Swiss Butter Lettuce Salad

This is one of those recipes that I crave as the weather is starting to get warmer. It is a tell tale sign that my body believes that Spring is here. My sweaters go back into the closet, I start running outdoors again, and this salad starts making a regular appearance. You will need:

2 large heads of butter lettuce
1 10 ounce bag of fresh spinach
1 can of artichoke hearts, drained
1/4 red onion chopped
2 roma tomato chopped
1 cup of sliced mushrooms
3/4 cup of fresh grated Swiss cheese
1/2 pound bacon, cooked and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 cup drained cottage cheese,

Dressing:
3/4 cup of sugar
1 Tbs brown or Dijon Mustard
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups of the oil of your choice (I like olive but it does make your dressing a little more dense)

Start by tearing your butter lettuce and spinach and placing it in a large salad bowl. Never chop your leafy greens with a knife as the sharpness perforates the cells and they basically go limp and wilty. We are going for a fresh crisp salad here. Now add the remaining salad ingredients on top and cover until you are ready to serve. For the dressing combine all ingredients into your blender and let your blender run for about 30 seconds to emulsify everything together.  Don't you just love homemade dressings? I do. They are so much fresher tasting and preservative free plus you have the ability to play with it and add less or more of those ingredients you love. Once you are ready to serve the salad, pour the dressing on and toss everything together. I'm sure you will love this gem of a salad as much as I do!

Hearty Harvest Marinara Sauce

I preface this recipe by saying this sauce is a very big deal around here. It will make a mess and it will take several hours. However it has an amazing flavor and it's a great recipe to have in the freezer to pull out before work or life in the morning when you know you are going to have a busy filled day. It also seems to make the Winter go quicker and you still feel like you have some vine ripened magic happening in your snowy backyard. If you have children, they will be none the wiser that they are eating something healthy as the sauce is smooth because the veggies are pureed. This recipe makes between 12-18 quarts depending on the size of your tomatoes and how long you let it simmer down. To all those of you who want something to do with all the tomatoes, peppers and zucchini's from your garden at harvest time, here you go! I myself got all my veggies and fresh herbs at one of the larger local farmers market all for about $25. You will need:

40-50 garden fresh tomatoes

2 - 8 oz. package mushrooms 

1 large fresh garlic bulb

1/3 cup kosher or sea salt (or more depending on taste)

1 Tablespoon pepper

2 tsp red pepper flakes, optional 

8-10 large unpeeled carrots 

1 bunch celery

4 medium white onions 

1 large zuchini
1 large yellow squash

3 Tablespoons olive oil

5 Tablespoons fresh basil - save for very end!

2 Tablespoons sugar

4 cans tomato paste for thickening

I also added 1 tsp. dried oregano

1 tsp. dried parsley

1 tsp. dried thyme 

1 tsp. dried rosemary

All veggies and spices and their quantities are optional. Use however much of whatever you have! You will also need two large pots, a powerful blender (I used a Blentec) and several ziplock quart and gallon size freezer bags. I filled the quart sized bags for when I knew there would only be 2-3 of us enjoying a meal or for a pizza, and the gallon sized bags for when we are entertaining a larger group or wanted leftovers.

Use a food processor or blender to puree all the veggies, onions and garlic except the tomatoes which yes I know are technically a fruit -save these for later. This will most likely take several blenders full. I gave the washed veggies a rough chop, then put them in the blender with one to three tomatoes at the bottom (The less tomatoes the better at this point as you are going to sauté the veggies after this) The tomatoes at the bottom usually gave the blender just enough liquid to chop the rest of it. For a meatier sauce, don't puree your veggies, just chop them finely.

Once the veggies are all pureed, put them into a pot with the olive oil and let them sauté over medium to medium high heat for about 15 minutes. Add all the seasonings. Then equally separate the pureed veggies into two pots. To start your tomatoes, I would wash them, cut out their belly-buttons and cut them in half. Fill the blender and puree.  Also start adding a little of the tomato paste to your blenders full of tomatoes so that it mixes in well. If you don't do this and add it directly to the stock pot, it will clump and eventually scorch. Again, pour equal amounts of tomato puree into each pot. Stir well and allow sauce to simmer for 2-4 hours on low without the lid, stirring at least once every 10-20 minutes. I say this because one time I was making this and I left it for about 45 minutes without stirring to come back to stuck on the bottom scorched nastiness that left that stock pot of sauce ruined. Sauce should reduce about one third. Add the fresh basil right before serving or freezing. Taste the sauce to make sure it doesn't need any more salt/sugar/seasoning. (If you are using fresh tomatoes, you may need more salt/sugar to balance the acid.) Let sauce cool then freeze in bags/tupperware for later meals.

You can also add up to 4 pounds of ground turkey or italian sausage, which I didn't. By all means, you can add it, or any other ground meat to your sauce. I figure it takes about 3 minutes to brown ground beef/turkey/sausage, and sometimes, I just prefer no meat (like if I am using the sauce for pizza or calzone). The best part? It tastes awesome!  Enjoy!

Petite Heirloom Tomatoes, Caprese Style with a Twist

Here in Utah we have a few big farmers markets that are well known and decently expensive but we also have a few diamond in the rough farmers markets hidden in the small suburbs or towns . Well the neighborhood where I grew up started a farmers market this past year, only in the fall and I love it. I got a nice basket of baby heirloom tomatoes for three bucks, fresh basil for a dollar, and some other great finds. After eating many of the baby heirloom tomatoes like candy I decided that I would get some fresh mozzarella and that we would do a caprese salad but at our house instead of olive oil we use balsamic and some times give a gently squeeze of a lemon on top as well. So very simply you will need:

petite heirloom tomatoes (the best kind of all :)
fresh mozzarella sliced
washed basil
sea salt
fresh ground pepper
balsamic vinegar
a small lemon half (optional)

Basically wash the tomatoes and basil, slice the mozzarella, and the cheese basil, then tomatoes on top. Finish with a gentle squeeze of lemon if you like the flavor of citrus and then drizzle balsamic vinegar and dust with salt and pepper. Simple, easy, clean snack or appetizer that screams summer is at an end and the harvest is upon us. Enjoy!

Twice 'Baked' Corn on the Cob

In the summer we like to barbecue with my siblings. It's relatively fast, you keep the heat outside, and the food is always great. One thing that finds it's way to all of our family BBQ's is twice baked corn on the cob. It's another relatively simple recipe but when friends taste this corn their reaction is always the same. Their eyes get big, you hear a big Mmmm, and they look down at the corn wondering what you did to make it so tasty.

All you need is:

6-8  very fresh corn still in their husks (I prefer the salt and pepper variety of corn)

1/2 cup of fresh squeezed lime juice (approximately 3 regular sized limes)

1/2 cup of olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

That's it! Shuck the corn, boil it in water for 10 minutes, while the corn is boiling mix together the olive oil and fresh lime juice, sometimes its easiest to do this in the blender so it emulsifies well. You can more easily extract the lime juice by cutting the lime in half and putting them in the microwave cut side up for 15-20 seconds until almost warm before you try to squeeze them. Then using a pastry brush baste and bath the boiled corn cobs in the lime mixture before throwing it on a medium heat grill. Rotate corn every few minutes until grill lines appear all the way around the cob. You can continue to baste it as it grills. Yes, these babies are eaten how they come off the grill. No need to add butter, the lime and olive oil does the trick and gives it a unique delicious flavor. Salt and pepper to your liking. This corn will melt in your mouth. Enjoy!