Summer Harvest String Beans and Tomatoes

So here I am with all these veggies just dreaming up different ways to cook them only to find out that people have already done them. Sometimes it feels the same way with my music. But then all you have to do is realize that anything you do has you in it and can't be copied. So here are my beans. Uniquely mine and uniquely delicious.

Serves 10 as side dish
You will need

• 1 lb. String beans (strung)
• 4 or 5 large ripe tomatoes
• Fresh Herbs
• Crushed red pepper
• Salt
• Oil

Start this one like many of my recipes in a large cast iron skillet. For my regular readers you may be beginning to understand exactly how much stuff gets cooked in this skillet. After you string the beans and cut up the tomatoes you can begin heating it up. Throw some veggie oil in the bottom and wipe away the excess with a towel.

When the oil gets smoking hot add your beans and cover with a splatter guard.

Stir pretty consistently until they are starting to get some pretty little brown spots.

Turn down the heat to med.

Next you add all those tomatoes. All those pretty pretty tomatoes. Let those stew with the beans constantly stirring until they start to break down.

Now it's time to add some herbs. You want about 1/2 a cup of various fresh herbs like these.

Only I want you to chop em up fine and only use half of them at this point.

well we're almost there. You can add a little water or checken stock if the pan gets dry. The beans should be simmering in a bit of liquid.

That's

• Basil
• Thyme
• Oregano
• Parsley

Now you just serve it up in a nice bowl and pour the beans and tomatoes in. Top with the rest of the herbs and some red and black pepper.

Yum.

Party Chopped Salad or Tuna Salad Salad

So I looked in my fridge the other day and realized that I had a few extra heads of lettuce.

Oh crap. what in the world am I going to do with all this lettuce. Wait wait... It's memorial day weekend, I'll be going to parties and cooking out all weekend! Why don't I attack these veggies like Vince Shlomi  and see what comes out.


You will need (and I'm not putting amounts this time, however much you want is how much you should chop up. Otherwise I'd end up with a recipe that serves 40)  :P


For the Salad

• Lettuce
• Carrots
• Celery
• Tomato
• Vidalia Onion (it's just sweeter)
• Yellow Pepper
• Chick Peas
• Sunflower Seeds
• Croutons See the bottom of the tomato soup post on how to make these

For the Tuna Salad

• Canned tuna (I like the albacore)
• Celery
• Carrot
• Scallions
• Spicy green pepper (Jalapeno or Serrano or both)
• Red wine vinegar
• Mayo
• salt/pepper

For the dressing

• 1/2 cup Olive oil
• 1/2 cup balsamic
• handful fresh herbs
• handful toasty nuts (whatever you like)

 Ok so some more knife skills practice. Chop the lettuce up into 1 - 1.5 inch squares. Don't try and be anal just cut lengthwise a few times and then chop the other direction.

You're going to want to cut up all the veggies into generally bite size pieces. Basically nothing bigger than 2".

I shaved up some carrots with the peeler I mentioned on the other post. You can cut them however you like

 Cut up everything put it in a big container with a lid and shake to toss.

Ok. So it's time to whip up the tuna Salad.

Take the tuna out o the can. For this recipe I used 3 cans of Albacore tuna.

Squeeze the juice out of the can so we can get the tuna to absorb some of the other flavors we will be working with.

Chop up into tiny bits some of all of the following.

• Carrots 
• Shallots Scallions (whoops)
• Celery, 
• Hot peppers.

It should look something like this.




Now you can put together the wet ingredients. You need about a cup of mayo (feel free to substitute 1/2 cup with yogurt for less calories) 1/4 cup red wine vinegar, Salt / pepper. And mix.
Taste it. Yum. Now what does it need? I dunno. you make the adjustments you ninny.
So, last but not least

For the dressing
Chop all your herbs, Toast and chop all your nuts and combine with the oil and vinegar in a jar with a lid. Shake pour and enjoy.

Here's what it ended up looking like...

Yum.
And here is a picture of me and Stef and what we ended up looking like before the party on Saturday.

Woah.

Springtime Vegetable Confetti Pasta Salad

Mirror mirror on the wall, what is the freshest pasta salad of all.

This salad is really tasty and has more veggies than pasta when you finish so maybe this is a veggie salad with some pasta. All of the veggies that I list are recommended but as always if you don't like something or thin of something else that you want to add, you are the boss in your kitchen.


You will need
Veggies

• Carrots
• Celery
• Vidalia onion
• Broccoli stalks
• Green/Red pepper
• Roma tomatoes
• Fresh corn

For the rest

• Ditalini Pasta
• Mayo
• Plain Yogurt
• Red wine vinegar
• Salt / Pepper

 So this recipe really lets you work on your knife skills. In other words, be prepared to chop some major veggies. After you wash every thing and peel what's appropriate. Toss your broccoli stalks in a steamer and let them go for 5-7 minutes.


They need to be peeled around the outside to avoid any really tough bits.

Besides cooking the pasta, that is the only other thing you will need to cook for this recipe. The rest is raw. (Raw=Healthier)


So cut up all your veggies the same size as the pasta that you are using so that every thing will be farily consistent throughout. I use Barilla Ditalini because it is well... perfect for this salad. You can boil the pasta whenever you want, keep it nice and aldente would you? Rinse in cold water when it's done. Set aside.

So a couple of cups of each veggie is going to do you right for this recipe. There is no perfect ratio or anything. Cut more of what you like it will start to look like fun stuff in no time.

For the tomatoes, seed them with a spoon so you are only cutting up the outer flesh.


This will keep the pasta from getting soupy.  This will also give you some tomato ammunition for any pasta sauce that you want to make in the future. (foreshadowing?!!)

So now that we have all our veggies cut and the pasta ready to be thrown in.

I really just wanted to get to these pictures.

Looks pretty good to me.So all you need to do now is dress it. How about 2/3 cup mayo 2/3 cups yougurt and 1/3 cup red wine vinegar. 2 tbsp pepper and 2 tbsp salt. Himalayan sea salt is the shiznit but sea salt or kosher salt will work just fine. Mix that all up and add it to the salad. And there you go.

Yum.

I entered this side dish in the side-dish showdown on  Cinnamon and Spice