Compared to last year’s meek tomato harvest, this year is insane. I brought in 34 tomatoes tonight alone – so you can imagine how backed up we are getting on ‘maters! Luckily most of these guys are Romas, which I specifically planted for canning purposes. This was my first shot at canning tomatoes (pre-sauce, anyway), and it was remarkably simple. You really can preserve any kind of tomato, though the “meatier” kinds definitely hold up best. Next time, maybe some of my heartier heirlooms.
Summertime slow cooker recipe trial and error continues, and I have to say that we really enjoyed this one. Next time, I might thicken the sauce for a bit longer afterwards to get a better coating, but this was pretty great even with a watery sauce. The leftovers were awesome as well! We had this with zucchini and summer squash, because we are pretty much drowning in both. 😉
Much like our green beans, our squash is out of control this year too, and we were looking for ways to use it up. I found a few different suggestions out there for zucchini chips, and decided to give one a go – they are AWESOME. Seriously, if you have a ton of extra squash, this is an awesome use for it. I found this on a blog call Add a Pinch and I made no changes. You can definitely play around with it and make all kinds of flavors, though. I do think without a mandolin slicer, this would be a serious pain, but you could still do it.
We grew green beans for the first time this year, and holy smokes are they prolific! They are definitely one to plant again. But like any heavy producing veggie in the garden, when you end up with a glut of them, it can be hard to use them all up. I decided to try refrigerator dilly beans. I got the basics from Cooking Light’s recipe for spicy dill beans, but I toned the spice down. Last year I overdid it a bit and the pickles were all kind of too hot for us. They would make a cute summery food gift if you wanted to take the final step and actually can them.
Missy sent me this really excellent chicken marinade, and we had to give it a try. It’s Asian-y and delicious. We made a few changes, cut back on the spice a bit because we’re not huge on heat, and added a couple of cloves of garlic. It was great and we’ll definitely do it again – the leftovers for lunch will be awesome. We had it with some bok choy as a side.
So this was pretty much delicious. And ridiculously easy. I made this as a dip for apps before dinner with my Mom, and we all gave it two thumbs up. Found this on a Buzzfeed listing of best dips, of all places, and it came from a blog called Domestic Superhero. This would be great to bring to a picnic, and it’s best if you can let it chill overnight, but a couple of hours would do. Serve it at room temperature.
We were looking for a quick, light weeknight summer meal and this was great. I feel like there are only so many ways to prepare scallops (my preference is always seared), but we really liked this sauce! From Bon Appetit, I made it pretty much as listed except I dusted the scallops with flour for a nice sear, and cut out the lemon peel – we don’t love things too lemony. We had this with sautéed squash from our garden and some steamed broccoli (and some of the wine used to cook the scallops 😉 ).
Chimichurri is one of my favorites, and when we were trying to think of something to do with some nice pork chops on the grill, it sounded perfect. Especially given the plethora of parsley in our garden. This was great with the simple brined pork chops with a side of green beans and squash from our garden. Very summery! Got this from Chow and made it as written (except I was out of fresh Oregano, so used dry).
I saw this in this month’s Cooking Light, and was really intrigued. I love pasta salad, and this one was different and interesting. I brought it to the Hunt’s puppy naming party, and it went over pretty well! I thought it was tasty, but that being said, it WAS a lot of work. I did use sweet paprika in place of the Aleppo pepper. Also, the original recipe called for Freso peppers, and I didn’t use them, so though the original recipe was, “Triple-Pepper Pasta Salad,” this was just two peppers for me. 😉 I would make it again for a special occasion, or big picnic etc, despite the work – I think it was worth it. 🙂
My friend Missy made this for Memorial Day this year, and it was out of this world! I was excited for the chance to make it myself – I can’t get enough of it . We had the puppy naming party for the Hunt this weekend, and it seemed like a great excuse! You can use any kind of cheese that you like, but in this case, I used a block of extra sharp cheddar and a block of pepperjack. It had some kick! I am also looking forward to trying smoked gouda at some point. No matter what cheese, this is one of my favorites! This was originally a Pioneer Woman recipe.
Om nom nom! 