Cooking Across the Sea - part deux

Welcome folks to the second installment of Cooking Across the Sea brought to you by your two favorite Shirls. Sadly, this will likely be the final episode as Vienna Shirl is stateside bound in ten short days.

But once I'm settled in Texas we'll start working on a new series "Cross Country Cooking." Catchy, right?

Fans of this blog (all 5 of you) might remember the first installment, titled BEFORE! AFTER! Just like last time, NYC Shirl was intrigued by a recipe on the Smitten Kitchen website and sent me the link. And once again, we both cooked the same dish within 24 hours of each other. It's eerie how well-synced we are.

The dish? Scalloped tomatoes with croutons. Sounds delish, right? And perfect for summer's yummy and plentiful tomatoes. The ingredient list had me from hello. Tomatoes, crusty french bread, fresh basil, garlic and parmesan cheese (+ olive oil, sugar, salt & pepper.)

You can find NYC Shirl's beautiful creation here. Of course, her blog features the BEFORE! AFTER! aspect. I mean, after all, we are Shirls. This shit just comes naturally.

BEFORE!

AFTER!

I paired mine with marinated-then-grilled chicken breasts. It was a good combo. A fun and pretty dish to create (I especially liked the NYC addition of yellow tomatoes for beauty.) But two out of two Shirls agree: if these ingredients are good quality, we'd prefer them without all the interference. A little bruschetta with chopped tomato, garlic and basil on that crusty french bread would have hit the spot with much less work (and much less hot oven effect.)

Still, I might make it again if I had company, it was good looking and yummy. Find the recipe here next time you're having someone over.

-k.