Roasted Cherry Tomato & Garlic Pasta

It is raining cats and dogs here, and has been for the last 2 days. It really has been the strangest summer. I have my doona on my bed and have been sleeping in my warm jammies, as opposed to sleeping under a sheet with the fan cranked on ghetto blast, wearing only a t shirt! Poor M has gone camping at Hastings Point with his grandfather, I hope they don’t get washed out to sea!

During the summer holidays the local council puts on free movies in the evenings in one of the parks along the creek. The park is really cool, and is done in a pirate theme. There is a giant pirate ship that looks shipwrecked, and there are cannons and barrels and a cave with a map to treasure, instead of the usual slide/swings set up. Last week I arranged to take the kids down to watch the movie along with some friends of mine and their kids, and have a picnic dinner. Then M’s friends who live nearby asked if they could come too, and I could hardly say no. So us 4 adults (Jo, Sarah, Jade and myself) and all 6 kids cruised down and watched Happily N’ever After. The kids played in the park while the adults set up the blankets and picnic dinner, then we all munched out and enjoyed the movie. This Friday they are playing Aladdin, and I’m keen to take the boys down again, but this time I think I will try keep it to just the older kids. My friends with younger kiddies had their work cut out for them, trying to get the littlies to sit still and watch the movie, when there was this totally awesome pirate ship just behind us!

A few nights ago M hosted his first ever sleep over. The 2 boys who came to the movie with us, also live within our complex (or ‘The Plex’ to those in the know… Or me, anyway) and play together with M every day, whether it’s X-Box, riding bikes, scooters, kicking balls, going swimming, whatever. The boys had been talking about a sleep over for a while, but since I knew none of them had ever had a sleep over at a friends house before, I thought they were all talk. Apparently not. They came to me and asked if they could have a sleep over before the holidays ended. I said it was fine, but since the holidays are nearly over (school is back on Monday), and M was due to go camping, they should organise it soon.

*Whisper Whisper Whisper* ‘Can we do it tonight please?’ Of course I had to say yes, and there was never any question of them sleeping anywhere else other than the house with the X-Box, haha. I told them to have their dinner, bath or shower, and come over in their jammies, around 8.30. I said they could play X-Box for an hour before bed but that I would be turning it off at 9.30. My plan was that by the time the boys got here, I would have K and M bathed, and K asleep. Ha. Of course K never sticks to his schedule when I need him to, does he. It was 9.20 when I finally tip-toed out of the room, then headed down to check on the boys. You know what? They were all snoring! It was so cute, I couldn’t resist taking a photo. So it was not as bad I thought it would be. Since they were first timers, I was half expecting one or the other of the boys to change his mind throughout the night and want to go home. I figured, if that happened, at least their parents were only a few meters away. I told their dads when they walked the boys down, that I would call if there were any dramas and they could pop down and take them home again. But they were great. So I guess that paves the way for what is in store for the future.

 

 

I have a new recipe I would like to share with y’all… Yes, yes, I do understand that constantly posting recipe’s of what I cook for dinner is not quite what this blog is about, however I really had to share this one! I came across this dish on FatMumSlim, she really does crank out some goodies for not being a food blog! She posted it in relation to a post about cooking within a budget – in this case, $5. Well, I think I managed this one for under $5, since I had most of the ingredients already. I only had to buy 1, and it is something that I usually buy anyway when I do my groceries, but I actually used it last week when I made a lasagna to take along to the picnic. I have written down approximate measurements, adjust to suit your personal tastes and how many people you need to feed.

 

So… Roasted Cherry Tomato & Garlic Pasta!

 

 

Ingredients:

Olive Oil

Balsamic Vinegar

Garlic, sliced (I used 3 large cloves)

1-2 punnets of Cherry Tomatoes (Sarah left a huge container of cherry tomatoes here when she made a salad to take to the picnic, so I probably used about 2 punnets worth… Sooo could have gone for 3 if I was feeding any more people!)

Ricotta Cheese (I used half a small tub, around 2/3 cup)

Pasta noodles – I used curly

Fresh Basil & Thyme (from my friends garden)

 

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170 c.

Peel and slice the garlic, slice a few of the cherry tomatoes in half. Throw the tomatoes and garlic into a roasting dish, and drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Roast in the oven for around 10-15 minutes, until the cherry tomatoes start to look squishy and collapsed.

While the tomatoes and garlic are roasting, boil the pasta and wash the herbs.

When the pasta is cooked and the tomatoes are roasted, drain the pasta and toss together with the ricotta and herbs.

Serve and smash!

 

You can see how easy and versatile this dish is, and is whipped up and on the table in around 15-20 minutes.

In fact, it’s so good, I think I might go eat some more right now!

 

A cutie-pie pic of K to send you off with: