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!

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!

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!

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!