Sliced Tomato Sandwich on Croissant with Balsamic Drizzle

This is officially my favorite summer food right now! I had this sandwich for lunch yesterday, and again for lunch today. Delicious! It is a Tomato Sandwich on Croissant with Balsamic Drizzle. Begin with a croissant. I got a flat of them at Costco. You can find them in the larger grocery stores. Slice it lengthwise, in half. Find some ripe, ready to eat tomatoes, either from your garden or farmers market (or in my case, Costco!)

Slice the tomatoes. I like the slices on the thick side. Layer them on the bottom half of the croissant.

Crack some fresh pepper and salt on the tomatoes, to taste.

Drizzle some balsamic reduction on the tomatoes. I am addicted to this stuff. Low calories and totally delish! I bought mine at Whole Foods. I might start carrying it on my blog for those of you who can't find it in stores. It is perfect on salads instead of heavy dressing.

Yummmmmy! See how fantastic that looks?

There you have it! Enjoy all of those tomatoes this summer. And if you have extra from your garden, share this recipe and a few tomatoes with your neighbor or friend. They'll love you for it!

Awesome Potato Cauliflower Salad

I've been trying to use up the food I have on hand in the refrigerator. I had 1/2 head of cauliflower and some celery. I also needed to use the new potatoes and red onions. So, after googling a bit, I found a recipe for cauliflower salad on Spark People and thought I'd just add that to the potatoes and improvise from there. Look at how yummy it turned out!! It tastes so good, I immediately made it my lunch; a cup full on a bed of romaine!


Check out the red onion, bits of bacon, chopped celery. YUM! And I'm not really a huge potato salad fan.
You can see the mustard seeds also...

I diced a red onion...used my handy dandy dicer thing that you see on TV. Added 1/2 c. diced red onion.

I chopped up about 3-4 stalks of celery, finely chopped.

I boiled 8 medium size new potatoes, diced bite sized. I steamed the bite sized cauliflower pieces in a steaming tray above the potatoes....they cooked up first, then I just took them off and rinsed them with cold water.

I added 4-5 pieces of cooked bacon, diced. You could use bacon bits, about 1/2 c. I used 3/4 c. mayo, 1-2 TBSP of country style brown mustard and 1 heaping TBSP of pickle relish.

This recipe is so easy to make. You can add more cauliflower, and less potatoes if you want. Give it a try, and tell me how you like it! Click on the pictures, and you can see all of this deliciousness up close and personal!

Pug loves tomatoes, too!

Here is my little patch of garden happiness! The two lemon cucumber plants are going crazy. I put my vintage garden gate behind the planter and the plants have almost completely covered it! Off to the right I have pots of heirloom tomatoes, green onions and herbs.

This morning, I decided that it was time to pick the tomato that was nearly perfectly ripe. I have been checking the cucumber plant daily, only to find 1" cukes. Well, hello! Today look what I found. That little lemon cuke took me by surprise! EXCITING!

Everything was WONDERFUL! I had taken the dogs for an early morning walk up the canyon, I picked a tomato, leaving another behind so I could pick it tomorrow. I found and picked a lemon cucumber. LIFE IS GOOD! Enter, our fun dog, PUG ......

Can you see that he is looking guilty???!!! FYI, they already had their first meal of the day. Pug is on weight control dog food to keep his boyish figure. Well, below, note the tomato that I left on the vine. Waiting for another day of 104* weather to get it to full ripeness. Yep, I was going to pick it tomorrow. Just ONE.MORE.DAY! I went in to put my cuke and tomato on the counter in the house. As I went back outside, who do I see chomping on a tomato??? Yea, you know the answer...hmmmmppp!

Here is a picture of Luigi, smelling the borage and nasturtiums. He isn't food motivated like PUG, just an Italian Greyhound, enjoying a good smell!

At least I have a cucumber and more on the way...

And I have a tomato, and some more green ones *going to find something to keep Pug out of them today*.

If any of your produce is missing from you garden, better keep an eye on your dog!

Awwww, he's just a little guy after all. Guess I'll forgive him, after I put up some chicken wire!

All American Pressure Cooker/Canner

Here is a picture of my latest kitchen purchase. It is the All-American 21-1/2-Quart Pressure Cooker/Canner! Isn't she a beauty? I bought it from Amazon...truly a great price! I am going to use this baby for the first time tomorrow morning. I am going to make Italian Wedding soup, and pressure can it to use later. I have some spinach I need to use up, some vegetable broth in the freezer, and some frozen mini meatballs that I can defrost. I'll take pictures and show you how nice the jars look afterwards. Making and canning soup is more nutritious and tastes better. I joined a canning group on yahoo. These people sure know their canning! I have the latest copy of Ball's Blue Book, so I'm ready to go. I get so much produce each week from Bountiful Baskets, that I want to use it all, and not waste any. Do you put up your own food? What are you doing these days to stock your pantry?

Bountiful Baskets Pick-up and Strawberries

I've been trying to keep up with all of the produce I get from Bountiful Baskets . Every spare minute I have, I'm peeling, cutting, dicing and otherwise getting the produce ready to use. After I finished peeling, slicing and storing the cucumbers, son #4 comes into the kitchen and asks if we have any. Of course, I directed him to the proper container. There is no excuse for not eating veges when they are ready-to-eat!

Today was another pick-up day for produce. I got 2 flats of strawberries. Tonight, after son #4's chamber orchestra performance, I am going to get them washed and freeze them in a single layer on cookie sheets, then, when frozen, will put them into ziplock freezer bags. We like to use strawberries for smoothies in the morning, and these were such a great price at $8/case (8#).

I made some vegetable soup stock yesterday using some wilted celery, a couple of carrots, some zucchini and seasonings. I made 3 quart containers of soup stock, and it smelled and tasted fantastic. Making soup stock is a great way to use vegetables that are a little past their prime. Those are now in the freezer. It will come in handy for making risotto, soup, or for using in other recipes.

I also froze a bunch of greens for smoothies. They were washed, put into my lettuce spinner and then packed into ziplock freezer bags.

Finally, I baked all of the yams I had, and am using them tonight for a yummy sweet potato casserole. I'll share the recipe for that later tonight. I'm making mini turkey meatloaf to go with the casserole. I'll probably include a green salad.

Hope that you are having a fantastic Easter weekend!

Bountiful Baskets Haul from March 6, 2010

Yesterday was the first day of Bountiful Baskets at Tuacahn, where I am one of the site coordinators. I think it went very well, all things considered. Take a look at the wonderful produce we got! I can't say enough good things about this coop. The bread is amazing, and the produce is fantastic.

Below is the Mex-pack...I've already used the green onions and 6 zucchinis (some from the mexi-pack and some from my basket) in the roasted zucchini with feta cheese recipe I made as a part of dinner tonight. I got the recipe from Kalyn's Kitchen, and it is delicious!

Five loaves of 9 grain bread....$10. It is really good! Some is going in the freezer.

Below is what I got from the standard basket, which costs $15. Lots of bananas, tangerines, apples (braeburn), spinach, cabbage, zucchinis, cucumbers, strawberries, blueberries, asparagus and red leaf lettuce.

Since I am a site coordinator, I was able to order a couple of cases of organic blueberries for $15. Can I tell you how thrilled I am about that! Of course, my family is gobbling them up!

We are really enjoying Bountiful Baskets! Check it out at http://www.bountifulbaskets.org/ .

White Bean and Chicken Chili with Italian Cheese Bread

My computer is officially incompatible with my cameras and flip video. Now how's that for the worst thing that can happen to a blogger? Old camera technology with new computer is a recipe for disaster. Bummer. Anyway, my son took pictures for me last night, so, I'm happy about that!

And then, while blog hopping, I came across this recipe for easy Italian Cheese Bread. It was the perfect complement to the chili.

Last night we ate White Bean and Chicken Chili , recipe from Giada. We love this recipe, because it is so versatile. I use canned chicken chunks (because I have a huge stockpile of them in the basement pantry).

Here is the link for Italian Cheese Bread. This is comfort style food, which works well with my 4 young adult sons.