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TOMATO POPPERS – “still crazy after all these years”

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Hi there,

To paraphrase Paul Simon, I met my old friend, Alfred, the other night, we talked about some old times, and drank some wine. Still crazy after all these years…

One of the old times Alfred and I laughed about was the first time we made pesto. We were such newbies we didn’t know the difference between a clove of garlic or a head of garlic. So we decided err on the side of the garlic taste and made pesto with a whole head of garlic. What a horrible taste that was.

Well, I have gotten a lot better at making pesto and I wanted to share with you my recipe for a quick appetizer which would make a colorful addition to a Memorial Day barbecue.

Cooking allows us to be alone and to be in company.

Ingredients:

  • a container of flavor bombs cherry tomatoes
  • small container of homemade pesto (recipe to follow)
  • very small, unseasoned mozzarella balls
  • basalmic glaze and fresh basil for finishing

Directions:

  1. slice a small piece off the top and bottom of the tomatoes
  2. using a small spoon core the tomatoes leaving the bottom intact
  3. fill the tomatoes with pesto
  4. cut the mozzarella ball in half and top each tomato with 1/2 piece mozzarella
  5. drizzle basalmic glaze and put a chiffonade of fresh basil on top

Easy, peasy right?

PESTO

Ingredients

½ cup pine nuts

3oz. Parmesan, grated (about ¾ cup)

6 cups basil leaves (about 3 bunches)

1/4 to 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Directions

In a food processor finely chop basil

Next add pine nuts and chop to combine

Add parmesan cheese to the mixture

Slowly drizzle EVOO until mixture forms a paste

Special Note: I do not use garlic anymore in my pesto and I use very little oil. I prefer to add oil or butter to the food and then add the pesto. I use a dollop of pesto when I am making marinara sauce. Pesto freezes beautifully. I put it in small jars as you see in the photo above.

I hope you enjoy this recipe. I am taking next week off but will be back with lots of great stories and recipes the following week.

Talk soon, ❤️💕 Bernadette

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27 responses to “TOMATO POPPERS – “still crazy after all these years””

  1. Darlene – British Columbia, Canada – Writer of children's stories, short stories and travel articles. https://twitter.com/#!/supermegawoman http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=201634059868404&id=631897250&ref=notif&notif_t=like#!/pages/Darlene-Foster-Writer/362236842733
    Darlene says:

    Thanks for this recipe. Looks perfect! I love pesto so will be trying your recipe. Have a great break. xo

    Reply
  2. Chef Mimi – As a self-taught home cook, with many years in the culinary profession, I am passionate about all things food-related. Especially eating!
    chef mimi says:

    I make boatloads of pesto every summer, because it’s one of my husband’s favorite foods. I omit the cheese and freeze it in jars. That way there’s less volume, and I can add as much cheese when I’m preparing whatever with the pesto. I can’t imagine pesto without garlic, tho…

    Reply
      • Chef Mimi – As a self-taught home cook, with many years in the culinary profession, I am passionate about all things food-related. Especially eating!
        chef mimi says:

        There was a pesto debacle?

      • Chef Mimi – As a self-taught home cook, with many years in the culinary profession, I am passionate about all things food-related. Especially eating!
        chef mimi says:

        OH!!!!! My husband said he did that when he cooked once in college. Not sure I believe that he ever cooked!

  3. Angie@Angie's Recipes – Angie's Recipes is an interactive blog dedicated to sharing yummy & creative recipes, helpful cooking hints and tips. Enjoy your visit and spread the word!
    Angie Schn says:

    These definitely make a perfect appetizer! I would have double the portion though as they are too good!
    angiesrecipes
    http://angiesrecipes.blogspot.com

    Reply

  4. Love pesto and I just took out a jar of last years basil pesto. I will be posting a recipe soon too – like Mimi I can’t imagine pesto without garlic!

    Reply

  5. Bernadette, not only do your share wonderful recipes and stories with us, It’s also fun seeing your beautiful collection of serving platters and dishes! My mother used to make batches of pesto and freeze them in plastic ice cube trays as well as glass jars, just to add a little extra basil flavor to some of her dishes.

    Reply
  7. Time Traveler of Life – Where my Motor Home is! – Biography Creating worlds, characters, and wielding power like a madwoman, making my characters happy, sad, angry, and some of them with no redeeming qualities. I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I sometimes laugh out loud when I am writing a scene, and I have been known to cry when one of my favorites has to die. I am a left-handed Gemini, what do you expect? Reading bedtime stories to my two children until they fell asleep or until they just told me to go away, was fun. Making up wild stories for my grandchild, and creating Halloween costumes from Cowboys to a Dragon, was another favorite thing to do. I missed that so much when they were grown, that I started writing. My yearly newsletters frequently were drafted third-person by my Love Birds, Miranda our motorhome, and by Sir Fit the White Knight, our faithful Honda. Throughout the years, some of my creative talents centered around writing letters of complaint expressing my displeasure with services or products. One crucial, at least to my Son, was a note to our local school bus driver petitioning her to allow him back on the bus. He was kicked off for making an obscene gesture at his buddy. I reminded her that it was not directed at her, and that “obscenity can be in the eye of the beholder,” kids use that gesture as a greeting. He rode the bus until he graduated. I loved driving my English teacher crazy. Leaving a “continued next week” at the end of my five handwritten pages required each week. He was one of many people that suggested I “do something about my writing.” I graduated from the School of Hard Knocks at the top of my class. After 30 years, in the trenches as a Real Estate Professional, I have found that truth is stranger than fiction. My books are filled with characters I met in that profession. Their names were changed to protect the guilty. Others were from people we met traveling around the country in Miranda, our Motorhome. I am married nearly 60 years to the love of my life, Shirl, and partner-produced two exceptionally talented children, and one grandchild who is our pride and joy.
    Time Traveler of Life says:

    Damn, I don’t have a food processor. Maybe someday! It looks yummy!

    Reply
  8. the Painted Apron – Life is all about creativity for me, as long as I'm creating something I am happy! I hope I will inspire your daily life and give you ideas for your own wonderful creations!
    the Painted Apron says:

    What a delightful appetizer bite! Thanks Bernadette!

    Reply

  10. I love a good homemade pesto! It is so much flavourful! These little bombs cherry tomatoes looks very pretty and are super delicious 😋

    Reply

  11. Pesto….your brilliant! I never would have thought to add pesto too.

    Reply
  13. Chen Song Ping @ TPTan – Chen S.P. enjoys pottery works, cartoons, painting and poems. She shares insightful experiences about being a carer for people with mental illness and cancer.
    Chen Song Ping @ TPTan says:

    Thank you for the recipe. Have a good break!

    Reply
  14. CarolCooks2 – Udon Thani – Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them. I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling. Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use contain to improve our health and wellbeing. This is now taking me into other areas like deforestation, chemicals and preservatives in the food chain. Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!
    CarolCooks2 says:

    Haha..it wasn’t just me then… as a newlywed my new husband told me to go through the cookery book and pick a recipe and make it..if we liked it that was good and if we didn’t..history…my mother never used garlic in her cooking..lots of herbs and spices but no garlic I too used the whole head..that was a quick learning curve…Great sounding recipe and thank you for the memory, Bern 🙂 x

    Reply
      • CarolCooks2 – Udon Thani – Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them. I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling. Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use contain to improve our health and wellbeing. This is now taking me into other areas like deforestation, chemicals and preservatives in the food chain. Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!
        CarolCooks2 says:

        Oh I did.. Plus adding pepper and the lid came of that was another faux pax and he ate it bless him

      • CarolCooks2 – Udon Thani – Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them. I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling. Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use contain to improve our health and wellbeing. This is now taking me into other areas like deforestation, chemicals and preservatives in the food chain. Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!
        CarolCooks2 says:

        Oh definitely… x

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