Oven Roasted Tomatoes

Ingredients

• 12 plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise, cores and seeds removed
• 4 tablespoons good olive oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced (or 1/2 teaspoon of recently purchased garlic powder)
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F.

Arrange the tomatoes on a sheet pan, cut sides up, in a single layer. Drizzle with 1/4 cup of olive oil and the balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle with the garlic, sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Roast for 2 hours until the tomatoes are concentrated and begin to caramelize. Allow the tomatoes to cool to room temperature.

All-in-the-Pan Chewy Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Butter Icing Cake

From Regan Daley's "In the Sweet Kitchen", an awesome baking book with lots of great recipes.

1 1/2 cups AP flour
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. natural unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
6 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 Tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cups cool water

1/4 c. unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 to 3 Tbsp milk or water
2 TBSP natural unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350- degrees F. Sift flour into an ungreased, unfloured 8 inch squarebaking pan.

In a small bowl, whisk together the sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Add this mixture to the flour in the pan and stir well with a fort of small whisk to blend the ingredients.

With the back of a teaspoon, make three indentations or wells in the dry mixture: one large, one medium-sized, and one small. In the large well, our the vegetable oil. In the medium well, add the vinegar. In the small well, add the vanilla extract, and then pour the water over everything. With a for, stir the mixture until well blended, making sure you reach into the corners and sides to catch any dry pockets. Do not beat this batter, but just mix enough until most of the lumps are smoothed out, and there are no little patches of overly thick or thin batter. A few lumps are fine.

Bake the cake for 30 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean & the top feels springy when lightly touched. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and cool the cake completely before frosting.

In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and 1 cups of the confectioners’ sugar until butter is well distributed. The mixture will be very dry and powdery. Stir in 1 Tbsp. of milk or water, then sift the cocoa powder over the mixture and cream to blend. Mix in the vanilla then add the rest of the sugar. Add as much of the remaining liquid as needed to make a thick and creamy frosting.