Classy late dinner

Summer is over, and thankfully it's pleasant to spend some time in my kitchen again. Which is great for many reasons, but the main one being that I need to reacquaint myself with cooking. And vegetables.

I had a friend from college in town from Berlin so I invited a few more people over, and was excited to try out three (three!) new recipes on a school night. I've been trying to cook many things, instead of a few things often. The only problem I'm running in to is that all of these recipes are good, and I want to make them all the time. You can only have so many standbys on rotation before you get overwhelmed...

AND, once again, I'm reminded that somewhat-adventurous meals can be created on a weeknight. And though we did eat at a kind of unreasonable hour, at least it wasn't because I was cooking until 11 pm.

I made the above raw kale salad that--let's be real--is not a recipe. I just took one bunch of dinosaur kale, chopped it, and mixed it in a bowl with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Then I massaged the dressing into the leaves and let it sit while I made all the other food. To serve, I added one roasted sweet potato, finely diced and cooked at 400 degrees with olive oil and salt. Then grated Parmesan on the roughest grate (or biggest? not sure what you'd call that) to taste, and some chopped raw almonds. That's it!

Scalloped Tomatoes
Adapted from Sarah Leah Chase via Food52

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 1/2 cups diced baguette (1/2 dice or thereabouts)
2 1/2 pounds diced tomatoes (the best you can find)
3 cloves minced garlic
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
Parmesan
mint leaves

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Heat the olive oil in a sauce pan over medium heat. Add the bread cubes and fry until all are evenly browned, stirring often. Add the tomatoes, garlic and sugar and cook for another 5 minutes until warmed through, stirring often. Season with salt and pepper, add chopped mint leaves to taste (you could also add capers now, which I think I might do next time I make this recipe).

Pour the mixture into a medium (6 to 8 cup) baking dish. Drizzle a little more olive oil on top, then evenly cover with grated Parmesan cheese. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the tomatoes are bubbling and the cheese has browned. Serve hot or warm.