Wow this salad is not just good it's down right addicting!

Well, sorry don't even have a picture of this one.....I made it last night with no planning, no recipe just out of my head and it turned out so good that we had it eaten completely before I could even think to photograph it, so you will just have to take my word for it and I will load a pic the next time I make it, which will be for a design workshop I am participating in this weekend.


Italian Pasta Summer Salad ( Wheat free!)

1 8 oz package of spelt or rice Penne or corkscrew spiral pasta cooked according to directions and rinsed and cooled

1 8 oz package of Feta cheese crumbled, including any juices

4-5 T of olive oil

1 Large cucumber

1-2 carrots grated

3 large tomatoes

Sea salt to taste

5 Pepperoncini Peppers

Juice from the Pepperoncini

1 small can of chopped olives

1 purple shallot cut up very fine.


To make-

boil and prepare pasta according to directions or cook as much as a minute less than the package directions, be careful not to over cook.  Once cooked, drain immediately and rinse in cold water and put into fridge while you work on other ingredients

Chop tomatoes into large chunks.  Peel cucumber in strips leaving strips of dark green peel on.  Then chop into large chunks. Cut Shallot up very very fine. Grate carrots, if possible not with a fine grater. Cut Pepperoncinis into small small pieces.

Dump these veggies into a large serving bowl and add to the bowl the crumbled Feta and juices, add the olive oil, add sea salt and also pour in several tablespoons of the juice from the Pepperoncinis.  Last of all add in pasta and mix.  Taste and add more sea salt and pepperoncini juice to taste.  Chill and serve if you can resist not eating it all on the spot.

This will also work nicely with adding in spinach.  To do this take a standard package of chopped frozen spinach.  Thaw and squeeze out excess liquid and add.  I have made a similar salad with spinach in the past.

This recipe is fast and really really good, nice in summer, easy to double and can be an entire meal.  You could also add in salami to make it even more like a meal and I believe it would do well with garbanzo beans too, but have to try it with both to tell you for sure.

Hope you like it as much as I do!

(Matsunaga) Family Fried Rice

Do you ever have left overs, or trouble getting your kids to eat veggies?  If you answered yes to either one, or just want a great easy to please dish that works at least in an Asian household ( and I don't see why not any other one) as your choice of a breakfast, lunch or dinner, main dish, side dish or snack...then THIS is the recipe for you.

I have made this for over 23 years, it is never quite the same two times and it just keeps getting better, I will save you 23 years of improving and just take you to where we are now....

Family Fried Rice-

Ingredients-

1-2 Table spoons of bacon drippings
1 onion chopped
3 large broccoli stems chopped ( no florets)
2-3 carrots cut into tiny cubes or into coins or matchsticks- ( your choose)
2 small or 1 med zucchini cut into small pieces-half or 1/4 coins or cubes or matchsticks
1/2-1 cup frozen peas
1 small yellow squash cut same as zucchini
1/4 of a small red/purple cabbage
1/2 red bell pepper
Sea salt to taste, a small amount
Bragg's liquid aminos or Chinese soy sauce - again a small amount, start with a teaspoon or less
Long grain cooked brown rice between 2-3 cups
Your choice of meats already cooked and cubed unless it's small shrimp
2-3 eggs
butter or olive oil for cooking eggs
fresh pepper

To Make-

Start the night before you will make this by soaking 1.5-2 cups of brown long grain rice in 1 and a half times as much purified water. 

The next day pour water into rice cooker ( or if you don't have one drive to the nearest grocery store and purchase a cheap one, unless of course you are Asian and eat rice for pretty much breakfast, lunch and dinner in that case buy one that is a couple hundred dollars at least, but if this is the case you already HAVE one, there are also brown rice cookers that make it so you do not need to soak your brown rice prior to cooking to get good results, I just have not splurged yet!)  Cook the rice until done, then mix it up to finish with it's steaming and unplug the cooker and allow to cool, better yet if you have time, put it in the fridge so it is all the way cooled.

Then when you are ready to make the rest of the dish....go to your fridge, find any and all left over meat, ( steak, pork chops, chicken, shrimp, turkey, even hot dogs or lunch meat will do, but don't let the "authentic ethinic food police" find out.....) Chop this meat into small cubes.  If you do not have any left overs you can cook some up, but half the purpose of this dish is to use the left overs so....I think you should make it when you have them, it is part of what makes the recipe good too since you get the flavors of how ever you made the meat before in it, and the mix of several meats. The one I made last week had chicken, steak, porkchop and bacon in it.

Once you have cut these up, set them aside and cut up your veggies, just open your fridge and see what you have, if you have preplanned you can have any or all of the veggies I listed in the recipe, but if not use what you have.  The amounts do not have to exact.  When you are almost done chopping, heat a cast iron skillet up with either the bacon drippings or instead for better health use the same amount of olive or safflower oil with a bit of old hickory smoke salt, or just sea salt.  Then add the chopped veggies and pan fry until tender, start with the harder to cook up veggies like the carrots and broccoli stems and add things like peas that cook fast at the end.  While you are doing that also heat up your omlet pan and cook up your eggs after scrambling them in a dish flat on a preheated pre oiled/buttered pan.  When both are done add meat to veggies and cut up eggs and add them too. 

Last but not least add the rice and mix everything up.

Then when it is all mixed up and coated taste, add the braggs or soy sauce and sea salt very very slowly as needed.  Hint asian dishes only use soy sauce as a tiny bit of seasoning, not as a main flavoring....if in doubt skip it!  Top with a little fresh ground pepper, again taste as you go.

I love this dish because it helps my daughter who will hardly touch veggies eat them and it uses left overs and it is WAY more veggies than rice....


Other possible ingredients--

Scallops
green peppers
green onions
green cabbage
leeks
shallots
spinach stems
califlower
sausage

Ingredients are really only limited by your imagination and common sense and good taste...have fun and let me know how you like it!  I never make it exactly the same twice...no reason you should either!

P.S. Lee this is for you, I know you miss this dish lots....now you can make it and eat it for a week!

This week's menu choices

One of the things I do to make it so I can do mostly home cooked meals and to save money is I plan our family meals ahead of time.  I inventory on Friday, shop early on Saturday and cook Sat and Sunday.

The meals for this week are-

Sea Food Pancakes with Corn Relish

Split Pea Soup and Biscuits

Wild Rice Stuffed Pork Chops

Corn Breaded Chicken Tenders

Sashmi- Miso Soup-Edemame and Stir Fried Marinaded Beef

Tacos

Hot Dogs on whole grain buns

Angus Burgers on whole grain buns

Fried Rice

Mexican Casserole


Each week my goal is to prep all I can before Monday so that the week is smoother. 

This week I am a little behind the ball as of Monday morning.  I ended up showing homes on Sunday during the time I would normally be cooking AND had to drop my husband off @ the train station AND I am still not used to having our Bible meeting @ 4pm instead of 10am. ( a change that happened @ the beginnning of the year) 

I did manage to finish the fried rice this morning while making breakfast and schooling with the kids and I think I can finish the Mexican Casserole tonight while I make our other dinnner and then I will be caught up since I prepped everything else over the weekend.

I already made and served the Fish Pancakes on Saturday evening.  I loved them, Karl loved them, the kids would not touch them....oh well, gourmet meals don't always go over well with kids, but it was fun to make, will share the recipe this week.

I will also do my best to share one of my best family recipes for Fried Rice this week, this one is really good for you and also uses money wisely with use of left overs, one of the only ways my oldest daughter Chlo'e will eat veggies!  A great make ahead dish that is easy to do in stages, that you can eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner, this makes it ideal for both families and for those who are cooking for just one or two since it actually IMPROVES when it sits over night in the fridge....

I'll do my best to post my menu choices each week and if you want the recipe for any of them, please comment or email me a_matsunaga@hotmail.com, and let me know that you want the recipe, I will do my best to post i with in the week.