the guy with the smile: sun-dried tomatoes.

When I went to the grocery store last week, they had a sale on Roma tomatoes. So of course I assume that I should buy some. figured I would make some tomato sauce, salsa, or some type of delicious salad. Well, on Saturday evening, I decided to change it up! I made a killer salad, but it was missing something. Sun-dried tomatoes! Unfortunately, I had run out. The wheels started turning and I decided to make my own.
How you ask? Well let me tell you!

First I made a couple slits in the top part of each tomato. Boiled the tomatoes for about 20-30 seconds, just long enough to see the skin peeling off. I took them out of the boiling water and dropped them into an ice cold bath. The skin removed so quickly and nicely. I sliced them in half and scooped out all the seeds and placed each half face down on a cookie sheet.

I covered each one in olive oil, sea salt, freshly ground pepper, and some thyme and rosemary (I would have used fresh, if I had any). And my secret ingredient, was sprinkling some powdered sugar on top. Who doesn't love sugar on tomatoes and caramelized sugar?! Holla!

Put them into the oven at 100 degrees and slowly cooked them. It is important not to rush these, since you are trying to dry them out. It is also important not to overcook them, otherwise you are basically making tomato powder. I read that it could take anywhere from 8-10 hours. Well, that's great, but silly on my part. I guess I shouldn't have made these at 7:00pm. That means they should be ready around 3:00am. So I set my alarm and got up. They looked perfect. I decided to turn the oven off, but leave them in there until I actually got up.

When I got up that morning, I placed them in a zip lock bag with a little olive oil. I would have put them in a jar, but I seemed to have run out from my last batch of pickles I made. The best part about putting them in olive oil, is that once you are don with the tomatoes, you have an excellent seasoned olive oil to cook with.