Tomatoes...Please Don't Go.

This year I've really enjoyed the garden tomato. I grew up loving them straight from the garden, freshly picked and warm from the sun. I couldn't wait for those plump green maters to turn juicy and red. Sometimes I would eat them in the garden straight from the vine. Especially, the cherry tomatoes. One for the bowl, two for me. Yum.

Unfortunately tomato season seems to take forever to get here and goes all too quick. My sisters-in-law bottle tomatoes and salsa. That's on my to do list for someday. For now, I just enjoy them while I can.

My friend Katie the Scrapbook Lady blogged in August about her favorite salad, the Caprese Salad. I had to try it immediately. I had some farmer's market tomatoes, basil, and I picked up some fresh mozz. How can three simple ingredients together be so unbelievably tasty? I drizzled mine with Newman's Own Light Balsamic Vinaigrette. I've been in love ever since. So thank you Katie for introducing me to me new love. I'm just sad tomato season is just about over. *sniffles*

 

 

Better hurry and give this a try! Because you can't possibly make this with store bought tomatoes shipped from another country. It would never taste the same. :)

 

Happy Friday!

 

Love, Monica

Repost-Thanksgiving Salads

Just reading this post made my mouth water.  These have to be my favorite sweet salads at Thanksgiving dinner.  Give them a try.  You will be SO happy you did!

Are you ready for the big day? What do you have planned?  We'd love to hear what everyone is up to for the big day.  Have a great Wednesday!!

First published on November 8, 2010
This week we are doing a sweet salad that we would find at our families Thanksgiving table.  We each chose our favorite, and it turned out being the same thing.  So, the SWEET sister that I am, let Monica make it.  :o)  I picked my second favorite, and I am so happy that I did.  It's so tasty and taking the first bite of it reminded me of my Grandma's on Thanksgiving day.  Made me sad and happy at the same time.  This will be our second year without Grandma on Thanksgiving and my first year not spending at least part of the day at her home with the rest of my family.  Anyhoo...enough of the sad story.  I'm so grateful to my Grandma and Auntie and their awesome recipes, for handing them down to us kids.  And I hope our kids will want to keep them at our Thanksgiving table for years to come.

I chose to do Grandma's 7-Up Salad.  I don't know where it came from, but I can remember eating this stuff from when I was little.  Grandma wrote down this recipe for me a couple years ago.  It's so funny, because with most the recipes she wrote down for me, she would usually leave an ingredient out or be wrong on 1 or 2 of the measurements.  So the recipe I have wrote down is quite confusing with lots of crossed out things and scribbles, but it turned out just like I remembered it.  I was thinking of re-writing the recipe for my personal binder, but I think I will keep it just the way it is.  Will bring a smile to my face every time.

Here's the recipe~

2 small packages of Lemon Jell-O
2 c. boiling water
2 c. 7-Up
2 c. crushed pineapple, drained (keep the juice!)
3 bananas, cut up
1 1/2 c. mini marshmallows

Dissolve the jell-o in the boiling water, then add the 7-Up.  Pour into a 13x9 dish.  Refridgerate until syrupy.  I timed and it took a little less than an hour.  Add your pineapple, bananas, and marshmallows to jell-o and refridgerate til set.  Top with the following cream...OH SO YUMMY!  I could eat it all by itself.

2 eggs, beaten
4 Tbsp butter
3/4 c. pineapple juice
1 c. sugar
2 Tbsp flour
1 pint heavy whipping cream

Put eggs, butter, juice, sugar, and flour in a sauce pan and heat on med-high heat whisking the entire time until thick.  Take off heat and let cool.  Once cool, whip the heavy cream til stiff peaks form.  Fold the two together and top the Jell-O.  Refridgerate until ready to serve and ENJOY!

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Oh Thanksgiving. It's so dear to my heart. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday hands down. There is nothing better to me than spending a day with people I love cooking, baking, and just being together. I feel nothing but joy when I think of Thanksgivings past. It's just a really happy time for me. I'm excited to share some of that with you this month.

Yes, Erica was nice and let me do our favorite sweet Thanksgiving salad. This one is actually relatively new. My Auntie Linda introduced it to the family within the last 10 years. We loved it and we have had it every year since. I have shared it with others and made it for many holiday parties. Whip it up and share. It's delish.

Cranberry Salad
1 lb. fresh cranberries
1- 15 oz. can crushed pinepple drained (I added a bit of the juice, mostly by accident but it worked) :)
1 cup sugar
1 pint heavy whipping cream
1 lb. bag of mini marshmallows (I used a 10 oz. bag and it was fine)

Grind cranberries until finely chopped. (I use my food processor for this. It's very quick.) Add sugar and pineapple and chill for 1 hour. Whip cream and add marshmallows. Fold cream and mallows into the cranberry mixture and chill overnight. This is such a pretty dish. Definitely festive for the holidays.

Oh yum. Thanks Auntie for this family favorite. :)

Have a happy Monday!

Creamy Cucumber Salad

Remember how I said before that my garden wasn't doing too great this year? Well...I lied!  Something happened and now i've got cucumbers and zucchini growing like crazy!  My corn is ready and so sweet and delicious.  The tomatoes are still struggling, but I think they are snapping out of it too.  Crazy thing...I woke up in the middle of the night and thought to myself, "Hmmm...I haven't checked the cucumbers in awhile.  Wonder if they are growing?"  Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night and think of crazy things like that?  I do it all the time.  I remember where I put things and things I forgot to do or people I forgot to call or even awesome funny status updates?!  *lol*  Ok...must just be me, but really kind of annoying.  Anyhoo...first thing that morning I went out to my garden and lo and behold there were cucumbers everywhere!  I couldn't believe how many I had.  So I picked a bunch.  I made my husbands favorite of soaking them in vinegar and salt and pepper with a little bit of onion and jalepenos cut up in it to give it a little heat.  It's one of my favorites too, but I wanted to try something different so that is where the Creamy Cucumber Salad enters.  Hello, Lover!  It is so yum!  I loved it and I will be making this a lot more.  Sorry for all the blabbering.  :o)

Creamy Cucumber Salad

4 c. cucumbers, sliced

1/2 c. sour cream

1/2 c. mayo

1 Tbsp cider vinegar

1 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Add your sour cream, mayo, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper into a medium sized bowl.  Stir until everything is combined.  Pour in cucumbers and stir til they are all coated.  Cover and refridgerate a couple hours before serving, so they are nice and cold.  Yum!

Source-Tasty Kitchen

Hope you enjoy this as much as we did.  Have a great Wednesday!!  We have Justy's first soccer game tonight.  Fall is just right around the corner, and I am so excited!! I love Fall!!! 

Broccoli Salad

Back in the day, I worked in my local Deli.  I truly loved that job and that is where I learned to really LOVE to cook.  I made some great friends there, and I also remember a few of the recipes of some of the things we made there.  This Broccoli Salad is one that we used to make.  It was my favorite!  We would put the premade coleslaw dressing in it though.  So, if you don't want to make your own, you can definately get the premade crap. :o)  I, on the other hand, wanted to make my own.  And i'm glad I did, because it was even better from what I remember it being.  My husband thought it was gonna be gross, but he was pleasantly surprised.  He had 3 helpings! The flavors all go so well together and I love all the different textures.  A great recipe to bring to a BBQ or any kind of summer gathering.  I'm taking it to my family reunion this weekend.

Broccoli Salad
10 c. fresh broccoli (3-4 BIG bunches)
1 c. raisins
1/2 c. red onion, chopped
1 pkg of bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 c. sunflower seeds
4 Tbsp sugar
6 Tbsp white vinegar
2 c. mayo

In a big bowl combine broccoli, raisins, and onion.  In a smaller bowl combine sugar, vinegar, and mayo and stir until nice and smooth.  Pour on top of broccoli mix and stir until everything is coated.  Refridgerate.  Before serving, stir in the bacon and sunflower seeds.

You can add more raisins, sunflower seeds, or onion if you'd like.  It just depends on your taste.  I didn't add as many raisins, because I knew my Dad didn't really care for them.  And I didn't add as much onion, because my husband doesn't like them.  :o)  PICKY PICKY!

See you tomorrow!!

Italian Pasta Salad

This has to be one of my favorite spring/summer salads.  Isn't it funny we really don't make these kinds of things in the winter?  Not only am I excited for the sun and warm weather, but i'm also excited for all the yummy food that comes with spring and summer.  I got this recipe from my sis in law, Jamie.  I fell in love with it the first time I tried it and it's always been a hit every time I make it.  It's so colorful and flavorful.

Italian Pasta Salad
1 bag of colored noodles, cooked til done.
1 bottle of zesty italian salad dressing
1/2 bottle of salad supreme seasoning
2-3 tomatoes, diced
1 cucumber, chopped
1 can of olives, sliced
1 pkg of sliced mushrooms, or throw in a couple cans of the sliced mushrooms
1 bag of the small pepperoni or large pepperoni, cut into quarters

Cook your noodles according to package directions.  I like to chop all my veggies up while its boiling.  When they are done, drain the water and run noodles under cold water until they are no longer hot.  Pour into big bowl and start throwing in all your ingredients.  You don't have to use the whole bottle of dressing.  But the noodles really suck up a lot of the moisture.  I double the batch and put 2 bottles in and let it sit over night and it was perfect the next day.  Same with the salad supreme, put in as much as you like.  I like LOTS of the stuff in mine.  Let your salad sit for a couple hours before serving and make sure to stir it before serving.

Hope your having a fabulous week!!

Our First Monday Match-Up :o)

Every Monday Monica and I are gonna do a Monday Match-Up. What is a Monday Match-Up, you ask?! Well...let me explain. For example last week we decided that I got to choose what we did for our first one and I chose a salad. I made a favorite salad in my family, and I'm thinking Moni made one too. :o) I could have chosen a recipe and we both had to do that recipe and see how it turned out, but I thought a fresh summer salad would be a fun first one. I'm excited to compare with hers to see the difference in our dishes, or craft...or whatever we choose to do. Now...this could be somewhat entertaining too. If you look ahead a couple months and compare my Smore cupcakes to Monica's Smore cupcake it is QUITE hilarious! Or at least I thought so.

We are hoping eventually that some of you will want to join in on our Monday Match-Up, and post it to your blog or email us a picture and what you thought about it. Wouldn't that be fun? I think so!

So let's get started with this weeks, *In an announcers voice* Moooooooondaaaaaaaaaay MATCH-UP! (Are you sick of that phrase yet?)

Like I said earlier, I chose to do a salad. My family favorite salad has to be Momma Deb's Taco Salad. Now, I've had taco salads before, but I never had THEE best taco salad until I met my husband. I went to his Mom's for dinner and watched as they made these babies.  It was love at first sight.

 Isn't is gorgeous?!

Here's the ingredients:
Bag of Nacho Cheese Doritoes
1 lb ground beef
Taco Seasoning
Shredded Cheddar cheese
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Olives
Green Onions
Avacados
Jalepenos (if you want some heat)
Garbanzo Beans, or Kidney beans...or any bean you like on a salad
Hidden Valley Ranch packet, the kind you make with 1 cup of mayo and 1 cup of milk (you gotta have this!)

Start by making your ranch. It's gotta get nice and cold to set up nicely. Cook the ground beef until brown. Add taco seasoning according to packet instructions. Cut up all your veggies.

Put a handful of Doritoes on a plate and smash them with your fist or the bottom of a cup. Top with meat, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, olives, green onions, avacados, beans, ranch, and then I sprinkle some more doritoes on top. Then...enjoy. It's heavenly. Jason would have this for dinner every night if I'd let him.

Monica's Take
I have had Deb's Taco Salad and it is deelish! Nice one Erica.
So here's my fave...Spinach Salad....Mmmmmmmm.

My favorite salad of all time has to be this version of Spinach Salad. It has so many flavors that compliment each other and make my taste buds sing. I got this recipe from my mother-in-law (you will find that most of my faves come from her). This recipe was passed on to us from a Relief Society activity. Marilyn said the dressing is actually not the original. Somehow the dressing recipe was misplaced and was improvised using the one we have now. It is delicious. If you're looking for a great salad, give this one a spin (ha ha, no pun intended!). You'll love it.

Spinach Salad

Bag of Fresh Spinach

Dried Cranberries

Bacon- Fried and Crumbled

Slivered Almonds

Feta Cheese, Crumbled

Dressing

1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil

1/4 Cup Rice Vinegar

1/4 Cup Soy Sauce

1 Tbls. Sugar

Dash of Pepper

Fresh Minced Garlic

Mix Dressing and toss with Spinach. Plate on individual plates and top with Bacon, Feta, Almonds, and Cranberries.

The recipe is originally written with 3/4 Cup of Oil, but we have found that to be too much. Also add as much garlic as you want. I like to add about a teaspoon. Enjoy!