On Nature

The other night I found myself partaking in one of my guilty pleasures: watching Jon and Kate Plus 8 More Reasons to Love my Nuva Ring.

Oh, those people. She is a harpy shrill who humiliates her defeated, henpecked husband and has instilled a deathly fear of germs and fun in her kids. And him? Well, don’t feel bad for him for a second. I am sure she did not become an overbearing shrew once she popped out a gaggle of kids. He had to see the flat out crazy in her eyes and he walked down that aisle anyway. Own your choice, dude. This is a hell of your own making. The body language in that show is amazing; they rarely show any physical affection and you could drive a mac truck through the space between them on the couch during their interviews.  She is always hitting him and he never reaches out to comfort her when she cries.  It is a marital train wreck.

There are many things about this show that make me want to cauterize my uterus but I cannot seem to turn away. Some of the kids are pretty freaking cute (Alexis is my favorite, straight up) and I never met a human spectacle I didn’t love. And let me tell you, those people with their strict organic diet, screaming kids, multiple vans, and a domicile full of cameras, are the epitome of human spectacle.

I know, as a “foodie” (whatever that means) I am supposed to be all for organic food and I should applaud Kate. I am conceptually all for buying organically, but I often fail at actually purchasing it. I can appreciate that Kate is trying to instill healthy, well balanced eating habits in her kids, but the woman takes it over the top. I watched an episode recently where Jon took the kids to a ballgame. She asked on his return if the hot dogs were organic. Hot dogs. At a baseball game. ORGANIC? Woman, get a grip and let your kids have a somewhat normal childhood. You cannot control everything that goes in their body and some peanuts and Cracker Jacks is not going to kill them. (Also, I cannot help but see the irony in her desire for natural things in the home when all those kids came to be in the least natural way possible.  I am not against fertility drugs, I am against Kate.)

My spotty purchasing of organics isn’t my only culinary shortcoming…I sometimes buy out of season. Tar and feather me if you must, but sometimes a girl wants a tomato. I would never go as far to make a caprese salad with it, but my taste buds don’t know what’s in season. Luckily, these tomatoes work–and garner amazing results–even if they aren’t in season. I bet if they were in season they would be ridiculously, over the top good…but hot damn, these are still awesome. The slow roasting really intensifies the flavor and they were perfect atop some pasta I made this weekend.  This is so insanely simple (you put them in the oven and forget about them) but I truly cannot stress enough how incredibly flavorful these are.  These tomatoes were organic, so I am sure that helped.  Kate, god damn you woman, you may be right.

These will always be way more natural than 8 damn kids and that is something I can get behind.

——————–

PS–Don’t forget to check out So Good this week…I ate something particularly foul this week.

Slow Roasted Tomatoes
from Smitten Kitchen (note: this is a basic recipe, but SK reminded me I wanted to make these, so credit where credit’s due)

Cherry, grape or small Roma tomatoes
Whole gloves of garlic, unpeeled
Olive oil
Herbs such as thyme or rosemary — I used dry basil(optional)

Preheat oven to 225°F. Halve each cherry or grape tomato crosswise, or Roma tomato lengthwise and arrange on a parchment-lined baking sheet along with the cloves of garlic. Drizzle with olive oil, just enough to make the tomatoes glisten. Sprinkle herbs on, if you are using them, and salt and pepper, though go easily on these because the finished product will be so flavorful you’ll need very little to help it along.

Bake the tomatoes in the oven for about three hours. You want the tomatoes to be shriveled and dry, but with a little juice left inside-this could take more or less time depending on the size of your tomatoes.

Either use them right away or let them cool, cover them with some extra olive oil and keep them in the fridge for the best summer condiment, ever. And for snacking.