Summer Garden Veggie Medley

Summer Garden Veggie Medley

INGREDIENTS:

(No amounts given, just use amount needed for your family)

Yellow summer squash, peeled, seeded and cubed

Roma tomatoes, cored and cut in chunks

Red, yellow or green pepper, (or some of each), cut in chunks

Yellow or white onion, cut in chunks

Shredded fresh Parmesan cheese, (not the kind that comes in those plastic shakers)

Olive oil cooking spray, (or small amount of any oil)

Seasoned salt, oregano, black pepper

DIRECTIONS:

Grease or spray bottom of baking pan, (I used a 9x9 metal cake pan).  Put a layer of squash in the bottom and season lightly with spices.  Sprinkle with cheese. Top with a layer of each of the other vegetables, again season with spices and top with more cheese.

Bake at 400 degrees until veggies are heated through, cheese is melted and vegetables are done to your preference. 

I baked mine for 45 minutes and they were very tender, which is what I was aiming for.

You could easily substitute other kinds of squash.

Spinach Salad with Hot Lemon Bacon Dressing

Spinach Salad with Hot Lemon Bacon Dressing

This is a my take on Spinach salad.  It's not the healthiest salad choice you could make, but it is very tasty.  Makes two servings, but can easily be made to serve more.

Salad:

2 eggs

3 slices bacon

1 cup sliced yellow onion

3 cups fresh spinach, cleaned and dried

2 tbsp dried cranberries

Dressing:

1 tbsp bacon fat

1 1/2 tsp lemon juice, fresh is nice, but bottled works fine

3 tsp white sugar (you can increase or decrease this as you like)

Method:

1:   Place eggs in small saucepan and cover with water. Bring water to a boil, cover and remove from heat.  Let sit for 15 minutes.  Then drain, and run cold water over eggs in pan for a few minutes.  Set aside to cool.  Peel eggs and cut into slices or chop when cool.  I prefer them chopped up, but slices look a little nicer.

2:   Fry bacon in skillet, until crispy.  Remove to paper towels to drain and cool enough to handle.  Crumble when cool. Do not drain fat that is left in pan.

3:   Put 1 tbsp of bacon fat into a small saucepan and set aside for the dressing.

4:   There should be just a little bacon fat left in your skillet.  If there's a lot, remove most of it, so the skillet is just barely coated.  Add onions to skillet and cook over low heat, until soft, stirring occasionally.  I do not season the onions, but you could if you want.

6:  Divide spinach between two salad bowls. Top with warm onions, cranberries and crumbled bacon.

7:  For dressing:  add lemon juice and sugar to reserved bacon fat.  Heat over low heat just until sugar is dissolved.  (If you heat it too long, your dressing will solidify like fudge as it cools.)  As soon as dressing is finished, pour over salads and toss to coat.  (This may seem like too small of an  amount of dressing, but a little goes a long way.). Top salads with egg and serve immediately.

Oven Roasted Potatoes

I decided to grow some herbs this year.  I put one plant each, of oregano, thyme, parsley and basil, into a big pot and set it out on the back deck.  The plants look surprisingly attractive together, and are growing like weeds.  This is a recipe I devised to use up some of that bounty.

Ingredients:
4 or 5 medium sized redskin or Yukon gold potatoes
2 tsp olive oil
seasoned salt to taste
minced garlic to taste
good size bunch of fresh thyme, (strip leaves from the stems and discard the stems)

Method:
Preheat oven to 425.
Wash and cut potatoes into approximately half inch cubes.  Place into a bowl and toss with the olive oil.  Sprinkle with seasoned salt, minced garlic and fresh thyme leaves.  Toss again to distribute seasonings. Dump onto a cookie sheet sprayed with olive oil cooking spray. Spread potatoes in a single layer.  Bake at 425 for 15 minutes and turn potatoes.  Bake another  15 minutes or so , until potatoes are tender.
You could  cut larger cubes of potatoes, but baking time may be longer.

You can, of course use other types of potatoes, (although baking time may vary), and substitute dried thyme, for the fresh thyme.