Ranch Dressing, Please, Heavy on the Dill!

We ran out of ranch dressing a while back...  And, well, I just did not have it in me to run to the store that evening when I discovered I was out!  Dinner was on plates and headed to the table.  So, I did what I always do, and that was type "ranch dressing recipe" into my little search engine.  To be honest, it probably would have been faster to throw on shoes and drive the two blocks to the grocery store, but I figured "why put on shoes when I probably have all the ingredients...?!"  Plus, the store is usually a zoo around dinner time.

I found this lady's delightful ranch dressing recipe, and used what I had in my fridge.  That's what she'd do anyway, right?  So here's what I used, and I totally didn't measure...  I just scooped ingredients into my dressing thingy until it looked right and mixed it up:

Mayonnaise
Sour Cream
Milk
Fresh Green Onions
Dill (I can't get enough of this stuff!)
Pepper, lots of pepper
Cayenne Pepper
Dried Oregano
Dried Parsley
Fresh Garlic (pressed)
Salt

I stirred it up and tasted it, and poured it over our dinner that fateful night.  The hubby liked it, and I haven't bought it at the store since!  It's probably better for us anyway, right?  The salad pictured above includes fresh spinach, red bell pepper, feta cheese, leftover BBQ tri-tip, and of course, the dressing sprinkled with fresh ground pepper.  I served it with peas, corn and sourdough garlic toast.  I got the spinach and peas from a friend who was going out of town and couldn't use them before she left.  She got them from a local farm, and I have to say, they were really tasty!  The peas were still in the shell, so I had to pop them out and boil them, and that was a fun new experience.  I'm excited to change this recipe around and try using some more of my basil, that some may begin to consider a short tree!

Pesto Pizza

This post is in honor of my dear friend Linda who helped me remember that I hadn't posted about my pesto adventures!  It started a few months ago when I was perusing the fresh herbs at the local grocery store.  I saw a giant pack of basil that had to be kept closed with a rubber band.  I didn't know exactly how I planned to use it all at the time, but then I remembered PESTO.  Yum!  So I looked on one of my all time favorite recipe sites, and found this tasty pesto recipe.  I love that it uses toasted almonds instead of pine nuts because I usually have almonds on hand.   Since my first batch of pesto, I have found an even better way of keeping the basil fresh if I can't use it all right away...  I bought a plant at Trader Joe's for only $2.99.

What was I to do with all this fabulous pesto?  Of course, I would spread the pesto over pizza dough, and top it with cheese!  Ok, so, I have a secret to share.  I could honestly live on pizza...  breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack...  every day... for the rest of my life.  It was a weekly ritual growing up, pizza, every.Friday.night!  I just can't get enough of the stuff.  Making dough in my bread maker takes at least an hour, so I searched my files of quick recipes, and decided on a focaccia.

I tried this focaccia recipe in a December post, and I was less than satisfied with the flavor.  However, I always hear my husband's voice in my head saying "It's a good first attempt" when I make something that does not meet the expectations of my taste buds' standards.  So, I grabbed that giant mixer and set to work with the bread.  I don't really measure the olive oil, I just kind of get my hands oily and spread the dough pretty thin on a baking sheet.  I only sprinkle the tiniest bit of cayenne and parmesan across the top before baking.  I bake it for about 8 minutes before yanking it from the oven and spreading pesto, cheese and toppings over the lightly browned thin crust.  The pizza in the picture is only topped with pesto, mozzarella and parmesan, but I've used leftover BBQ chicken, olives, pineapple, mushrooms, feta, cheddar, and any other toppings I might have in the fridge that day.

So, there's the easiest, fastest way I have figured out to satisfy my craving for pizza, and use that basil!  While the Focaccia is baking, whip up that pesto, shred that cheese, and have dinner ready in under 30!

Basil, Tomato, & Mozzarella, Oh My!

I bought a basil plant at Trader Joe's a few weeks ago and it just loves my sunny kitchen window! So much so, that I'm actually running out of recipes for all those scrumptious leaves!

My hubby had a long day at work today so I thought I'd make this snack for his arrival home. It popped into my head while I was staring at my giant basil plant and contemplating what to do for my hubby to provide a calm home atmosphere... FOOD! A friend of mine made a similar arrangement when I went to her house one day, so I thought I'd try it out.

It's so simple, and very tasty on a summer evening: 3 Roma tomatoes, fresh mozzarella in water, and fresh basil. I sliced and layered them in the fun arrangement you see in the picture, drizzled them with balsamic vinegar and olive oil, and sprinkled the masterpiece with pepper and kosher salt.

On a side note...  My hubby bought me an iPhone for graduation, and I'm having so much fun taking pictures with it.  I tried posting this blog entry from my phone, but for some reason only the picture came through...  I'm still learning :)

For the Love of Olives

There is this amazing restaurant in the town that I grew up in that serves really yummy tapenade.  It's one of those things that I eat and think "ooh, I need a recipe for this" and then by the time I get home, I forget about it, and life goes on...  Well, not today!  I will  no longer miss out on the olives that olive-haters leave behind!  The coolest part about this recipe is that I learned how to roast red peppers too!  So with Kalamatas from good ol' Costco (yes, I have a GIANT jar in my fridge), a lemon from my tree and the experimental red pepper, I went to work.  Lemme tell ya...  It's pretty tasty!

The Tapenade Recipe
Roasting Red Peppers instructions

I tried the first suggestion of roasting the pepper on my stove-top...  Let's just say that someone as accident prone as me should not be playing with fire!  Next time I will use the broiler so as not to combat a flaming vegetable.  Since the article is long, here are the highlights and a variation of what I did.  You need a gas stove or bar-b-que:

1. Wash your pepper.
2. Broil red pepper in oven with door open (so flame stays lit), turning the pepper with tongs so that it gets burned evenly.  You want the outside to be black all over.
3. As soon as it is done, stick it in a bowl with a plate over the top and allow to cool completely.  Do not let the steam out!  I let mine sit for about an hour and a half.
4. Get out a bowl and place a small-mesh strainer over it.
5. Take a paring knife and slice the first layer of skin lengthwise down the pepper.
6. Cut around the stem and pull the stem and seeds out and place them in the strainer letting juices drip into the bowl.
7. "Open the pepper like a book" and remove any excess seeds.  Carefully scrape the burned skin off of the pepper and into strainer.  Be careful, it gets slippery... and remember that anything that comes off of or out of the pepper goes into the strainer!
8. When finished, discard the stuff in the strainer (garbage, compost, whatever) and place the pepper in the bowl with the juices!  You can stick a lit on it and refrigerate it for later use, or do what I did...  Slice it up and dump the whole bowl in the food processor for the tapenade!

I also did not use capers in mine, but I plan to next time.  I spread the mixture over thinly sliced sourdough and it was delicious.