Farmers Market Salsa

Our tomato plants are thriving this year. The tomatoes I'm getting look so nice and pretty! I should have taken a picture. :) I love fresh, homemade salsa - it's a perfect snack that you don't have to feel guilty about eating. This recipe calls for Roma tomatoes but I used my Early Girls and they worked great - probably any medium sized vine tomato would. I also omitted the banana pepper because I couldn't find it at the grocery store.

Farmers Market Salsa

8-10 large vine ripe Roma tomatoes, diced
1 small Walla Walla sweet onion, diced
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded, diced
1 banana pepper seeded (long pale yellow), chopped
1 small green bell pepper, seeded, diced
Juice of two limes
Chopped fresh cilantro to taste (or dried, to taste)
1 tsp of sugar
Kosher Salt to taste
Ground pepper to taste

Mix everything together and enjoy!

For a variation try:
1 chopped, peeled ripe avocado or 1 chopped, peeled ripe nectarine, peach or mango

Whole Wheat Pear Granola Muffins

What can I say, I love muffins! I bought a case of pears from Costco and wanted to try something new. This recipe calls for D'Anjou pears but I used bartlett and I thought they still tasted great. I loved the granola topping. My one year old couldn't get enough of these. This muffin recipe comes from The Sisters Cafe.

Whole Wheat Pear Granola Muffins

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/2 cup plain low-fat yogurt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 (2 cups) D'Anjou pears, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice

Crumb topping:
1/2 cup granola

1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper liners; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, brown sugar, yogurt, and butter. Make a well in the center of flour mixture. Add egg mixture to well, and mix in flour mixture until just combined. Gently fold in the pears.

Crumb topping:

In a bowl, toss together 1/2 cup granola, 1/4 cup each all-purpose flour and packed light-brown sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Cut 3 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter into pieces; add to granola mixture, and rub in with fingertips until clumps form.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each 3/4 full. Sprinkle with granola topping. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool 5 minutes before removing from tin. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Peach Crisp with Maple Cream Sauce

Ben works with a lady who has several peach trees. Each year she invites us over to pick peaches to our hearts' content. Every year I freeze the majority of them for smoothies and shakes but we also eat a fair share of them fresh. This year I decided to try this recipe to use up the remaining peaches. It did not disappoint! I found this recipe on http://sisterscafe.blogspot.com but it originally came from "The Pioneer Woman Cooks."

Peach Crisp with Maple Cream Sauce

1 cup flour
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. (one stick) butter, cut into bits
5-6 cups, peeled, sliced fresh peaches
Juice and grated zest of ½ lemon
2 T. maple syrup

*Maple cream Sauce, for serving (make beforehand, see instructions below)

Preheat oven to 350. Combine flour, sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in medium bowl. Cut in butter with fork or pastry blender until mixture is the consistency of coarse meal. Place peaches in 9-inch square baking pan or smaller baking dish. Gently mix in lemon juice, rind and maple syrup. Top with crumb mixture. Cover tightly with foil and bake about 15 minutes. Remove foil and bake20 to 30 minutes more or until top is crisp and brown. You might want to broil fora couple of minutes to ensure good color. Serve warm with maple cream sauce.

Maple Cream Sauce
1 1/2 cups whipping cream
5 T. maple syrup
3 T. light corn syrup

Combine all ingredients in heavy sauce pan; cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly until thickened and reduced by 1/3, approximately 20 minutes. Chill until thickened. Drizzle generously over Peach Crisp.

Sloppy Joes

I've tried a few different Sloppy Joe recipes and this is my favorite to date. I like that it's not too runny so it doesn't make your bun soggy. Tonight we had these with homemade buns. (I just used my bread machine roll recipe and cut the dough into circles with a cookie cutter.) We like to top off our Sloppy Joes with a slice of cheese.

Sloppy Joes

2 lbs ground beef
1 onion, chopped
2 Tbsp flour
1 small can tomato sauce
1 Tbsp dry mustard
4 Tbsp brown sugar
3 Tbsp vinegar
3 Tbsp ketchup
3 tsp Worcestershire sauce
Salt & Pepper to taste

Brown ground beef and onion. Drain off grease. Add remaining ingredients. Heat on stove top until warmed through. Serve on buns.

Grilled Steak with Garlic Rub

This is a flavorful and super easy way to grill steaks. The best part about this marinade is you don't have to plan in advance. It only has to sit on the steak for 30 minutes before grilling.

Garlic Rub

1-2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp coarsely ground pepper (I use 1/2 tsp)
2 garlic cloves, crushed with a press

Mix together in a bowl and spread on steaks. Allow to sit for 30 minutes. Then grill or broil in oven. My husband grilled these outside tonight and he was able to do it without flipping the steaks - that way we didn't lose any of the marinade. They were still grilled on both sides and tasted great.

Banana Carrot Bread

This is a fun variation on regular banana bread. I had a bunch of carrots in my fridge so I made this recipe to use some of them up. You really can't taste the carrots but you can see the pretty orange flecks. :)

Banana Carrot Bread

1 cup mashed bananas (about two large, very ripe bananas)
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup canola oil
2 eggs
2 cups sifted flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg (I do slightly less.)
1 cup finely grated carrots

Combine bananas, brown sugar, oil & eggs in bowl and mix. Sift flour, soda, salt, cinnamon & nutmeg together in large bowl. Stir into banana mixture. Fold in carrots. Spoon into large greased and floured loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 45-55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Can also makes these into muffins.

Blueberry Sour Cream Pancakes

Another pancake recipe. Ben made pancakes from a mix the other night and I think I've been ruined. They tasted terrible! I definitely prefer pancakes from scratch and there are so many options! These ones are very moist because of the sour cream.

Blueberry Sour Cream Pancakes

2 cups all-purpose flour (Or 1 1/2 c. white flour, 1/2 c. whole wheat flour.)
1/4 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup (8 oz.) sour cream (I have substituted 1 c. plain greek yogurt for this.)
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. In another bowl, beat the eggs. Add milk, sour cream & butter; mix well. Stir into dry ingredients just until blended. Fold in blueberries. Cooked on greased hot griddle.