Fruits of Summer

There's nothing better than fresh tomatoes from the garden and I look forward to making this simple dish every year.
It's pretty simple, 2-3 vine ripe tomatoes, one ball fresh mozzarella cheese, about ¼ pound very thinly sliced prosciutto ham, chopped fresh basil, and I used Paul Newman's Balsamic Vinaigrette salad dressing. Core and slice the tomatoes, slice the cheese and cut the ham to about the same size, layer everything in a long thin serving dish, sprinkle with basil and drizzle with dressing. YUM!

Mexican Fiesta Rice

I had this idea for a side dish, I was serving Mojo marinated pork tenderloin. It turned out great so I'm sharing it here!

• 3 cups cooked rice (I started with 1 cup of Riceland white rice, 2 cups water, a tsp of butter or olive oil, and a tsp of Minor's Chicken Base, bring to rolling boil, cook for 15 minutes with tight fitting lid)
  
• 1 can black beans, rinsed
  
• 1 small can sweet corn, drained (may substitute frozen corn, LOVE Trader Joe's Roasted Corn)
  
• 1 cup diced fresh red pepper
  
• 1 fresh jalapeno pepper, seeds and ribs removed, finely diced
  
• 1 can Ro-tel Tomatoes with Lime and Cilantro
  

Place all ingredients except rice, in a large bowl. Cook the rice, and dump it over the other ingredients when still warm and stir. Taste test for seasoning. Mine did not need any additional salt, but add to your liking. I did sprinkle a little red wine vinegar over the top to brighten up the flavors. This may be served warm or cold. It was also great the next day! This is one of those recipes that you can use pretty much anything in your pantry. ENJOY!

Black Bean Salad

This is a recipe I cut out of a magazine a long time ago, and go back to again and again in many variations depending on what's in the pantry. It makes a nice large batch, great for parties and large groups. Pair with two bags of your favorite tortilla chips.

Dump all ingredients in a large bowl and stir. The pretty green glass bowl seen in the photos belonged to my Grandma Heser.

• 2 cans Black Beans, rinsed and drained
• 3 Tbsp. chopped pickled jalapeno slices
• 2 tsp. minced garlic
• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tsp. Goya Adobo seasoning with cumin
• 1 10 oz. package frozen corn
• 1 cup diced red onion
• 1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
• 1 can petite diced tomatoes
• 3 Tbsp. fresh minced cilantro
• Juice of 1-2 limes
• 1 small can of chopped or sliced black olives

Notes: I sometimes substitute 1 can of black eyed peas for the black beans, the bean variety is pretty and tasty. This salad is mild, you can spice it up by adding chili powder, using Rotel tomatoes instead of plain, or adding some fresh jalapeno pepper. I've made it without the garlic and onion for people who don't like those flavors, but it is on the boring side IMHO. I'm getting so I don't measure anything in this anymore, I just grab what I have and mix it up. Oh, and Trader Joe's frozen roasted corn is GREAT in this! Did I mention I love TJs? LOL!

Uncured Ham

We bought a glazed, spiral-sliced, uncured (also known as fresh - not smoked) ready-to-eat ham (about 8 lbs.) from Trader Joe's on sale recently and tonight I warmed it on the Weber grill since it's nearly 85 and humid outside and I didn't want to heat the house even more with the oven on.

OMG - it's the best ham I've ever eaten in my life. Not salty at all, moist, lean, and extremely tasty!

We setup the grill for indirect heat, then put a pan of water on the bottom for moisture. Wrapped the ham in a tight layer of foil, and placed on the grill grate above the water pan (coals on each side) for about 1 hour covered.

I will definitely buy this product again and possibly serve it for the holidays. Much better than a cured ham which is more salty and dry. I'm looking forward to ham sandwiches for days to come!

No affiliation with Trader Joe's, just a big fan. :-)

Crockpot Whole Chicken

This super simple technique (can't even call it a recipe really with just 2 ingredients) came from

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/slowcooker/

You'll need a whole roasting chicken, and the seasoning of your choice.

Rinse the chicken and pat it dry, season with your favorite flavors, I used Penzey's Sandwich Sprinkle. Others have used simply salt and pepper, or paprika. No cooking liquid is necessary.

Place chicken in a large crockpot, cover and cook on high for 6 hours, or low for 8-10 hours, or a combination of both. My chicken was done when it was literally falling off the bone, it was SO moist and juicy! I pulled out the chicken and placed it on a cutting board to cool. I was then able to use just my fingers and a fork to harvest all the tender juicy meat.

The girls and I ate it with mashed potatoes the first night, I then used it for chicken nachos, and also of course chicken sandwiches.

The chicken creates an amazing amount of liquid. I saved the stock, strained it and froze it for future use.

YUM!

Crockpot Chicken with Black Beans

I just put this in the Crock Pot. I'll update this post tonight and let you know how we liked it. The recipe was posted on the "slowcooker" Yahoo group. The person who posted it, originally got it from Recipezaar. Everyone who tried the recipe loved it - so here goes!

Crockpot Chicken with Black Beans

• 4-5 frozen, boneless chicken breasts
• 1 (15 1/2 ounce) can black beans
• 1 (15 ounce) can corn
• 1 (15 ounce) jar salsa, any kind
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese

Take 4-5 frozen (yes, frozen) boneless chicken breasts and put into crock pot. Add 1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed, 1 jar of salsa, 1 can of corn drained. Keep in crock pot on high for about 4-5 hours or until chicken is cooked. Add 1 package of cream cheese (just throw it on top) and let sit for about 1/2 hour. Serve over rice, or scoop up with tortilla chips. Some users have omitted the cream cheese and serve with a dollop of sour cream. If using thawed chicken, cooking time may be reduced.

UPDATE: This recipe is great! The only thing I would add would be a topping of very finely diced onion mixed with chopped cilantro, to add color and a little texture. We put this over Trader Joe's frozen brown rice, which is a product I highly recommend, even the kids will eat it. It comes in a box of 3 bags, a bag microwaves in 3 minutes and the results are nutty and perfect.

Sunday Dinner

Before my first daughter was born, we along with my husband's family, started the tradition of gathering for Sunday dinner. It's not formal, but allows us some family time, as well as an excuse to try new recipes,techniques and menus. I plan to share our Sunday Dinner menus on this blog.

This past Sunday we tried a new appliance that we received for Christmas, a multi-cooker, which can brown, slow cook (crock pot style), or pressure cook. We've never done any pressure cooking before so it was going to be an experiment! I checked out a book from the library, Miss Vickie's Big Book of Pressure Cooker Recipesand decided to try "Cola Beef Roast with Sweet Onion au Jus."

I have to be honest, it was scary thinking about the pressure and the steam, plus I was skeptical about a tougher cut of meat (beef round roast) cooking in less than an hour. But VOILA - it worked terrific! The meat was tender and the juice was just like french onion soup. The next day for lunch we used the beef (sliced thin) in panini sandwiches with Munster cheese. YUM!

Note to self: put Miss Vickie's book on my Amazon Wish List. :-)

Creamy Blue Cheese Dressing

I made this recipe last week and we always enjoy it. I'm sort of fussy about store bought salad dressing. I may be crazy, but I feel like I can actually smell the chemicals in some of them, and I don't enjoy any of the added and unnecessary sugar. It's easy and fun to make your own salad dressing. This dressing is great on an iceberg lettuce wedge with just a dash of black pepper to finish it off. Or, it's a terrific dipping sauce for chicken wings.

• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 2 Tbsp. milk
• 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 tsp. dry mustard
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
• 4 oz. blue cheese crumbles

In a large bowl, whisk together all ingredients except blue cheese. Add more or less milk as desired to thin the mixture. Stir/fold in the blue cheese crumbles. Cover and refrigerate overnight before serving.

If you are a lover of blue cheese like I am, go to Sam's Club or your favorite warehouse store and buy the large tub of blue cheese crumbles. It's much cheaper per ounce than the grocery store. I end up using it on all sorts of things!