Goat Cheese Tart

I'm really excited to share this because it's super easy and so good. I have a friend who is an amazing gardener, in fact she completely changed her front yard into a huge garden. Yesterday I went over to her place to go "shopping". I came home with a bag full of squash, zucchini, various tomatoes, onions, and fresh herbs. Nothing beats fresh veggies.

These two tarts are a cinch to put together. The dough is from a Middle Eastern store - it comes in squares and is found in the frozen food section next to the phyllo dough. If you can't get it, puff pastry will suffice.

The base is the same for both of these, I just used two different toppings. This recipe is good for 4 individual tarts -- or you can cut them in four and make sixteen for bite sized servings.

Goat Cheese Spread -
4 oz. Goat Cheese (room temperature)
2 tspn fresh thyme
1 small garlic chopped
1 tspn olive oil
1 tspn pepper
1 tspn course salt

Thoroughly mix all the ingredients together and set aside

Tomato Tart
4 or 5 yellow tear-drop tomato
1 Tbls olive oil - divided
1 tbsn fresh thyme
1 tspn fresh basil
1 tspn pepper
Goat cheese spread

Preheat oven to 375
Slice tomatoes thinly, remove the ends. Spread goat cheese mixture in the middle of the tart square leaving 1/2 an inch on the ends. Place tomatoes on the tart without overcrowding it. Drizzle with olive olive oil and sprinkle pepper and thyme. Roll and pinch each of the tart ends together and rub or brush remaining olive oil. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Finish with fresh basil.

Zucchini Tart
1/2 zucchini
1/2 yellow or white turban squash
1 Tbls olive oil - divided
1 tbsn fresh thyme
Goat cheese spread

Preheat oven to 375

For each tart slice the tomatoes and zucchini extremely thin. Spread goat cheese mixture in the middle of the tart square leaving 1/2 an inch on the ends. Place zucchini on the tart without overcrowding it. Drizzle with olive olive oil and sprinkle pepper and thyme. Roll and pinch each of the tart ends together and rub or brush remaining olive oil. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brow.

Grilled Veggies

I love vegetables. I could probably be a vegetarian if I didn't love pork so much, and the occasional In-N-Out. Another one of Morgan's favorites are these grilled veggies. We serve them a lot when we have people over for dinner. I usually do all the prep in the morning so I don't have to worry about it later.

There are a lot of ways to cut the veggies, but after years of trial and error it seems that the best way to slice the veggies is by making long strips. Chunking them for skewers is good but it's not as flavorful.

1 - 2 zucchini
1 - 2 yellow squash
1 - 2 yellow onions
Asparagus
mushrooms
1 cup olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
sea salt
pepper

Line the veggies in a deep pyrex pan -- or jelly roll pan (anything that has a lip so the oil won't drain out). Once one layer is in the pan drizzle with Olive Oil. LIBERALLY apply pepper and sprinkle salt. Drizzle a dash of vinegar on the veggies. Repeat process until all the veggies are seasoned.

If you're not cooking immediately, put a damp paper towel over the veggies and put in the fridge.

Over medium heat place the veggies on the grill -- or if you have a BBQ basket use that. Grill veggies, flipping (carefully) once, about 15 - 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

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