Sprouted Rice & Quinoa Salad

•          2 Cups Sprouted Rice & Quinoa
•          1 lb clamshell container of Organic Baby Spinach
•          ½ Cup Dried Apricots (sliced or chopped)
•          Kalmata Olives (sliced)
•          Roasted Almonds (halfed or coarsely chopped)
•          1 Large Red Onion (diced)
•          4 cloves of Garlic (minced)
•          1/2 Red or Yellow Bell Pepper (chopped)
•          1/3 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
•          2 Tbs Balsamic Vinegar
•          1 Cup Crumbled Feta Cheese (optional)

1 -  Chop the Spinach by folding or rolling a handful at a time and add to a large mixing bowl along with the Apricots, Olives, Almonds.

2 - Cook the Rice & Quinoa according to package direction and add to the spinach and mix well. The heat from the hot mixture is all that is necessary to wilt the spinach.

3 - Gently sauté the Onions, Garlic, and Bell Pepper in the Olive Oil till tender but not brown and add to the bowl and mix well.  Add the Vinegar and mix well.  Serve at room temp.  I didn’t think the Feta added a lot to the dish so you can leave it out or not.

Stuffed Zucchini

A few days ago our squash started coming in and I made a Casserole using yellow squash and last night it was Zucchini and I Stuffed two that turned out great. I started by dicing 3 thick slices of good bacon and put on a slow eye to cook but not crisp. Next I used a paring knife to take some pulp out and finish hollowing out the halves with a melon baller (I only wanted 1/4 in a pulp left). Next I chopped the pulp and diced 1/2 yellow onion, and 3 cloves garlic. I added the mixture to the bacon and seasoned with salt n pepper and cooked till the texture seemed right with a little liquid from the veggies still in the pan and added bread crumbs and about 1/3 cup of grated asiago cheese and mixed this up off the heat before adding to the Zucchini shells. Cooked in 350 oven for 1/2 hour covered with foil then removed foil to add Ritz Cracker crumbs and back into oven to brown. The accidental surprise was that by not overcooking, the Zucchini was semi crisp and I liked it that way. I have a habit of searching online for recipes and focus on those with a lot of views and a good rating just to get ideas and wind up just using the basics of the recipe. For example this recipe had ground beef or sausage and had mozzarella instead of the Ritz for a topping.

Strawberry Honey Jam

Ingredients
6 lbs of fresh strawberries
3 3/4 cup raw honey
2 small granny smith apples
1 1/2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 1/2 of a large lemon)


Instructions
Hull strawberries and cut in each strawberry in half (or quarters if large), place in a large stockpot
Cut the sides of the apples away from the core and grate the apple leaving the skins on. (I used my food processor) Place in pot with the strawberries.
Juice a lemon until you get 1 1/2 tablespoons of juice and poor into the stock pot.
Pour the honey into the pot and stir.
Heat mixture on high until boiling stirring occasionally. As soon as the mixture begins to boil, reduce heat to medium low to simmer.
Simmer for approximately 15 minutes until the strawberries become soft. Using a potato masher, mash the strawberries so there are no recognizable sections. If you have an immersion blender, you can use this instead.
Simmer for another 15-45 minutes, stirring occasionally. The longer the mixture simmers, the thicker the consistency. (Remember, this will not be as thick as the consistency made with sugar and/or pectin).


Notes
Strawberry Honey Jam can either be placed in freezer safe jars, or canned using a water bath for 10 minutes.
Recipe courtesy of Old World Garden Farms

Tomato Pie

• 1 9-inch deep dish frozen pie shell
• 3 med ripe tomatoes, sliced
• 6 thin or 3 thick strips of bacon, fried and crumbled
• 1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 cup mayo
• 1 tbs dried basil
• salt and pepper

Bake pie shell according to pkg directions.  Preheat oven to 350.  Place sliced tomatoes in bottom of pie shell.  Top with crumbled bacon.  Combine cheese, mayo, basil, salt and pepper and pour over tomatoes.  Bake 35 to 40 min.

Potato Salad w/Poached Egg

2 lbs Yukon gold potatoes, thoroughly washed
1/4 cup Gherkins or cornichon pickles, chopped
2 Tbsp finely chopped red onion
1 cup shredded carrots
3 Tbsp mayonnaise
3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp prepared white horseradish
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground black pepper

For the poached eggs:
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
4 eggs
Sumac (to taste, optional)
Salt (to taste)

Directions

Place potatoes in a medium pot and cover with water (about 2 inches above the potatoes). Bring to a boil and cook for 30 -35 minutes or until tender.

Once they're cooked, drain the potatoes and let them cool until they're cold enough to handle. Peel and cut them in bite size pieces and transfer to a large bowl. Add carrots, onions and pickles.

To prepare the dressing, whisk together mayonnaise, horseradish, vinegar, salt and pepper until well combined. Add to the potatoes and toss well. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Right before serving, divide salad into 4 bowls and prepare the poached eggs. Bring water to a boil in a large, deep skillet. Add vinegar and reduce heat to simmer.

Crack eggs in separate bowls. Using a spoon, swirl the water around in clockwise direction. While the water is spinning, very gently drop the eggs and let them poach for 3 minutes.

Very carefully remove the eggs from the water using a slotted spoon and place them over each salad bowl. Season with sumac and salt to taste

Jalapeno Corn Casserole

• 1 16 oz can whole kernel corn
• 1 16 oz can creamed corn
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup yellow corn meal
• 1 egg
• 1 sm chopped onion
• 1 clove minced garlic
• chopped jalapeno to taste 
• 1 stick melted real butter (salted) 

Mix all the above and pour in greased casserole, bake @ 350 45 min or till browning in spots.  

Note: we used frozen corn out of the garden,  Important Note: I had planned to use two very large fresh jalapenos and cut back to one and did not seed it - use could have used both and maybe more as it was not hot with just the one pepper.  I also added a sprinkling of parmesan cheese on top.  You will find many recipes for this dish and most have a lot of cheese and some have cream of this or that soup as well.  This is a bare bones Jalapeno Corn Casserole.

Sope de Chorizo con Huevos

This was a one sope (open face taco) meal with the base being Naan bread rather than the masa.  I really missed the masa even though all that I have had in restaurant seemed that the dough was needed cooking more.  I thought the sturdy Naan would solve that problem and it certainly did but the flavor just didn't compare.  I will stick to pizza and open face sandwich when using Naan.  It went like this - start with layering the Naan with refried beans, top with shredded mozzarella and run under a broiler to melt the cheese, top with the Choriz con Huevos (eggs and chorizo), top with lettuce, tomatoes, onion, cilantro, and crumbling cheese.

Naan Pizza

Here's a great way to make a great pizza at home.  Just use Naan to make it with and proceed as normal.  This Caramelized Onion and Mushroom Pizza was as good as I think I have ever had and of course, using the Naan was as easy as it gets as well.  I used tomato pizza sauce that we made from garden fresh tomaotes, the onion & mushrooms, mozzarella cheese, a few anchovies, and fresh mozzarella.  Heat the Naan for 3 min, spread the sauce on, add the grated mozz, onions and shrooms, fresh mozz, and anchovies.  Heat in 450 oven until the cheese melts.

Baguettes

Baguettes have become my "everything" bread taking the place of sandwich loaf bread, burger and hot dog buns, and dinner rolls.  The Beef Brisket slices you see here fit perfectly on the Baguette and made me wonder why I had never used them for BBQ before.

Garlic Vegetable Soup

Soup is a "whatever you have on hand" thing but I would never make soup without loads of garlic.  I love the Mexican way of adding things to the bowl at the table, such as finely shredded cabbage and jalapeno as you see here, radish slices would be good as well.

Shrimp Scampi

This is Bubba Gump's recipe with a few changes cut in half and served with cheese grits, Black Eyed Peas, and Cornbread Muffins.

• 1 lb peeled and deveined jumbo shrimp
• 1/2 med onion, chopped fine
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 tbs lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp dried tarragon
• 1/2 tsp A-1 Steak Sauce
• 1/2 tsp Worcestershire
• 1/2 tsp Texas Pete Hot Sauce 
• Parsley for garnish

Cook onion and garlic in butter over med heat, add lemon juice and next 4 ingredients.  Add shrimp and cook turning often about 4 min or till pink and cooked through.  Server over Grits, Rice, or Pasta.