Drop-In Guests and Roasted Tomatoes on Toast

You know the kind of afternoon where you’re buzzing around in the kitchen with several recipes going at once, and then you find out a few friends are stopping by? This kind of entertaining is fun, because it’s not about getting all dressed up, or making sure everything is fancy – you don’t care about that stuff. It’s more of a “here’s what you get” kind of entertaining. My house is the way it is (messy), but we know you love us for who we are. So come on in and join us for a quick dinner!

You just want to catch up with people you feel connected to. And guess what was in the oven?

I was roasting our sweet garden tomatoes, the very last of them, and the smell was to DIE FOR. I think our friends smelled the aroma miles away. :)

The last of our sweet garden tomatoes.

Here’s how I feel about drop-in guests. If you have an agenda or even plans for the evening, and you need to stay on track with that, then of course you can have a quick visit and send your guests on their way (maybe with a little dish of roasted tomatoes, or a fresh jar of salsa). But if you have the time to invite them for dinner, and you can put your house and a few chores you had in mind to accomplish, behind you … by all means. INVITE.

We don’t want to lose opportunities to get together with friends, because these nights can be high impromptu quality!

Now for the delicious recipe for my roasted tomatoes. I’ve posted about them several times over the years, but I’m sharing the “official” recipe today.

There are so many ways to use this basic recipe: Sprinkle with coarse salt and serve as an antipasto; serve as a pizza topping, simmer with onions, red wine and herbs for a flavorful tomato sauce; use as a pasta picker-upper, laying them over chicken, salmon or mixed vegetables. And I, on the other hand, put them on toast. Covered with Parmesan cheese. Delightful!

Little bites of goodness on toast. Which, for this night, was our appetizer!

What do you do with extra tomatoes, or how to do you handle drop-in guests?

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