.
This is the highest we climbed. Think Base Camp at Mt. Everest. Long’s Peak, 14,259′ (4,346M) is in the background. We’re with our instructor who thinks this is fun!
Inspired to visit a park? To see where America’s 58 national parks are located, go here. To see today’s recipe, go here. Note that the only difference to Dorie’s original recipe is the cooking time. I baked mine 30 minutes and then another 20, as Dorie originally suggests.French Fridays with Dorie is an international cooking group working its way through Dorie Greenspan’s Around my French Table. To see how my colleagues enjoyed TP, go here.
Meet Mr. Yellow-bellied Marmot who enjoys the tundra more than I do.
This handsome bull elk likes his own space. We saw hundreds of elk – Moms, Dads and babies as well as two beautiful moose.