Get Grillin'

For my tomato display, I sliced up a bunch of beefsteak tomatoes and arranged them in a stoneware pan. For garnish, I artfully arranged some leftover romaine and rosemary springs. The tomatoes looked like someone had spent half of a day slaving over them, but it was really only 30 minutes. I must say, this barbecue was quite the success.

Now that its officially summer, people have begun inviting friends and neighbors over to grill and enjoy burgers. Unfortunately, most of the people who do the inviting become overwhelmed with the thought of having a large amount of friends over and immediately rush to the caterer to chop up veggies and put them on a tray with some dip. And they also roll out the money to pay some guy to slice tomatoes and lettuce and artfully arrange them so people can put them on their burgers. It is time to end this nonsense. You, yes you, can slice tomatoes and prepare lettuce in an artful and beautiful way that cost tons less than catering, and you can have quality control so you can choose to use all organic or local produce. By using local and organic produce, you are helping sustain your local environment and your local economy. Plus, the produce will be a lot fresher. What a way to grill.

For my lettuce display, I washed 3 bunches of organic romaine and chopped each leaf in half. Then I arranged them in a shallow, wooden salad bowl. Simple enough. And to make it look beautiful, I added lemon slices and a sprig of rosemary to the front of the lettuce display. Looks catered, taste catered, but doesn’t cost catered.

crust less tomato and spinach quiche

this magical egg dish can be a breakfast, lunch, or dinner. once you master the recipe you can mix up the fillings to include anything from mushrooms to rutabaga. whatever strikes your fancy. for this version, you need:
6 eggs
One cup skim milk
6 cocktail tomatoes
2 handfuls spinach
Choice of herbs
½ cup shredded cheese

Crack 6 eggs into a bowl and whisk together with 1 cup milk and a dash of your choice of herb. Chop tomatoes into bite sized chunks and rip up the spinach into similar sized chunks. Spray a pie pan with nonstick spray. Line the pie pan with the chopped tomatoes and spinach. Pour whisked eggs over tomatoes and spinach filling. Sprinkle the cheese over the top. Bake at 375’ for 30 – 40 mins.

Kale Tomato Soup

-2 bunches kale

- 1 bunch collards

- 1 small fennel

- 28 oz can of peeled tomatoes

- 14.5 oz can of petite diced tomatoes

1 big box vegetable stock

Empty cans of tomatoes into a big soup pot. Put on a low heat. First, rinse off the collards and rip them up into lettuce sized bites. Throw them in the pot. Then rinse off the kale and rip it up as well. Add a little bit of heat to the pot (my stove is on a 1-7 scale, 7 being high, put it at about a 4) then chop up the fennel into little chunks, reminiscent of cubed cheese. Add them to the pot and pump up the heat. The collards and kale will cook down a bit. When they cook down, add the spices you are feeling to the pot ( I did paprika, cayenne and black pepper) but whatever you want works. It takes about 15 mins or so for the kale to cook down. Then put in a bowl, grab a big spoon, and try not to burn your mouth!

Spicey Spectrum Saladz

so this is colorful, spicy, delicious, healthy and pretty. and if you feed it to people, you will look smart for knowing about a different kind of pepper! a poblano pepper! its a little hotter than a bell pepper, yet still delish. so lets start off with the dressing first shall we, whisk together
juice of 1 lime
juice of half of a lemon
drizzle of EVOO (until you have enough liquid there to call it a dressing)
few drops of Tabasco
finely chopped cilantro leaves.
once that is all nicely whisked, chop up equal amounts of yellow bell pepper, cherry tomatoes and poblano pepper. (it exist, if you cant seem to find one at your local super market, then your stupid. ask the guy there in the apron to help you find it). pour the dressing over the chopped veggies in a bowl and pepper (cracked pepper, ya know the one that's married to the salt) and cheese till taste. i also decided to throw some lettuce in because i like my salads to contain lettuce. the end!

'MATOES SALAD

This is one of my all time fave salads. its beyond easy. and u can switch up the ingredients depending on whats in the fridge. so i use arugula, tomatoes and newman's own Caesar dressing to start. from there anything from pesto to taco meat can be added. (i dont know why one would want to add taco meat, but i could be done). any type of 'matos (tomatoes, duah) can be used. the grape ones can just be washed and tossed in, bigger ones cubed or if i am feeling indulgent, i will slice up some fresh heirloom 'matoes from the local farmers market. (its almost spring, they will be out soon!) arugula is a nice spicy lettuce. if you dont have any, iceberg would work too. the mixed lettuce with the purple leaves in it (mixed field greens i think is the correct term) dont work that well, but its do-able. if you dont have newmans own Caesar dressing, look for another not creamy Caesar dressing. (key point, NOT CREAMY). otherwise whisk together 2 parts olive oil, 1 part vinegar (balsamic or cider) a sprinkle of parm and salt 'n' pepa. its 10 pm on a Sunday night, and writing this is making me crave salad. until next time.