Red Pepper Relish

Broccolli Salad

Ingredients

• 2-3 broccoli crowns, just the florets, finely chopped (5-6 cups)
• 10 bacon slices, crisp-cooked and crumbled (I used about ½ C of the precooked bacon from Macey’s -found by the ham in the meat dept.- remove the fat, chop it up, and microwave it until crisp)
• 1/3c red onion, diced
• 1/3c sunflower seeds
• 1/3c dried cranberries, chopped (golden raisins are equally good)
• 1/2c mayonnaise
• 2T apple cider vinegar
• 2t sugar (I doubled to 4t)
• salt and pepper
• Add 1 C bow tie pasta cooked to package directions

Instructions

1. To a salad bowl, add broccoli, bacon, onion, seeds, and cranberries. In a small bowl, mix mayo, vinegar, and sugar. Pour dressing mixture over salad and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve (at least one hour).

Notes

This serves 4-6.

I use about half the amount of mayo as other broccoli salad recipes. Feel free to increase the amount if you prefer your salad more dressed.

Basil and Tomato Tart

Have I got a delicious recipe for you!!  I made this tart last night, and it was so delicious.  It was such a shame some of it had to go to waste, since Jason and I can only eat so much.  I didn't think it would be good left over.  I will definitely be making this again.  I got the recipe from a Lehi ward blog.  The post author is Mandi Bagley (who I don't know), and I already left a comment to thank her for sharing such a yummy recipe.

Ingredients:

1 unbaked pie crust

1-½ C. shredded mozzarella cheese

5 Roma or 4 medium tomatoes

1 C. fresh basil leaves, chopped finely (can substitute 1 T. dry basil)

4 cloves garlic, finely minced

½ C. mayo

¼ C. grated Parmesan cheese

⅛ t. ground white pepper

Directions:

Bake pie crust according to package directions, or about 7-10 minutes until light golden brown. Remove from oven and sprinkle bottom of crust with ½ C. of the mozzarella cheese.  Dice tomatoes and drain on paper towels, eliminating as many seeds as possible. Arrange tomatoes atop melted cheese in the crust. In a food processor or blender, combine basil and garlic and process until coarsely chopped. Sprinkle over tomatoes. In a medium mixing bowl combine remaining mozzarella cheese, mayo, parmesan cheese and pepper.  Spoon cheese mixture over basil and tomatoes, spreading evenly to cover the top.  Bake in a 375 degree oven for 35-40 minutes or until top is golden and bubbly. If crust gets too brown, cover just the crust with strips of foil.  Serve warm.  If desired, sprinkle w/ basil leaves.  Makes 8 appetizers or 4 main dish servings.

Tomato Basil Soup

I tried a recipe for Tomato Basil Soup today, and I didn't like it at all.  Way too bland and boring.  But I wanted to give it another go, so I went to Food Network.com and found a recipe that seemed simple and tasty.  So for the second time today, I made a Tomato Basil Soup recipe with some additions of my own, and I am very pleased with the result.  I added the garlic, the cayenne, and the cream, plus I did some blending the recipe didn't call for.  I also topped the recipe with cheese--such a must, I thought.  It turned out really delicious, and it's perfect for cold weather. 

Ingredients:

2 T. olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

3 cloves (1 T.) garlic, minced

4 C. vegetable or chicken stock (I used 2 chicken bouillon cubes and 4 C. water)

4 C. diced canned tomatoes (or 1 28-oz. can is probably fine too)

¼ t. cayenne pepper

Salt and pepper to taste

1 C. losely-packed, fresh basil leaves

½ C -1 C. heavy cream (I used 1C. but use less or omit entirely to lower fat content)

Freshly grated Parmesan cheese for the top (or use grated Romano or even Gruyère—any cheese really, but I like Parmesan with this recipe)

Directions:

Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium heat.  Sauté the onion, stirring often until softened, about 10 minutes.  Add the garlic half way through.  Add about half of the stock, then pour the mixture into a blender.  Pulse the mixture a few times until onion pieces are fairly small (this step can be omitted, but my kids don’t like things too chunky, especially onions).  Return the blended mixture to the same pot, and add the remaining stock.  Now place canned tomatoes in the blender and pulse, but don’t puree (you want a little texture).  Pour all of the blended tomatoes except maybe a cup or so into the pot.  Now add the basil leaves to the blender and pulse with the cup or so of tomato, but again, do not puree.  (You will add this last cup of tomato and basil to the pot at the very end.)  To the pot of soup, add cayenne, and salt and pepper to taste.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer about 10-15 minutes.  Stir in final blender contents, and add the desired amount of cream.  Heat through.  Serve immediately topped with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.  Delicious with crusty French bread!

Butternut Squash and Carrot Soup

This is the recipe I blogged about when I did my taste test with two other French squash soups.  It's very much an "every day" soup, meaning it's healthy, good for you, and low cal, so you could eat it often.  If you wanted to make it a little richer, you could double the cream content.  I got the recipe from Kim McCrary's blog "Small and Simple Things."

Ingredients:
3C. peeled, diced butternut squash (about 1 small)
2C. thinly sliced carrot (4 medium)
3/4C. diced onion
1 T. butter
2 14-oz. cans chicken broth (I used chicken bullion and water)
1/4 t. ground white pepper
1/4 t. ground nutmeg
1/4C. half and half (I used heavy cream; it's all I could find)

Directions:
Since I can't buy squash already prepped from Costco, I baked mine in the oven for about an hour to make it soft enough to scoop out of the skin the second time I made this soup.  (Peeling a raw butternut squash is no small feat, but that's really what the recipe says to do.)  Anyway, cook squash, carrot and onion in butter over medium heat, about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add broth.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, covered, for about 30 minutes, until veggies are tender.  Cool slightly.

Blend mixture in a blender until smooth.  Return to saucepan.  Add pepper and nutmeg.  Heat just to boiling.  Add half and half (or cream) and heat through.  Serve with fresh bread (a baguette dipped in this soup is beyond yummy!)  Kim served it with walnut pumpkin muffins.

Spinach Dip

This was given to me by a parent of a student for Christmas one year on a cute plate with veggies and bread.  It was ssooooo good.  I think it's on the back of the Knorr package too.

1 c mayo
1 c sour cream
frozen chopped spinach
1 small can water chestnuts
knorr leak soup mix
chopped garlic
5 chopped green onions

Mix all ingredients together, let sit for at least 1/2 hour.  Hollow out a round sourdough load, pour dip in bowl part.  Serve with torn up pieces of sour dough break.  Makes 2 loaves.

Variations:  1 1/2 c mayo, 1 1/2 c sour cream, no water chestnuts

Guacamole

Given to me by Tiffany Pierce.  Very yummy!  I can't remember, is an avocado a veggie?

3/4 T salt
1 c chopped onion
2 T chopped, seeded jalapeno's
3 T chopped fresh cilantro
6 ripe Hass avocados
3/4 c chopped, seeded tomatoes (discard juice)
tortilla chips

Put salt, 1/3 of onion and 1 T of both the jalapeno and cilantro in a mortar and pestle. Mash to a juicy paste.  Put in a bowl.

Cube the avocado's and add to bowl.  Mix without mashing them.

Add remaining onion, jalapeno and cilantro along with tomatoes.  season to taste with more salt if needed.  Serve immediately.

Praline Sweet Potatoes

Doug has reminded me many times that I have to make this again for Thanksgiving.  It's his favorite part of the whole meal.
Given to me by Jessica Slade, friend from Alabama.

3 c cooked sweet potatoes
(I bake them for 2 hours at 350 degrees and the skin just pulls right off)
3/4 c sugar
1/2 c butter-melted
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 c evaporated milk

Mix together and pour into casserole dish.

For topping, combine:

1 pound brown sugar
1/2 c self rising flour
1 c chopped pecans
1/2 c melted butter

Mix until crumbly and pour over top of potato mixture. Bake 25-30 minutes at 325 degrees.

Mom's Cole Slaw

Also known as English Cole Slaw.

Cabbage, chopped in thin slices
grated onion
4 carrots grated
******
3/4 c sugar
3/4 c vinegar
3/4 c oil
1 T salt

boil, pour over vegetables and cool in sealed container.

Cucumber and Onion Salad

I got this recipe from Tiffany Downey.

1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar
some water
salt and pepper
red onions
cucumbers

Mix above ingredients together and seal in a container.  Chill in fridge to marinade.  I sometimes use different vinegars like red wine or apple and it still tastes great!