Pass the pomodoro!

Ever since I started growing (and obsessing over) tomatoes on my back porch, few things make me as happy as the perfect tomato.  Doesn’t this one look amazing?

Unfortunately, I cannot take credit for this one, but it does provide me with some inspiration for my little plant.  My favorite thing about tomatoes is that there is so much you can do with them.  I picked these ones up at the market a few days ago and had so much fun roasting them in the oven.  They look so fresh!

In order to roast them, here’s what I did.  Cut them in half and line them up on a cookie pan (I used parchment paper) as shown above.  Drizzle some olive oil and add a few unpeeled garlic cloves (about 3-4) like so:

You then put them in the oven at 200 degrees F for 2.5 to 3 hours.

When you take them out, they should look like this:

From there, you can enjoy them on their own or throw them into your favorite pasta or onto your favorite pizza!  Here’s what I did with them:

Picture of the Week – My trip to the Lebanese Roastery

Can you guess what these colorful balls of sweetness are?

When I first saw them I thought they were deformed gum balls.  If you look closely though you can see that they are actually candied chickpeas!

My mother in law gave us a bag of these pretty little chick peas a few weeks ago and ever since that day, I have wanted to go to the store to get some more.  They are so delicious.  I am not sure about their nutritional value – since the amount of sugar probably cancels out the fact that you are eating chickpeas – but they are so good.

So this week I took a trip to the Lebanese roastery, where the chickpeas are roasted and candied.  For those of you who don’t know, my husband is Lebanese.  Being of Egyptian background myself, I did not think I had too much to learn about Lebanese culture. But these candied chickpeas, or kdaameh, are a case in point to show that I was wrong.  Lebanese culture is so different from Egyptian culture in so many ways – language, food, people, history, traditions, pretty much everything. I am learning and discovering more about this culture on a daily basis.  I love being able to pick and choose what I like from both of our cultures, and leaving out the parts that I don’t like as much.  In any case, candied chickpeas  definitely made the cut.

So, back to my story: I took my first trip over to the Lebanese roastery and loved what I saw.  Bins of colourfoul chickpeas, almonds, coffee beans and seeds – all freshly roasted….mmmm.  Lots of fancy chocolate and teas all imported from Lebanon.  The store itself was not very fancy, and is located in a small plaza on a side street.  But I kid you not, while I was in there, I felt like I was in Lebanon.  Arabic music playing, only Lebanese people doing their shopping,  no English to be heard in the store – it was just wonderful and I loved being in there.  I plan on making regular trips to the roastery from now on.  Well, that is, until we move.  But hopefully I can find another one in Halifax.

And that is the story of the how the “deformed gum balls” came into my world.

What are some aspects of other cultures that you have invited into you life?