Food Friday - What's for Dinner?

from Kris B.

I don't like the heat that Texas summer's bring, but I do like the abundance of fresh veggies.  I feel like I eat a little better during the summer months because of all this freshness.  Unfortunately, I don't care much for canned and frozen vegetables, so the winter months for me are marked by a lot of squash!  I love squash, but I do get tired of it after awhile.

As far as leafy greens, spinach is by far my

 favorite.  I'll add it to almost anything.  Asparagus is one of those things that I have leaned to appreciate as an adult.  I never wanted it on my childhood plate!  I don't know if that is because my mom served it from a can or if it was fresh and seriously over cooked.  Whatever the case, I always thought it was mushy and smelled bad.  Lol!

This dish is an adaptation of a couple different recipes and is a summertime favorite at our house.  If you are not an asparagus fan or have greens other than spinach, substitute away, just about anything will work here...even squash!

INGREDIENTS
12 oz. store bought gnocchi
8 oz. spinach
1 tsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 Cup parmesan cheese and extra for garnish
2 TBS toasted almonds
6 spears of asparagus
3 TBS butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat  olive oil over medium high in a large pan.  Add the spinach and sauté until bright green and wilted.  Remove to a cutting board and allow it to cool.

Cook the gnocchi by adding it to a pot of boiling water.  Cook for three minutes.  the pieces should rise to the top.  Reserve about 1/2 cup of the water in which you cooked the gnocchi.  Drain the gnocchi.

In a large bowl, combine the spinach, garlic, almonds, a 1/4 of parmesan cheese.  Mix and mash the ingredients together.  It will look like green paste.  It may not look appetizing at this point, but it will taste good in the end!

Trim the asparagus and cut it into bite-seized pieces, about 1 inch.  In the same pan you used to cook the spinach, melt the butter.  Add the cooked gnocchi and the asparagas.  Sauté until the gnocchi is golden brown and the asparagus is soft but not much.  Lol!   I know what you're thinking.  Butter???Butter gets a bad rap. We all need a little fat in our diets, it helps the gnocchi and asparagus brown just a little, and, admit it, it tastes good!  Once cooked, add the gnocchi and asparagas to the spinach mixture.  If it seems to dry, add a little of the reserved gnocchi water a tablespoon at a time until it seems moist enough.  You do not want standing liquid in the bowl, just nicely coated gnocchi!  Season with salt and pepper and garniush with additional parmesan cheese, if desired.

I usually serve this warm, but my daughter prefers it cold.  So, I guess anything goes!

Makes 2-3 servings

Nutrition information: per serving; 377 calories; 18.8g fat; 43.9g carbohydrates; 13.3g protein; 6.1g fiber; 800mg sodium

The Bean Thing - that's the actual name, not just something we called it because we couldn't remember the name, and I've always loved it! The minute I take a bite of this salad I am a kid again. It's not sweet at all like most bean salads and that's what drew my mom to the recipe, it was different from most bean "salad" recipes out there. My mom made this often for "special occasions"  - meaning  mostly those things where you need a dish to pass. This couldn't be any easier and it's a powerhouse of good the stuff that beans have to offer. Now, my mom mostly served it as a side dish. And I have too, but for me it's a 50/50 mix of making it to go with something and making because this is the something that I want! I love to use it as a light lunch in the summer (winter too because it uses canned beans and corn - I've also used frozen corn for this too and it works just as well) and I've been known to have it for dinner with some nice bread, lol. In fact, it was my lunch today!

The original recipe is fine as it is, it uses heart healthy olive oil as the oil for the dressing. I have taken it a bit further and played with the amount of oil that goes in and I've come to the conclusion that you can cut it back to a little over a 1/4 cup and it still tastes pretty darn good! I've lessened the sodium as well, even though I pretty much exclusively use kosher salt, less salt is less salt. Kosher salt is great due to the flat nature of the crystals, you get big salt taste for a lot less of the stuff!  But this recipe is from the late 60's early 70's and at that time it was salt salt salt! I imagine you could skip it entirely and just salt your own portion. It also helps to use lower-sodium canned beans & corn to help reduce it as well. The original recipe calls for green pepper to be added, but Jeremy, my husband is not a big green pepper fan, so I omit it. And that's just fine - this does well without it. Another thing it does well without are the chickpeas - I love them, Jeremy does not, so, I used cannellini beans and all is well. Versatile recipes that you can swap without losing the integrity of the dish are hands-down my favorite kind! I hate not being able to make something because I'm lacking one ingredient, that drives me crazy! I love to use whatever I have on hand and have it be just as good as if I had everything right down to the letter. That makes me a pretty happy girl!  

I believe my mom cut this out of a newspaper or something, but it was actually a recipe written for red wine - not sure anymore it was a particular kind/brand etc because the original recipe has been long gone for quite awhile now, in fact, I don't think I've ever actually seen the original clipping!

The Bean Thing

serves about 8 officially

1 can red kidney beans

1 can pinto beans

1 can chickpeas or cannellini beans

1 can sweet corn

1 bunch green onions, chopped

1 green pepper chopped

Dressing:

3/4 cup olive oil

3 tbsp vinegar

3 tbsp red wine

1 clove garlic crushed (or I use my microplane grater instead of my press sometimes!)

2 tsp salt (less is fine)

black pepper to taste

Combine beans and corn in a colander. Rinse under cold water and drain well. Place in a serving bowl, add green pepper and green onion. In a small bowl, combine dressing ingredients and mix well. Pour over bean and vegetable mixture. Toss to coat and refrigerate until serving time. This is always better the longer it gets the chance to sit and marinate.

Food Friday - Veggies, Please!

from Tracey G.

This week the snow is finally starting to melt and I'm starting to want more fair weather foods - or at least things that remind me that summer and lovely weather isn't too far away! This salad is one of my favorites and it's so super simple it ought to be a crime! Not even sure anymore where I found the original recipe, but I do know that I have added and subtracted here and there to suit my taste. It's like a super quick refrigerator pickle in way, but very lightly pickled so that it's still a salad and not an actual pickle! Whenever I make anything with Buffalo Sauce (like my favorite chicken cutlets), this salad goes on the side, it tempers the spicy heat nicely!

I use English cucumbers because I love the little to no seed aspect, and you don't need to peel them, thus saving time. Not to mention, just a quick rinse is all that's needed, since they are usually individually wrapped in the grocery. 

This salad also comes together super quick, another thing I absolutely love about it, plus you could add things if you like - green or any kind of onion sliced thin would be nice, I think. Simple and yummy - what else could you ask for?

Cucumber Salad

(about 4-5 servings)

4 cups thinly sliced, quartered cucumber

2  tsp minced fresh parsley or 1 tsp dried parsley

Dressing:

1/4-1/2 cup sugar (depends on your taste, I use 1/2 usually)

4 tbsp water

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

4 tbsp lime juice

1/2 tsp salt

Combine dressing ingredients in serving bowl, whisk well until sugar is dissolved. Add cucumbers and parsley, toss to coat. Let stand for awhile or serve immediately. Serve with a slotted spoon. 

from Kris B.

Pizza  is often one of those dinner suggestions made at the end of a long day or week and it usually involves a phone call to the local pizza delivery shop, not a trip to the kitchen.  As much as I like someone else to do the cooking on such evenings, homemade pizza is so much better than that which is commercially made.  The problem with wanting homemade pizza at the last minute is the crust.  There is no getting around the fact that making pizza crust takes time.

The truth is that the recipe that I am sharing this week isn't really about the pizza crust, but about the toppings. Though if you are interested, I use the recipe from Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois's book Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day.  If, like me, you are a bread lover, their method is a great way to enjoy homemade bread every day without spending a great deal of time every day in its preparation.  If pizza dough making is not your thing, just buy a pre-made crust at the grocery store.  It will work just fine.  Like I said, this is about the toppings.

In addition to bread, I do like vegetables.  I just don't care for the mixture of veggies that are offered on commercially made veggie pizzas, especially olives.  There are lots of foods that I "don't care for," but will eat and there are a very few that I just can't eat under any circumstances.  Olives, black or green, fall into the latter group  By the time you remove the olives and then the mushrooms, which fall into the don't care for category but will eat in a pinch, most veggie pizzas are then left with only peppers and onions.  Those two alone don't really constitute a "veggie" pizza.  It is my quirky pizza veggie preferences that led me to experiment with other vegetables as pizza toppings.

This combination is one of my favorites - traditional white pizza with shaved asparagus.  Because my pizza stone is rectangular, so are my pizzas, more or less.  Lol! They usually end up being about 12'x14'.

INGREDIENTS
Pizza crust of your choice
Olive oil

For the white pizza sauce:
   2 cups ricotta cheese
   2-3 cloves garlic, minced
   1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
    salt and pepper to taste

Toppings
   red onion, thinly sliced (about half of a medium onion)
   shaved asparagus (8 stalks give or take)
   mozzarella cheese
   red pepper flakes, optional

Slice the onion.  For the shaved asparagus, wash and then trim the ends.  Using a vegetable peeler, "peel" the asparagus just like you would a carrot.  Peel from all sides of the stalk.

Heat oven to 500 degrees.  If you have a pizza stone, heat it in the oven as well.  If not, you can bake your pizza on a sheet pan.  Once your dough is ready to go, place it on an appropriately sized pan or a pizza peel generously covered with corn meal.  (This helps it to slide from the peel onto the oven stone.)  Brush the dough with a thin layer of olive oil.

Mix together the ricotta cheese, minced garlic, Parmesan cheese, and salt an pepper to create the white sauce.  Spread this evenly over your dough leaving about an inch of dough exposed around the edges.

Top the white sauce with a layer of mozzarella cheese then the asparagus, onions, and ref pepper flakes.  Finish with another layer of the mozzarella cheese.

Bake until the cheese is melted and is a bubbly golden brown.  Baking time will vary with ovens and the type of crust you use.

Make this your own pizza!  Amounts of all ingredients can most certainly be adjusted for personal preferences.  Add the mushrooms and olives if they make you happy!  Yes, we all need food to nourish our bodies, but what we eat and those with whom we eat our meals should also make us happy!  Take time to enjoy your food.

FOOD FRIDAY - Simple Pasta Salads

from Kris B.

I trust that I am not alone in having those nights where you wander through the kitchen looking in the fridge, rummaging through the pantry, and checking the spice cabinet hoping that there are some ingredients that will work together and magically become dinner.  If I am alone in this, please keep that fact to yourself!  Often these meals that I have scrounged together in desperation become some of my favorites.  This Tortellini Salad is one such creation.

As I recall, I had the three cheese tortellini and that sounded good for dinner, but didn't have the necessary ingredients to make a traditional pasta sauce.  I had broccoli that needed to be eaten.  Actually, I always have broccoli that needs to be eaten because it is my favorite green vegetable.  I am happy to eat it in, on, or with just about anything.  Because I was trying to come up with a meal rather than just a side of pasta, I wanted some meat to add to the tortellini and broccoli.  I had a few pieces of bacon that also were on the "need to eat soon" list.  I always have some kind of cheese on hand.  This particular night, Parmesan was the cheese of choice.  Throw a little red onion and some grape tomatoes into the mix and the dinner potential was becoming real.  Still, however, I had no sauce.

The easy solution would have been to pour some bottled salad dressing over the whole shebang and call it done.  All I had was Asian Sesame.  As much as I like that on certain salads, it didn't sound good with this.  I decided that I would start with a more or less traditional macaroni salad dressing and go from there.  

When all was said and done, this turned out to be really good.  This is probably because this salad contains most of my favorite food things.  It's filling but not too heavy, flexible, and better for you than some things!

INGREDIENTS
1 19 oz bag frozen three cheese tortellini
1/2 lb bacon
1 head of fresh broccoli, chopped into bite sized pieces
1/2 medium red onion, diced
1 cup grape tomatoes
1/4 cup finely grated fresh Parmesan cheese

For the Dressing
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 mayonnaise
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves minced garlic
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste

Chop the broccoli and dice the onion.  Grate the Parmesan cheese.

Cut the bacon into pieces and cook it.  Remove the cooked back to a paper towel to drain and cool.  While the bacon cooks, cook the pasta according to the package directions.  In its last minute of cooking, drop the chopped broccoli into the pasta water.  This will cook it just slightly.  Drain the pasta and broccoli and let cool in a large bowl.

While the pasta cools, in a medium bowl whisk together all of the ingredients for the dressing.  I prefer the dressing to lightly coat rather than drench the other ingredients.  If you prefer a "wet" salad, you may want to double the dressing proportions. 

Once the pasta has cooled, add the bacon, onion, and Parmesan cheese to the pasta and broccoli.  Add the dressing and toss the salad until all of the ingredients are evenly coated.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.  As is the case with almost anything that has a dressing or sauce, allowing the ingredients to mingle for several hours makes for better flavor.

This recipe is simple and quite forgiving.  Don't have broccoli and tomatoes?  Add another vegetable.  Squash is nice.  Prefer different spices?  By all means, go for it.  Don't like cheese tortellini?  Substitute your favorite pasta.  Have some leftover ham fro Easter?  Use that instead of bacon.  Make it your own.  Create Your Favorites Tortellini Salad!

Some days my cooking and my photography are guided by the same principles - both need to be quick and easy.  I quickly made this salad for our lunches today and needed to get the photo done quickly as I was leaving the house at noon and wouldn't be home again until almost 10 pm.  During my time away from the house, and more importantly my computer, I did have a little down time.  I decided that I would take today's photo with my phone and do any necessary editing on my iPad.

I shot the photo of the pasta on our outdoor kitchen cement counter with the resident camera on my iPhone.  The concrete added just a little bit of texture to the frame.  I then added the text and a frame using the Rhonna Designs app and I was done.  

Sometimes I feel like relying solely on my phone and its editing apps are cheating somehow.  Then there are the days where I know that it is the responsible way to use what little time I have.  When I got to the end of the day, I had a decent meal and an acceptable photo so I consider my day a success. Lol!


from Tracey G

I love using Food Fridays as a reason to experiment and try new recipes. Probably not the best thing, because if it doesn't turn out I'm stuck with it and can only report that it was awful, lol. But I've, for the most part, yet to have that happen. I've ran into some difficulties in the execution of the recipe, but it's always something I know that another run-through would iron out. This one was rather humorous as I was trying to get it together. I mean, come on, how hard can a macaroni salad be - really!? Well, it helps if on the day you're making it you have all the ingredients in the proper amounts that you need. I miscalculated my mayo supply, thinking I had much more than I actually did, and ended up having to make a half a batch of it. Then, trying to get the pickle juice into the bowl, I tipped the jar a bit too far and spilled some all over my recipe and island, lol. I was not having a good day! But I must say, all the trials and tribulations were totally worth it, I absolutely loved this recipe! And it's another one of those you can customize to your tastes, very easily I might add too.

I discovered it in my newest Taste Of Home magazine as I was flipping through. I've been on the hunt for a new macaroni salad. I love the version with tuna and peas etc, but I was getting really bored with it, and just wanted something different. This is the first one that caught my eye, maybe because it reminded me of deviled egg ingredients to a certain extent or something. Not sure, but I am glad I gave it a try, it's wonderful in my opinion, and as I told Kris, I likely could have eaten the whole batch myself, lol.

Now, I have to be honest here, the original name is NOT "Grandma's Macaroni Salad", it's "Judy's Macaroni Salad". But, I don't know a Judy or even the Judy. And to be even more honest, I never knew any of my grandparents, my maternal grandmother passed away when I was 6 months and my other grandparents passed away well before I was born. So, I can't even say I knew WHAT my grandma's macaroni salad was like - but this is what I IMAGINE a grandma's macaroni salad would taste like. It seems like a nice vintage mac salad recipe that a grandma WOULD make, so that's my reasoning and I hope everyone and Judy will forgive me! I will include the link to the original recipe of course!  

It involves simple ingredients that I think are a great combination: Elbow macaroni, hardboiled eggs, cheddar cheese, sweet pickles, mayonnaise, sweet pickle juice, salt and pepper - extremely uncomplicated. That's probably why it works as well as it does.

So, here's the recipe:

Grandma's Macaroni Salad

courtesy of Taste Of Home as Judy's Macaroni Salad
Serves 12, 3/4 cup each

2 1/2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni

1 1/2 cups mayonnaise

1/4 cup sweet pickle juice

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 cup (4 oz.) shredded cheddar cheese

6 hard-cooked large eggs, chopped

6 sweet pickles, chopped

1) Cook macaroni according to package directions. Drain macaroni; rinse with cold water and drain well.

2) In a small** bowl, combine the mayonnaise, sweet pickle juice, salt and pepper. Stir in the cheese, eggs and pickles. Add macaroni; toss gently to coat. Refrigerate, covered, at least 2 hours or until chilled.

** The original recipe as I've put here, calls for  a "small" bowl - but I used a medium sized bowl as due to the fact after you mix the ingredients in it, you then toss in the macaroni and I don't see how a small bowl would work very well for that and mixing the ingredients all together! :-) 

Food Friday - On the Side!

from Tracey G

When I was a kid, the only coleslaw I would eat was Kentucky Fried Chicken's - to me, that stuff was the epitome of coleslaw and what it should be. I never realized back then either how easy it was to make - it wasn't a salad my mom made at  home. When we had it, I only wanted KFC's!

I would have to say it wasn't until my 30's that I actually made the stuff. And my first time with it was kind of a disaster - I know, I know, how can one screw up coleslaw?!? Well, I had a recipe to follow, but the dressing just didn't seem like enough - so I made more. Much more. I didn't take into account the sitting time that most coleslaw recipes direct - I didn't realize the amount of liquid that would come from the cabbage and carrots and actually add to the dressing! So, by the time I took it to the potluck party it was pretty soupy. I think it was after that I learned my lessons - 1) mix up just what the recipe calls for dressing-wise and 2) never make something you've never made before to take to a party - but if you do, always have a plan B!!  

I remember the first time I made this (I even followed the directions too!), I announced that if I ever needed a potluck recipe to take somewhere, this would be it. It's so very simple, and if you use pre-made cabbage/veggie slaw mix (any kind would be good with the dressing, even a broccoli slaw etc) it comes together super fast! I think super fast is even an understatement! And aside from the dressing of the slaw mix - the dressing mixture, I think would be great as a regular salad dressing on lettuce of any kind! I don't remember where I got the recipe from, and I've tweaked the amounts because the original recipe made much too small of an amount for our household and I'm pleased with how it's evolved.

Raspberry Slaw

4 c shredded green cabbage

4 c shredded red cabbage

1-2 c shredded carrots (personal preference can be used here)

Dressing:

1/2 c raspberry vinaigrette

1/2 c mayonnaise

1/2 - 1 c fresh raspberries for garnish

1) In a large bowl combine green cabbage, red cabbage and carrots.

2) In a small bowl, whisk the raspberry vinaigrette and mayonnaise until well blended. 

    Pour dressing over cabbage/carrot mixture and toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate at

    least an hour for flavors to blend. (I find it's much better if it's sat overnight!)

3) Before serving, top with fresh raspberries. When at home, I usually just top the

    individual servings with a few of the raspberries.

From Kris B

Most of the time I love to cook.  What I don't always like is trying to figure out what to cook.  If someone will tell me what they want, I will gladly fix it.  When I am left to determine the menu myself, it is most often the side dishes with which I struggle.  Once you get beyond some form of potatoes or rice and steamed or roasted vegetables, my creativity starts to fall by the wayside.  So, I am always on the lookout for side dishes that push me beyond my boring starchy box!

This week's slaw recipe is one of my favorite quick and easy sides.  I believe it may originally have come from Weight Watchers, but I'm not absolutely sure of that.  Regardless, it is fairly low calorie and surprises the taste buds just a bit.

INGREDIENTS

1 12 oz. bag of prepared broccoli slaw mix

1 medium to large apple (variety of your choice)

3 scallions

1/4 cup sliced roasted almonds

3 TBS prepared balsamic vinaigrette dressing of your choice

Chop the apple into small bite sized pieces.  Slice the whites of the scallions.  Combine all ingredients in a good sized bowl so that you have room to "toss."  This best if chilled at least an hour, but this is not absolutely necessary.

A side dish doesn't get much simpler than this!

Food Friday - Simply Salads

from Kris B.

I grew up with a stay-at-home mom who cooked dinner nearly every night, a dinner that most often was meat, potatoes, and vegetables.  Our family meals were like those that restaurants now try to lure you in with by touting their fare as "home cooking."  Of late, both meat and potatoes have gotten a bad rap from various diet gurus.  I have to admit that though we do not eat meat and potato dinners every night, I do like both.  In my cooking now, I live by the motto, "Everything in moderation."  I am always trying new ways to enjoy both of these things while still being conscious of healthy eating habits.

This Grilled Red Potato Salad is a healthier way to enjoy a potato side than is, let's say, a loaded baked potato, french fries, or even those home style mashed potatoes that my mom made.  Potatoes really are not "the enemy."  It is the way we cook and dress them that often pushes their calorie count over the top.  Served atop a fresh green salad with a honey mustard dressing, these grilled potatoes are "just enough" to satisfy that meat and potato kid that still lurks inside me.  This salad is a perfect light, but also filling, side to serve with any kind of grilled meat.  If you are firing up the grill to cook the potatoes, it makes sense to throw some chicken, steak, a pork roast, or even burgers on the grill at the same time.  And then you have a complete meal and you didn't have to heat up your kitchen!

INGREDIENTS

4 large red potatoes 
Non-stick cooking spray
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp honey mustard
Juice from 1 lemon
2 TBS olive oil
2 tsp vinegar
4 Cups any kind of salad greens
1 Cup shredded carrots
1 diced red bell pepper
1 diced red onion

Dice the red pepper, onion, and shred the carrots.  

(I cheat and buy shredded carrots in a bag at the grocery store.)  Place them in a large bowl and toss with the salad greens.

Whisk together the garlic, honey mustard, lemon juice, olive oil and vinegar.to make the dressing.  

This can be done ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator.

Preheat the grill.  Slice the potatoes about 1/2 inch thick.  

Spray one side with non-stick cooking spray/  Place the sliced potatoes with the sprayed side directly on the grill.  cook for 10 minutes or until the potatoes are a deep golden color.  Spray the top side and flip the potatoes.  Cook for another 5-10 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked through.

When you are ready to serve, toss the salad and the dressing together in a large salad bowl.  Either layer the potatoes on top, or plate each serving, placing the potatoes on top of the tossed salad.

This recipe serves 4-6.

A few more thoughts:

• Because there are only two of us for most meals at my house, I don't toss the full amounts of salad and dressing at once.  I do it on an "ass needed basis."
• Make the salad your own by adding any other salad fixings that make you happy.  The carrots, red pepper, and red onion add color that makes this a pretty dish when served.
• If you want to make a hearty meal out of this salad, add some diced ham or bacon.
• The grilled potatoes alone are also a tasty side if you sprinkle them with a little garlic pepper after spraying them with the non-stick spray.

Happy eating!


from Tracey G

It's been a busy summer week for sure! The weather has been beautiful and we've been able to enjoy the beach quite a few days this week - nice! But that also means needing easy suppers that can be ready to go when we get home - Harry and I are usually there until at least 6 pm, so planning ahead is a good idea, lol. I try to have things ready to go for when we get home, because if I have to do prep work and cook, it's 7:30  by the time we're actually eating, if not later, because you have to get the car unpacked etc - and that's where this salad can come in handy! I remember the first time my mom made this - I was totally skeptical that this combination of ingredients was going to be weird and a flop, lol. Was I wrong! They go fabulous together, and I was happily surprised ;-)

This salad is pretty much a meal in itself - with the bacon, pasta and olives - you don't need anything else if you don't want to have anything else! But it goes great with anything really, burgers, chicken, pork chops etc. I like to use the high protein pasta - that gives it a little more "oomph" in my opinion. ;-) I think the one I used for this batch was high protein and higher fiber too.

There's really not a whole lot of steps to this one, it's pretty basic and a lot can be adjusted to your tastes, more bacon, less bacon and same thing for the olives - more or less, up to you! I guess that can even be said for the dressing too, lol - go with whatever your tastes dictate! :-)

The ingredients are simple: elbow macaroni (even that can be adjusted to whatever you like or whatever you have on hand), crisply cooked bacon (holds up better after it's mixed in the salad with the salad dressing), sliced salad olives and salad dressing. Mayo works too if that's what you prefer. I've always had it with salad dressing, so that's generally how I make it.

I happened to have some bacon leftover from a breakfast-for-dinner night I had with Harry, it was a 24 oz package of bacon and I normally use 16 oz of cooked bacon in the salad, so after our simple supper there was just enough bacon leftover to make my salad with, which made it even easier to prepare, lol. Usually to get my crispy pieces of bacon, I cut up the raw bacon then fry the bacon until crisp. This particular batch I'd cooked in the oven, my favorite way to prepare bacon these days, lol. Much easier and less mess - although, firing up the oven in the summer can be brutal, lol. But it's about 20 min on a cookie sheet at 

400 ° F, give or take. I start keeping a close eye on it at around the 15 minute mark - doesn't take long to over-do it! LOL My smoke alarms have been proven to work a few times, lol.

So, all you do is cook your pasta according to the package directions, then combine that with a pound of chopped crisply cooked bacon, sliced green salad olives and salad dressing. And that's that, lol.

There's really not a set recipe for this, as sometimes it takes more salad dressing than other days for some reason and so forth, but here's some basic amounts to get you started:

Bacon Green Olive Macaroni Salad

1 lb elbow macaroni, cooked according to package directions, drained well

1 lb bacon, chopped and crisply cooked

1 large jar of sliced salad olives - that's to taste, I get the largest jar I can generally find as I love green olives!

1 1/4 to 1 1/2 c salad dressing (or mayo if desired)

Combine all the ingredients, mix well. Refrigerate until ready to serve, allowing at least an hour for the flavors to blend.

Enjoy! 

Beans and Corn - Oh My! ;-)

by Tracey G

This Food Friday I'm on my own as my wonderful cohort is vacationing it up and loving every minute of it! ;-) Which is exactly what you're supposed to do on a vacation! I am happy she's having a great time, even if she did forget to stuff me in her suitcase, but that's ok - I'll forgive her ;-)

This week I stuck with something even more simple, I think, than usual, for a yummy salad. And it's totally customizable, I can think of lots of variations on it, adding cilantro, parsley, jalapeno etc and I know I've added some crushed garlic a time or two. It also goes with lots of things - I served this particular batch with a new grilled pork chop rub recipe I ran across - it involved brining, and that was something I'd never done. I gave it a whirl and was it easy and produced such a lovely chop! Only thing was it required a bit of pre-planning due to the brining time needed. But, I digress, lol - that's a recipe for another time! ;-)

Back to the Black Bean and Corn Salad - I love the fact it uses frozen corn - so you can make this any time of the year, not just in corn season! And it's easy because you don't cook the corn, just dump it into the bowl and add your stuff to it. It even chills the salad for you, lol. 

The ingredients are simple ones - (clockwise from bottom) a lime or two, can of black beans, frozen corn, cumin, red pepper sauce, olive oil  and red onion. Now, you can also add salt and pepper to taste, I usually don't until I dish up my own personal serving. That's because when I was cooking for my mom, I had to find ways to omit the salt in things I was making as she was on a salt restricted diet. Lemon or lime juice is a great substitute for the salt flavor, so it's not really missed in this salad!

Combine all your salad ingredients - the chopped red onion, corn and beans - in a bowl large enough to mix it up in without having beans and corn flying out everywhere, lol. 

In a small bowl, combine your dressing ingredients. Sometimes I have to use 2 limes depending on how "juicy" they are, sometimes I end up with the driest limes - getting at least 2 prevents that from messing me up ;-)

Then all you do is dump your dressing over the salad ingredients in the bowl and mix well. That's it. I let mine sit out for awhile to defrost the corn and chill the salad as I usually am serving it that day with dinner, but you can store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

I also sub ingredients as needed, if no lime, I use lemon juice, no red onion – I use regular, etc. and I usually double the recipe!

  

Black Bean and Corn Salad

1 can, 14oz, Black Beans – rinsed and drained

2 c frozen Corn kernels

½ Red Onion, chopped

1 ½ tsp Cumin (I eyeball it, and go to taste)

2 tsp Hot Sauce

1 Lime, juiced

2 tbsp Olive Oil or Vegetable Oil

Salt and Pepper

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Let stand for at least 15 min for corn to defrost & flavors to combine, salt and pepper to taste, then toss and serve.

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