something for everyone...

 Egg salad in a Toast Cup

So my husband loves deviled eggs, but egg salad, not so much! Who knew?

I watched an episode of Jamie Deen's new show on Food Network the other day and he made Chicken Salad in Toast Cups. I had already boiled eggs, so I made egg salad first. The chicken is cooling in the refrigerator now, and I will definitely try his recipe!

Toast cups are simple...butter your bread and squish it in a muffin tin, bake at 350 until golden. Add your filling and enjoy. I made scrambled eggs and cheese for my boys. You'll see that post next Monday!

Egg salad

3 boiled eggs

1/4 c Duke's Mayonnaise

1 Tmustard with horseradish or whole grain mustard

celery, sliced and cut thin

green onion, sliced

salt & pepper

celery seed

parsley

paprika

Mix and chill til ready to serve.

 My husband got sent to work with 'street tacos', 
homemade salsa in the little bird, apples, 
and spinach salad with the last tomato:(

               

  Park fun Bento

I saw a couple bentos like this, 
so I tried my own deli ham, salami, muenster and havarti roll ups. 
The bottom layer had red grapes. 
My big boy shared this with me!

Used in this lunch


I'm joining 
Miz Helen for Full Plate Thursday
Rattlebridge Farm for Foodie Friday

Meeting the neighbors

We had two neighbor families over this weekend. One family was bringing salad and beer, the other wine and dessert. I've got great neighbors! So instead of setting each place with glasses, I set up a drink bar. I had mint lime water and basil lemonade in the two dispensers. I had mason jars for the kids and an eclectic mix of Mexican cobalt wine stems and glasses for the adults.

The parents sat at the table and the kids sat around the island. We ended up putting the chips and salsas at our table! Edible Centerpiece...yum!

 We had slow roasted pork tacos, cucumber salad, black bean salad, fresh and roasted salsas, watermelon, tossed salad and cake.

It was fun getting to know old and new friends!

I'm joining the Tablescaper for Seasonal Sundays 

Picnic Style Dinner

 It's so, so hot here...as in it got up to 103 the other day, and has lingered around 98. ugh. So our Summer Picnic Dinner is taking place inside where it's a cool 74 degrees!

I used some Melamine plates I got years ago from World Market with a birthday coupon. I used mix and match Mexican Cobalt glasses and added the straws since my boys were eating this meal:)

A knife and fork to cut the grilled sausages and a tan floral napkin to compliment the colors in the runner. The napkins are one of my clearance Target purchases. 

I used my rattan chargers from Walmart and my Tested By Fire handmade pottery serving dishes. I love mixing things since I don't have the full set. 

The centerpiece is a beautiful bowl (World Market) of garden fresh vegetables.

We ate 

Grilled Sausages 

Summer Salad

Grilled Corn

Watermelon

Fresh Salsa & Chips 

 The Perfect Summer Salad

Since not everyone loves tomatoes and cucumbers and feta, 

I separate them.

Just squeeze a half a lime, salt and pepper and enjoy! 

 Fresh Garden Salsa

Tomatoes

Serranos and Jalapenos

5 Garlic gloves

parsley

salt 

pepper

Juice of 4-5 limes

Put everything in your food processor and pulse. To make one large mason jar, I used about 8 Roma tomatoes and 4 peppers. Eat within a week. 

 I'm joining

Cuisine Kathleen for Let's Dish

BNOTP for Tablescape Thursday

Miz Helen for Full Plate Thursday

RattleBridge Farm for Foodie Friday

cooking and canning

Summer has come and gone, still hot, but school starts for most tomorrow. I've been canning all summer. It started out with strawberry jam. We picked strawberries in Fredericksburg. Then my dad's garden overflowed with jalapenos and mine with tomatoes so I started making salsa. My uncle gave me 3 bags of frozen fresh picked figs so fig preserves were on the menu. Then we went back to Fredericksburg with our church preschool group and picked peaches...so you guessed it peach preserves. My last attempt at canning something is ZACUSCA! It's a Romanian spread make of roasted red peppers, roasted eggplant, tomato bouillon and cooked onions.

Chipotle Salsa

10 roasted jalapenos (in the oven or on a wrought iron skillet til there are black)

2 large cans of whole tomatoes

2 large onions

3-4 garlic cloves

salt

pepper

garlic powder

onion powder

oregano

parsley

Put everything in the food processor til it's the consistency you want, then cook it in a large pot on a slow boil and can it.

Fresh tomato Salsa

10 blistered jalapenos

8-10 overripe tomatoes (if your tomatoes aren't overripe and juicy, then add a small can of tomatoes to the pot)

2 large onions

3-4 garlic cloves

salt

pepper

garlic powder

onion powder

oregano

parsley

Put everything in the food processor til it's the consistency you want, then cook it in a large pot on a slow boil and can it. (Don't overcook fresh salsa...just a quick boil, then can it...not sure how long it will keep...we eat it fast and give it away so not to spoil.)

Salsa Ranchera

10 jalapenos

4 tomatillos (that's all I had from my uncle)

8 overripe tomatoes

1 large can of tomatoes

2 large onions

3-4 garlic cloves

salt

pepper

garlic powder

onion powder

oregano

parsley

This is a cooked salsa. I put everything in my dutch oven first and cooked it, til then onions were soft, the tomatillos melted away, the tomato skin came off (which I discarded) etc...it was cooked. I put the hot mixture in my food processor (maybe that's what broke it! I doubt it. A plastic piece with a screw broke off so it leaked...a LOT!) You could process the mix and then cook it...but it's easier to see the 'doneness' of whole vegetables in my opinion.

After it's cooked, can it.

Each recipe makes about 8 small (8 oz jar) or 4 med-large jars.

Fresh Figs from my uncles garden...he gave me bags, so I made preserves. I used a recipe from epicurean.com
http://recipes.epicurean.com/recipe/15868/fig-preserves.html
I used half the sugar they called for and it was still very sweet and amazingly good!!!!

Here's the recipe...15 small red and yellow bell peppers roasted (you can use the jarred roasted red peppers, but much more expensive)...
9 eggplant (they were small, farm fresh from the Pearl market) roasted
2 onions chopped in food processor
Olive oil
Tomato Bouillon (I used one can of crushed tomatoes and one can water)
I roasted both the eggplant and peppers on cookie sheets in the oven on 425. Took the stems out of peppers, scraped the flesh of the eggplant and blended it in a food processor.

While eggplant and peppers are roasting, I put olive oil in the bottom of my dutch oven, added onions and browned them. Add tomato bouillon, salt, pepper, (my friend said to add bay leaf but I didn't have any) I added a little parsley, after eggplant and peppers are cooked and chopped in food processor, add to tomato mixture in pot. Cook for a while then spoon into jars. I think my peppers were a little charred, but I'm not sure that will change the flavor...