Caprese Salad

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Caprese salad 4

So I mentioned in my post Simple Butter Parsley Potatoes, that I made three side dishes to take to my father-in-law’s house on Father’s Day.  This was one of those sides and I must say that it was well received.

I think the person who liked this one the most was my stepson, Marc.  I watched him as he grabbed the cut up Italian bread and made mini sandwiches with the Caprese salad.  I had to laugh because when I make sandwiches for him to take to school, one of his favorites, if not his # 1 favorite, is Italian bread, smeared with pesto sauce and then layered with tomato slices, mozzarella cheese slices, fresh basil, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper……so he was basically making the same sandwich using the Caprese salad on bread minus the pesto. Ya gotta admit, the boy is consistent.

You know that old saying, “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach?”  Well, I think this works for the stepmom/stepson relationship too.  It makes me smile.

One of the things that I love about this salad is how quickly it comes together.  Wash, slice, drizzle and out the door!

Does your family enjoy this too?

Here’s the printable.

Teresa

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Caprese Salad

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Yield: 8 to 10 servings

Caprese Salad

Slice, drizzle and out the door with this one! This is a wonderful fresh side dish for any time of year.

Ingredients

  1. 6 tomatoes (I use vine ripened or beefsteak)
  2. 1 large round of fresh mozzarella cheese
  3. 1 handful (10 or so fresh basil leaves)
  4. drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
  5. drizzle of balsamic vinegar
  6. sea salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Slice the tomato into thicker slices, about 1/4 inch thick.
  2. Slice the mozzarella cheese to be roughly the same thickness.
  3. Layer the slices on a plate or platter, alternating the tomato and mozzarella.
  4. Drizzle on the olive oil and vinegar.
  5. Salt and pepper to taste.
http://www.sassysuburbanite.com/2013/06/19/caprese-salad/

Category: Appetizers, Food, Italian, Salads, Side Dishes, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tags: , , , ,

Portuguese Fruit Salad

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Portuguese fruit salad 1

My husband grew up in a part of New Jersey that was primarily very nice Italian and Portuguese families.  He has wonderful memories of the neighborhood. His best friend from childhood, who he is still friend with now, is Portuguese.  He’s also been able to maintain relationships with some of the girls from the neighborhood, although he swears that while growing up they wouldn’t give him the time of day. He was in the “friend” category of guys, not someone they’d think about as a potential beau.  Hmmm…..I find this very hard to believe, especially since I find him quite attractive.  He says he’s glad that I didn’t know him during the awkward/nerdy years.  I guess we all have those, right?

I’ve met and socialized with some of his old neighborhood friends whom he keeps in touch with.  It hasn’t been often as all are married with children and are extremely busy.  However, about a year or so ago, we were invited to one of his friend’s homes for dinner while his parents were also here visiting from Portugal.  Let me tell you….YUUUUUUMMMMEEEEE!  I really enjoyed the food. One dish in particular stuck with me and it was the lovely fruit salad served along with the other desserts.  I’d never tasted fruit salad like that and ended up having about 3 small bowls of it.

A few weeks later, I was still thinking of that fruit salad and had Frank reach out to his friend’s wife to ask her mother-in-law for the recipe.  I know…I know….I couldn’t stop thinking about fruit salad?  I was told that it’s just fruit with a little sugar and some sweet wine. That’s all I got. Needless to say, I searched for Portuguese fruit salads everywhere, but they really didn’t say anything different from what I’d been told.  So, here it is…..fruit, a sprinkling of sugar, a drizzle of Madeira wine.  Prepare it at least two hours before serving so that the flavors can combine and when serving, scoop down to the bottom so any fruit and wine juices go into each serving. That’s it and it’s deeelish.  I tried to use the same fruit that I’d had that night, except the grapes because they seemed kinda mushy at the store. Hate mushy grapes!  Now that I think about it, she also used bananas in her salad which I’ll add the next time too.  I used apples, mangos, cherries, oranges and strawberries.  I say use whatever you want though. I’m sure it will all be good.

Here’s the printable.

Teresa

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Portuguese Fruit Salad

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours, 20 minutes

Yield: 8 to 10 servings

Portuguese Fruit Salad

Fresh and delicious the second day too.

Ingredients

  1. Large bowl of your favorite fruit, cut up into same sized pieces
  2. 1 to 2 Tbsp. sugar
  3. 1/4 to 1/2 cups of Madeira wine

Instructions

  1. Cut up your fruit into same sized pieces. (I used 2 apples, 1 orange, 1 mango, 1 small bag of cherries, 1 container of strawberries)
  2. Sprinkle on the sugar and gently stir the fruit.
  3. Drizzle on the wine and stir the fruit again.
  4. Let the fruit sit in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before serving, turning the fruit every 30 minutes.
http://www.sassysuburbanite.com/2013/06/18/portuguese-fruit-salad/

Category: Desserts, Food, Fruit, Portuguese, Salads | Tags: , , ,

Simple Butter Parsley Potatoes

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Simple Butter Parsley Potatoes 2

Today is the day when we celebrate that special man in our lives we call father.  Some people make a big celebration of this day while others don’t.  I don’t think this diminishes how they feel about their fathers. It’s just how one chooses to celebrate.  We don’t do gifts in our family on father’s day. A card, a long distance call, a special meal along with a hug…that’s how we celebrate.  Whichever we can do, we do.

Unfortunately I couldn’t be with my father today.  We live in separate states and a flight this weekend just wasn’t possible.  My father got the long distance call this Father’s Day and that’s exactly what he wanted.  We stayed on the phone for quite a while and caught each other up on what’s going on in our lives. Keep in mind that we had only just spoken the day before, but the Father’s Day call still seems special.

Dad is in the middle of building a “hot rod.”  You need to understand that my dad has ants in his pants and for a man in his 70′s, he just can’t sit still. He’s always got a project going on. He even built his last two planes. Yes, planes!  Needless to say, he’s a very talented man and his projects are quite huge…much bigger than just, say, painting a bookcase or something.

My mom doesn’t mind dad’s projects. She likes the time to herself to sew, crochet and quilt. That’s her thing.

So during today’s conversation, dad explained that his dog Gator, (yes, they live in Florida),  or as I like to refer to Gator, the “golden child,” seems to think that the new little sports car is his. He likes to jump in and wait for dad to get in with him.  So, dad has now ordered a harness to keep Gator safe for riding in the car once it’s completed and we even discussed ordering him doggy goggles to keep the bugs out of his eyes.  See what I mean about the “golden child.”  I have accepted defeat. I used to think of myself as the “golden child” because I was the baby.  *sigh*

After my phone call with my dad, I made my sides to head to my father-in-law’s house. He prefers a Father’s Day barbecue and likes to man the grill.  It’s always yummy as he makes a medley of meat….sausages (sweet and spicy), chicken, pork, hamburgers and even hot dogs.  It was my job, designated by me, to make some sides.  My sides were a Caprese salad, Butter Parsley Potatoes and a Portuguese fruit salad.

Now, it sounds as if I slaved all day on food, doesn’t it. Nope.  Each of these recipes was simple beyond belief and only one needed to be cooked.

Enjoy this very simple side dish with any kind of meat.  It’s always a fan favorite.

Below is the printable.

Teresa

Print
Simple Butter Parsley Potatoes

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Yield: 8 to 10 servings

Simple Butter Parsley Potatoes

Easy, quick and loved by all.

Ingredients

  1. 3 pounds of small potatoes, white or red
  2. 1/2 stick of butter
  3. large handful of fresh parsley, chopped
  4. drizzle of olive oil
  5. salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Boil the potatoes in lightly salted water until fork tender but not falling apart.
  2. Drain the potatoes and put back into the pan with the butter, a drizzle of olive oil, the parsley and the salt and pepper
  3. Mix up gently so the potatoes don't break apart and then serve hot.
  4. Another optional ingredient is a sprinkle of paprika.
http://www.sassysuburbanite.com/2013/06/16/simple-butter-parsley-potatoes/

Category: Food, Side Dishes, Vegetables | Tags: , ,

Lions and Tigers and Cicadas….Oh My!

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On my front stoop watering can this morning

On my front stoop watering can this morning

On my front stoop watering can this morning
The post of my front stoop

The post of my front stoop

Our walkway out front

Our walkway out front

A tree with Cicadas about 2 or 3 weeks ago

A tree with Cicadas about 2 or 3 weeks ago. Look at the husks all over the ground. Our whole yard looks like that.

Why are they still here? Why oh why?  Yes, it’s fully into June now and we have yet to fire up the grill, all because of the Cicadas.  They’re everywhere…on the deck, the patio, the walkway, the outdoor furniture cushions, the tires of my car (what?) and all throughout the grass and the new bushes we’ve recently planted. To grill would mean to also grill Cicadas along with our meat.  Maybe I should try it.  There are lots of Cicada recipes on the internet.  Here is a link from the Huffington Post where you can find ways to eat them, in case you’re interested, but please don’t invite me to dinner.

We knew they were coming. It’s been 17 years since I moved to my town and they greeted me here the last time.  We’d been seeing the holes throughout our yard for quite some time as well. Frank even took pictures and showed them to the people who work at the nursery where we buy our plants.  Their reactions were very matter of fact, “Treat them like pets. They’re one of nature’s wonders because they only come out every 17 years, breed and then die within weeks. They won’t hurt you, but carry a tennis racket to swat them away.”  Huh?  They’re kidding, right?  A tennis racket?  They fly?!  No…they weren’t kidding.  So far, so good though, well, except for one exception when after running to my car screaming, as usual these days now that we live in Cicada land,  I looked in my rearview mirror and saw what looked to me like a Cicada “gettin busy” on my ponytail. Needless to say,  after lots of flailing about and screaming, I got the little bugger off and went on my way.

So here’s how they’re impacting our lives….we don’t grill, we don’t sit outside, we run screaming like crazy people to and from our cars ,(Frank wanted me to mention that he doesn’t do the screaming and flailing part…cuz he’s a guy after all and that would be weird.), we don’t do our long walks through the beautiful neighborhoods of our town and our front stoop, walkway and patio are littered with dead Cicadas, live cicadas and their husks that they came out of after climbing out of the ground.  We even hired a lawn service for our tiny lawn because apparently the Cicadas are very attracted to the sound of the mower and will literally fly towards you and land on you.  We’ve heard this horror story from many. Frank only needed to hear it once before he stopped mowing the lawn. It ain’t pretty.

Now, Cicadas are a nuisance to me, but others find them to be very cool. I respect that. I wish that I weren’t a person with such an intense bug phobia.  I think it comes from growing up in Florida around those huge Palmetto bugs, (gigantic flying roaches), that to a child seem big and scary enough to eat me or harm me or just really gross me out. Also, I’m a girl. Nuf said.  I do try to respect the Cicadas though. I won’t harm them and I walk around them, partly because I truly don’t want to kill them and partly because I don’t want to hear the crunch. Blech!  They’re here for now, but will be gone in only a couple of weeks. I’ve already noticed that their numbers have diminished and the loud mating sounds have subsided greatly.  I think that means that we’re almost done.

Bye bye Cicadas. It’s been real. I won’t miss you, but nor will I kill you or eat you in 17 years when you come back to share our space again.

Teresa

Category: Ramblings

So Did You Two Get The Crabs?

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Franciscan Crab Restaurant

This is what our cab driver, who picked us up at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, asked us as we got into the cab.  To which we answered, thinking that he was just asking the typical question he asks anyone who has been at the Wharf….

“Why yes! We sure did have the crabs. Why? Can you smell them?”  haha….  This was Frank’s reply while trying to be funny.

“Well it wasn’t a wild guess!”  the witty cab driver replies.

Uhm….3 second awkward pause…..hahahahahahaha  “Oh sorry, we tried to cover up the garlicky smell with alcohol.”

“I got a whiff of that too!”  he replied.  uhm…..

Yes, this was the conversation and of course we all ended up laughing. We stunk like garlic crabs and alcohol and we knew it and were not ashamed. Oh no!  I’d do that meal all over again each day and would walk around stinking for the rest of my life if I could. Yes I would!

We actually visited The Franciscan Crab Restaurant 4 times during our honeymoon. We picked it on our first night after barely leaving our hotel and deciding that we must eat right away.  The Franciscan is on the water and surrounded by glass. It looked like just as good of a place as any. We were not disappointed.

Here’s The Franciscan’s menu, We shared the Crab Louie Salad,  the Crab Chowder Soup, the Shrimp Pescatore Tureen, the Garlic Steamed Clam Tureen and then for our entrée …the Sizzling Iron Skillet Roasted Dungeoness Crab, Shrimp and Mussels combo.  OOOOOOH YEA!!!   Oh! We also had fabulous cocktails.  I think mine was called a Mermarita. Get it?  It’s a combo mermaid and margarita.  yuk yuk…snort!

Crabs_mussels_shrimp

Here’s the seafood combo that we had for our main course.  Yummy, huh?

Crabs_mussels_shrimp 2

Here’s me, drinking my Mermarita and wearing a bib. Yep, a bib.  See the binoculars on the table? That’s so we could look out the huge windows at all of the boats or take a look at Alcatraz.

I’m tellin ya, you can’t miss this place if you ever make it over to Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco.  You must!!

Ok, enough said. I think I got my point across.  Sorry, I thought we’d taken more to show you, but we get rather excited when we eat and I guess we forgot.  Enjoy.

Teresa

 

Category: Road Trips | Tags: , , ,
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