BLT

Perfect to eat with fresh tomatoes.

Take 4 strips of bacon and put in pan on med-high heat. Make sure the pan isn't too small or cooking the bacon becomes difficult. Cook until med-well done - crispy but with some softness.

Meanwhile, cut 1-2 tomatoes into quarter inch slices. Wash piece of red leaf lettuce. Cut fresh springy white bread to half inch slices. If desired, add a little mayo to one of the slices.

When bacon is done cooking, make sandwich in the following order (bottom to top):
Bread with Mayo
Tomatoes
Lettuce
Fresh ground pepper
Bacon
Other piece of bread

Quick Tomato Sauce

With a large inflow of tomatoes from my garden, I have been eating pasta with tomato sauce 5 out of 7 days of the week. Each time I make it the sauce is a little different. The sauce below is one I made for friends we had over for dinner - it is for 1.5 lbs of pasta.

1 pound chicken sausage, diced
1 can tomato paste
10-12 fresh tomatoes
Italian Seasoning
2 Bay Leaves
4 cloves Garlic
1 Onion
salt/pepper
red pepper flakes
olive oil
Dash of beer

Pour some oil in a frying pan and add sausage. Cook. When mostly done, add half can of tomato paste and a dash of beer to help thin out the paste (could also use wine or water). Mix all together and finish cooking. Remove from heat.

In saucepan, add oil, garlic and onions. Cook until onions are soft. Add the tomatoes, sausage mixture, remaining paste & all seasonings. Mix well.

Bring to a boil and simmer/light boil it to reduce water for 20 or so minutes - until sauce looks a little thicker.

If you have bread on hand, it tastes great sopping up any leftover paste/sausage juice in the pan you cooked the sausage in. So good in fact, that after I run out of tomatoes I may try to make a sauce based on sausage, tomato paste and beer.

Once sauce is done serve over any short pasta with a side of bread and a glass of wine and enjoy.

Sliced Fresh Tomatoes

Freshly grown tomatoes are 100x better than the cheapo ones you can buy at the supermarket. Although, some of the heirloom tomatoes they now sell aren't half bad, they cost 2 arms and a leg.

So if you happen to have some freshly grown, vine ripened tomatoes, or some expensive heirloom tomatoes, use this simple recipe to savor their taste.

Olive Oil
Balsamic or Red Wine Vinegar
Salt (optional)
Pepper
Italian Seasoning
Garlic Powder (optional)
Avocado (optional)
Fresh Mozzarella (optional)
Cucumbers (optional)

This recipe primarily for tomatoes, but can add avocado, fresh mozzarella and/or cucumbers.

Slice tomatoes to quarter inch thick. Lay flat on a plate.

Drizzle olive oil over tomatoes. Drizzle vinegar over tomatoes. Don't put too much of either of these - you can always add more. Add just a dash of salt, some fresh ground pepper and a light sprinkle of Italian Seasoning & Garlic Powder. (goes over avocado, fresh mozzarella, and or cucumbers too).

Can be either eaten warm or cold. If you have cucumbers, i recommend cold. Otherwise the choice is up to you. Simply place in refridge for 20-30 minutes and you're good to go.

Zucchini Bread with Raisins Recipe

I make zucchini bread different nearly every time, just to mix things up. Chocolate chips, raisins, cranberries, other fruit, white flour, wheat flour, cinnamon, and other spices can be changed. For my first loaf of the year, this is what i used:

Ingredients

2 eggs, beaten
1 1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups grated fresh zucchini
2/3 cup melted unsalted butter
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 dash salt
3+ cups whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup dried raisins

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Add zucchini and melted butter. While mixing, sprinkle baking soda and salt over the mixture.

Stir in the whole wheat flour, 1 cup at a time. Add more if looks too thin.

Mix in the cinnamon, nutmeg and raisins.

Pour mixture in one lightly greased 5 by 9 inch loaf pan. Start checking for doneness at 45-50 minutes. Bread is done when a wooden toothpick inserted in to the center comes out clean.

Cool in pan for 10 minutes then transfer to wire rack.

Zucchini Pie

Zucchini Pie an old favorite of mine. When I was a kid, I used to eat around the Zucchini. I'm still not a huge zucchini fan, but since I plant it in my garden and get 50 or so, I end up eating a lot of it. I'm making this tonight with a side of grilled zucchini, followed up with some zucchini bread for dessert (recipes coming soon).

Zucchini Pie is really easy to make.

Preheat oven to 400

Simply mix 1 cup sliced zucchini, 1 cup sliced tomato, 1/2 onion (sliced) & 1/3 cup parmesan cheese in bowl. Dump mixture evenly over 9 inch pie pan.

In the now empty bowl, whisk together 2 eggs, 2/3 cup milk, 3/4 cup Bisquick, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper. Pour mixture over veggies in pie pan.

Bake 35 minutes or until it passes the toothpick, fork or knife test. Let cool a bit, then eat it - even the zucchini.


P.S. - the great thing about baking a meal is that while it's in the oven, you can clean everything up. By the time this is done, the kitchen can be spotless.

All Purpose BBQ Rub

Got this from a beer magazine. Great for Pork, Fish and Chicken. I've had it on pork and chicken; it was amazing on the pork - decent on the chicken.

Can half recipe if needed:
3/4 cup paprika
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 sugar
3 tbsp ground cumin
3 tbsp ground coriander
3 tbsp mustard powder
2 tsp dried ground sage
2 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp ground mixed peppercorns
1 tsp ground cayenne pepper

Mix all in bowl and place in sealed dry container. To use, rub into meat/fish

Hummus

I've tried several different hummus recipes, and I've never made anything better than what I can buy at the store...until today. Below, the best hummus recipe I have yet to find:

2 cans (15.5 oz) garbanzo beans
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (2 lemons)
1/4 cup tahini
2+ tablespoons olive oil
1+ tablespoon coarse salt
2-4 cloves of garlic
parsley
pinch of cayenne pepper

Reserve 1/4 cup garbanzo bean juice, rinse beans.
Blend all ingredients together in a blender.

Eat.