farmer's market lunch. farmer's market salsa

I've been making my own salsa recently. I use it sometimes as salad dressing and sometimes when I make a couple corn tortilla chips for a midafternoon snack. I've used canned diced tomatoes because I had tons of them, but it's obviously great with higher quality tomatoes, especially those that are about to be a little too ripe to enjoy on your salad. 

The farmer's market today was crazy with peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and of course peaches. One stand was giving away cucumbers! Sliced salted cold cucumbers is one of my favorite summer snacks so I will certainly be enjoying that this week...

I had a little over a pound of tomatoes in my bag so they threw in a handful more to make it at least 2 pounds, though I'm sure it was more, and gave it to me for an even $2. I will be baking them in big slices, maybe attempting a summer tomato feta tart similar to this one, this one or this one, and of course eating them raw with salt and pepper and enjoying them in this salsa I just made. Yessss.

Salsa is flexible. Throw in whatever you have. I had onions and tomatillos already so I used:

the ripest tomato in the lot + one and a half tomatillos + a fourth of a large white onion. I also seeded and added half a jalepeno + a half a serrano pepper + fourth of a poblano pepper. Plus a dash of white vinegar + a dash of lime juice + a few generous sprinkles of salt. 

Process it all in a food processor. Eat.

It turned out pink! I really like the taste of tomatillos in salsa, Chuy's uses them. When I asked about cilantro, they said it's dried up in the heat, as had mine. So no cilantro in my salsa.

 

If you've never shopped a farmer's market, you're missing out! If nothing go for the experience. It's really fun to see and talk to the people who live and work around the food they produce. Oftentimes families are there selling their goods. You'll find great fresh juices and baked goods such great breads and baked goods handmade soaps, cheeses, herb mixes, candles. Samples of it all galore and of course great produce. I think a gentleman literally gave me the equivalent of a loaf of bread in all his variety of samples he was enthusiastically explaining and handing out. So fun. 

Some of it may be more expensive than the grocery store, cantelopes and watermelons were today, but a lot of it isn't and it's all much better and more fresh, my huge $2 bag of tomatoes, $5 bin of peaches and $2 bunch of kale for example. Plus it's fun to support the people who grow food locally and now that it's moved right down the street from me, I need to go more. I'm suuuuper excited about my farm fresh eggs! They were $5 a dozen, though, so part of me hopes I don't like them too much...

roasted shrimp

Umb. I'm dumb. Where has this been? I'm sure I own the Ina Garten cookbook that it's in. As in, for the last three years this recipe {or rather this simple 8 minute interaction between a hot oven and four household staples} has been sitting in my kitchen, in painfully close proximity to the freezer which houses an old, colossal and overly ambitions, never ending bag of frozen shrimp.

Le Sigh. Despite the time it took, I'm so glad cute Little Kitchen could bring it to the forefront of my Google Reader so that at least, albeit feeling like an idiot, I could at least come out of the cave I've been living in, begin to enjoy this and make some more room in my freezer. Or maybe not since I'll probably go to Costco for an elephant sized bag later today.

This. Is. So. Good. So versatile. So stinkingfrikinannoyingly simple. Be generous with your oil, salt and pepper and use good olive oil. Eat these babies alone, chopped up on salads, thrown into summer pastas, make little ceviches.

Roasted Shrimp

via The Little Kitchen that Could {to whom the pic belongs} from Ina Garten

{Ingredients}
2 lbs. large shrimp (15-20 count), peeled and deveined with tails left on

3 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon coarse kosher or sea salt
1-2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper

1 teaspoon Old Bay blackening seasoning is also good if you have it
{Directions}

If your shrimp were frozen, as mine were, easily thaw them by running them under lukewarm water in a colander or setting them in a bowl of lukewarm water for 5 minutes or so. They are then easy to peel if they aren't already.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with foil. Toss shrimp with olive oil, salt and pepper and spread in one layer.  Roast for 8 minutes or just until pink and cooked through.  Set aside to cool.  Serve warm or at room temperature, on top of salads, mixed in pasta, or even in warmed corn tortillas with some fresh pico de gallo, cilantro, maybe some chopped mango, cabbage, and a little chipotle mayo.

sliders

After a long and undoubtedly reader-mourned hiatus, I return to you with a versatile, well loved dish in our house.

The base of these sliders is Sister Shubert's rolls. Discovering that my husband loved these was further affirmation of my theory that I'd married the male version of my best friend, but that's beside the point. All that matters is T. loves the rolls and thus has loved whatever I'm able to fit in them. I've made steak sliders with leftover sliced steak meat, I've made turkey burger sliders with leftover turkey meat {and a really cute 2 inch biscuit cutter} and I've made fajita sliders. You could use black bean veggie burger patties, chicken breast sliders {cue that cute biscuit cutter} or even thickly sliced roast beef or turkey deli meat. The possibilities are endless, but the steak is is the one I make the most often. The pictures are of the turkey burger sliders.

{Steak sliders}

INGREDIENTS

Sister Shubert's Parker House Rolls

sliced steak or other meat of choice

spicy mustard

pesto

provolone cheese

baby spinach leaves

sliced Roma tomatoes

oven or toaster oven with a broiler

pepper

DIRECTIONS

Yield note: {I think there are about 16 rolls in each package. When I make these just for T, I break the frozen biscuit 'disk' in half and only use half at a time. One package should feed two for a main course comfortably and be great for appetizers for 4}

Cook frozen rolls according to package directions. Then turn broiler on. 

Time spend under the broiler will only melt the cheese not warm the meat sufficiently, so if you're using leftover or chilled meat, warm meat separately @ this point.

Half each roll and generously spread pesto on one side and spicy mustard {to your level of spiciness preference} on the other. I put pesto on the top and mustard on the bottom because I like the idea of the meat touching the spicy mustard...

Cover each bottom half with as much meat as you please and top with cheese. Place open faced halves on a cookie sheet under the broiler until the cheese melts. Remove. Sprinkle pepper on melted cheese. Top cheese with a few baby spinach leaves and a slice of Roma tomato {and whatever else you've got going on in the fridge that you think sounds good}

Smash top {pesto covered} half on. I served my turkey "burgers" with roasted new potato "fries."

Happy sliding!

briebruschetta

I bought brie for myself and needed to do something else with it after eating it on bread with chipotle raspberry sauce for two days straight. I also had some sad looking tomatoes, looking on the extra juicy side.

Do all my recipes seem to originate with stories of how I'm trying to get rid of leftovers or clean out the dregs of my pantry and freezer? Evidently.

Brie Bruschetta

{ingredients}

3 cloves garlic

good olive oil

good fresh bread such as ciabatta, 10-12 slices

two ripe tomatoes

4 oz of brie

cracked pepper

italian seasonings

{directions}

In a small ramekin covered with foil, bake 3 finely diced cloves of garlic in about an inch of olive oil for 15 minutes in a 400 degree oven. Then put the oven on broil and move a rack close to the broiling coil. Under the broiler, toast one side of your bread slices on a baking sheet

Half the tomatoes and generously rub the cut side on the untoasted side of the bread slices. Basically, you want the tomato to soak into the bread. Brush the baked garlic oil on the slices, sprinkle with Italian spices and cracked pepper. Spread on the brie, or place on thin slices, if spreading is difficult.

Broil the slices until cheese is melted and edges of bread begin to look toasted. About 2-3 minutes.

Enjoy!

pizzaschettas

I had been planning to make a pizza with goat cheese and squash last week, inspired by SmittenKitchen but never had time. Still hoping to get my dough making practice in, {still overcoming that aforementioned fear of yeast} I conjured up a way to turn the pizza into an appetizer for our Friday night dinner guests. I decided to further flavor the squash with butter and sugar, reminiscent of my grandma's "squash" that I loved, though it was probably more butter and sugar than squash.
Roaming through the store, I encountered my friend brie and knew I must take action. Brie is heaven on earth. Seriously. So I decided to try out brie as well and think I found some pretty good toppings to "compliment the flavors," if you will. Check it out, they turned out really good and were pretty fun too.
One more thing. If you've never ventured into the realm of exiting cheeses, it's really so very worth it. Proof that there's a God who wants us to enjoy life and eat good food. In my opinion, good cheese is truely a manifestation of heaven on this fallen rock. They may be expensive, but since they're so flavorful and textured and rich and all that great stuff, you really only need to eat and serve and savor them in small portions. Your guests won't expect to be served a plateful of brie, but it's amazing how a tablespoon or less of good cheese can make anyone say whoa, heaven has come to earth, please invite me over for dinner more and I don't care what you make me eat after this because that made my night.

Or maybe that's just me.....

It's possible.

goat cheese & sugared squash pizzaschettas
INGREDIENTS
half of this prepared and risen pizza dough, or about 1 1/2 cup (12oz) pizza dough
1/4 cup soft goat cheese
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/4 cup very thinly sliced and quartered yellow zucchini squash
2/3 tablespoon butter
2-3 tablespoons sugar
DIRECTIONS
Oven to 450. {note} I used goat cheese with the lemon already in it. Found at HEB. Combine lemon and goat cheese. Rub both sides of squash slices with butter and toss with sugar. Or, in small, microwave safe bowl, melt butter. Mix in sugar. Add squash slices and stir, coating evenly in sugar and butter.

Roll out pizza dough to about 1/4 of an inch thick, cut with small biscuit cutter into circles about 3 inches in diameter. Stretch them with your fingers to help them keep their shape and thinness and place on pizza stone or pan. Generously spread about a tablespoon of cheese on each dough circle, leaving a little "crust." Top with one to three squash slices, depending on how many fit.

Bake 10 minutes or until dough begins to brown.

brie & toasted pecans pizzaschettas
INGREDIENTS
1/2 of this prepared and risen pizza dough, or about 1 1/2 cup (12oz) pizza dough
8-10 oz softened brie cheese {heeeaaavenn. do you hear the angels singing?}
1/4 cup chopped raw pecans
chipotle raspberry dressing
DIRECTIONS
Oven to 450. Roll out pizza dough to about 1/4 of an inch thick, cut with small biscuit cutter into circles about 3 inches in diameter. Stretch them with your fingers to help them keep their shape and thinness and place on pizza stone or pan.

Top each round generously with about a tablespoon of cheese. I flattened a chunk of cheese in my fingers then pressed it into the dough, helping keep the dough flat as well, but still leaving a "crust" of dough. Then I topped the flattened piece with another, more thick chuck right in the middle. Place as many pecans on top as fit.

Bake for 10 minutes, or until dough is browned and looks like pizza crust. Can be baked a longside the goat cheese ones on the same pan, if you're making both types, While still warm, top with a few more little chunks of brie. Once cool, top with a teaspoon or two of chipotle raspberry dressing {a little bit goes a long way} or place dressing on the side with a spoon for self service.... Some weirdos like my husband claim to dislike this stuff.

That's the only picture I got of the brie ones with the raspberry chipotle. Please excuse the fact that half of it is missing.

chex mix

This is another family tradition, straight from the side of a cereal box. The original recipe can be found at Chex.com. Never satisfied with the amount of seasoning, I've upped the seasoning mixture a bit, in proportion to the cereal. I suggest being generous with the seasonings, especially the Worcestershire sauce, but that's your prerogative. In my pictures you can see I omitted the bagel chips and nuts, the former was purposeful, the latter was accidental. I think it's good with nuts but found I didnt have the stash I thought I had when I bought the ingredients. I don't like the bagel chips so much and think it's a hassle to make them bite size or find some that are.


Chex Mix, also known as "Trash"
INGREDIENTS
3 cups Corn Chex® cereal
3 cups Rice Chex® cereal
3 cups Wheat Chex® cereal
1 cup mixed nuts
1 cup bite-size pretzels
1/2 cup garlic-flavor bite-size bagel chips or regular-size bagel chips, broken into 1-inch pieces
8 tablespoons butter or margarine
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons seasoned salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
DIRECTIONS
Heat oven to 250°F In large bowl, mix cereals, nuts, pretzels and bagel chips; set aside. In small microwavable bowl, microwave butter uncovered on High about 40 seconds or until melted. Stir in seasonings. Pour over cereal mixture; stir until evenly coated. Pour mixture into roasting pan or large casserole dish. Bake 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Spread on paper towels to cool, about 15 minutes. Store in airtight container.

I've almost always made the doubled version of this recipe, and you almost have to triple it in order to use up all the cereal you've purchased for the purpose. Or you can make Muddy Buddies!

chex muddy buddies

Family traditions! We made this at home growing up and usually gave (give) containers of it away to friends. Logan and I ate it non-stop once we'd made it. In college I made it with my roommates who called it "Puppy Chow." That name weirds Taylor out and he refuses to try it. ...that and the involvement of peanut butter. Typical.

Chex Muddy Buddies
INGREDIENTS
9 cups Corn Chex
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar
DIRECTIONS
Into large bowl, measure cereal; set aside.
In microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter uncovered on High 1 minute; stir. Microwave about 30 seconds longer or until mixture can be stirred smooth. Do not overheat. Stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated. Pour into 2-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag.
Add powdered sugar. Seal bag; shake until well coated. Add more powdered sugar until well coated and white. Store in airtight container.
Hello, heaven.

ooey gooey cream cheese appetizer

So I made this with my friend, Erin, and we used brie. I figured it would still be good (and significantly cheaper) if I attempted it with cream cheese to take to my Women's Wine and Cheese night at church. In all honesty, I think my excitement about making this was my real reason for going. I think I would ball up the cream cheese next time and not use so much of the crescent roll pack just because the edges, where it was all bunched up, cooled to be really crispy and not as easy to serve and spread. So probably just enough dough to cover it all and then a little pinching on the top.

Cream Cheese Chipotle Appetizer
INGREDIENTS
8 oz Crescent roll pack
8 oz Cream cheese

1 beaten egg
wheat thins
Chipotle Raspberry Salad Dressing/Marinade
DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350. lay the dough out flat and enclose the cream cheese brick in it by folding up the sides and pinching together. Brush with the egg and bake for 15-18 min. Cover in the dressing once cooled and ready to serve. Serve with wheat thins or similar.

Central Market makes a great marinade that's about half the price of some kind of popular Chipotle Raspberry Dressing. I thought using CM's marinade was great! Also, I baked this on my great little Wilton Armetale oval platter that is pretty and oven safe. Brilliant invention. It wasn't hard to scoop off using a spatula though, so it can be served pretty if you don't have WA lying around.