Pepper, Ham and Onion Manchego Egg Bake

Preheat your oven to 350° In a big, well buttered or oiled baking pan, put the following chopped-sliced ingredients you've sautéed for 5 minutes:

3 mini peppers + 1 green bell pepper

1 lg. onion

2-3 big garlic cloves

Add 6oz. smoked ham cut in small pieces or some cooked, crumbled bacon.

In a large bowl combine the egg mixture:

1 dozen large, pasture raised eggs

6oz. sour cream

3/4c chopped sun dried tomatoes in EVOO 

1/2T - 1T crushed Italian Sofrito seasoning

1/2c corn flour 

1-1/2t baking powder

Whisk these together until everything is well combined. Pour this over the vegetables in the pan, then top with cheese.

8oz. Manchego (sheep's milk) cheese - cut in small cubes

Bake 25-30 minutes, until browning at the edges, the egg are set and the cheese has melted. Cool 15 minutes before cutting into squares. Serve with fresh fruit, toast, crackers or just as is. This makes a lot, but you can also freeze any leftovers. . .Lin

A Big Salad with a Vegetable-Based Dressing

Today, I'm here on my condo deck, on the North shore of Lake Superior. I realized, despite my intense dislike of it, the ugliness-of-summer has arrived.

People are 40' away from me, sunning on the big rock outcropping, splashing in the water, floating on their air mattresses - apparently appreciating this intense heat and humidity 🥵 

Even if it's for only 'a couple days' - that's a couple days too long for this old gal. And no, when the dead of winter arrives, I will NOT be thinking back on this wistfully. . .Not a chance!

That said, heat or no heat, I still get hungry. A big salad with the last of my Mexican corn and black beans sounded perfect. As I gathered ingredients I realized I only have grape tomatoes. Now those, and cherry tomatoes are a lot of peoples favorites, but I just don't like the skin to tomato ratio. Give me a big Beefsteak Tomato (which I'll probably peel) for all applications! To me, the texture of tomato skin - and pepper skins - are akin to that of a plastic garbage bag, ick.

So today, when I realized I still wanted to use them somehow, I decided to whir them up into a vegetable-based Salad Dressing! I used everything in the upper left corner of the first picture to dress the green salad: Romaine, mini heirloom iceberg lettuce, onion, green cabbage and broccoli.

Tomatoes, mini peppers, about 1/4c EVOO, 1/2c or a little more of my seasoned mayonnaise (mayo, brown mustard, vinegar, garlic salt and pepper), juice of 1/2 lemon, and seasonings. I used the one shown, a garlic salt with parsley, to which I also added quite a bit of finely ground black pepper to that container. Blend everything together until the vegetables have pretty much liquified.

Chop the vegetables, add dressing and some shaved Manchego sheep's milk cheese. Ahhhh, Salad Days! The big bowl of chopped-sliced greens, will make 4 big or 6 small salads and stay fresh 3-4 day, covered and refrigerated. . .Lin

Crunchy Cowboy Caviar Salad

Dressing:

1/2c white balsamic vinegar

1c single source EVOO

juice of 1/2 lemon 

1t pure cane sugar

1/2t each: salt and pepper

Combine these in a jar with a top and shake well.

Salad:

1 15oz. can black beans

1 15oz. can corn

Drain both cans. Rinse the beans well, drain again, then combine with the following chopped vegetables in a medium size bowl.

2 peeled Bay Produce tomatoes

1/4 lg. orange pepper

1/4 lg. green pepper

2 stalks celery

1/2c-2/3c purple onion

1 lg. clove crushed, minced garlic

1/2 bunch Italian flat leaf parsley

6-8oz. Manchego cheese cut in small cubes

Toss, pour on enough dressing to coat everything well. I used a little less than half of the bottle. Cover the bowl and chill a couple hours.  This will keep well for several
days in the 'fridge. Toss again before serving. . .Lin