Everyone has their favorite way to eat those fresh tomatoes from the garden. This salad is my go-to. And so far I’ve been averaging enough cucumbers and tomatoes to make a batch every few days.
Cucumber Tomato Salad:
Mix together: Continue reading
And of course the first tomato sandwich, for breakfast. Tomato, lettuce, mayo on homemade bread. Perfect.
Not the best photos, but this was all pre-coffee this morning.
Been a weird growing season this year. I had the tomatoes started in mid-February -because why not have a growing nursery while growing ducklings? And then had them in the ground by first week of May, in walls of water.
So, expectations were there would be tomatoes by 4th of July, if not earlier. Continue reading
Made these tonight, always a great way to grill a burger.
I make these all the time because they really are easy and a great way to have a cheeseburger without losing half the cheese to the grill. And the sweet potato cajun fries are the perfect sweet, spicy combo. Grill some peaches, pears or plums and dinner is done. Enjoy.
On the board tonight:
The store deli had an interesting pasta salad that we brought home for a quick side. They called it a bacon and tomato pasta salad and I found it delicious. This is an attempt at a copycat recipe. I went to Google for some ideas and this came up. It seemed incomplete as the Kroger salad had some dried herb flakes that I decided must be basil. I added a lot of basil, maybe 2 tablespoons or so to my small test batch.
A lot of the recipes I turned up in the search included ranch dressing, and I think that may be the way to go in the future. After sitting overnight in the fridge the pasta shells I used had absorbed most all of the liquid and were looking dry. I added more mayo cut with half and half and chopped another tomato to fold in. It’s an interesting dish, and fun to experiment with. The Kroger deli used rotini but just about any bite size pasta will work.
Had just enough pork belly left for a few tacos, a reprise of the BLTs from the other day. These are delicious, I think I like them better in these homemade tortillas than the traditional toasted bread slices.
B is for bacon but this one is sous vide pork belly, sliced about a quarter inch and crisped a bit. SVPBLET just doesn’t roll off the tongue quite right.
I really like this taco rack. I bought it thinking to use it to oven crisp store bought tortillas but it’s perfect for holding these home made tortillas for dressing. My perfect BELT would have the egg yolk still runny, this time I scrambled and chopped a couple of eggs to make them easy to build with.
The sauce is half mayo/half sour cream and that seems to work pretty well, it is spread on the tortilla about like you would spread mayo on toast for a traditional BLT sammich.
Enjoy!
French Toast Alert System may be activated, but I have my own comfort snow foods. Big pot of soup on the stove:
Tomato-Spinach Soup
blender, saucepan
In saucepan, brown ground beef and onions. In a blender, blend together spinach and tomatoes, until smooth*. Add to beef mixture, along with vegetables and spices. Bring to low boil, stirring frequently, reduce heat and let simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. Serve with Parmesan and spinach chiffonade. Makes 4 generous servings.
*Blending the spinach, tomatoes together gives you a nice hearty tomato base for the soup. You can add some additional spinach leaves at the end if you like, letting them get limp but not overcooked.
What's 4 Dinner Solutions 