Great island Common on the seacoast in New Castle, NH. Isn't it gorgeous there? The day I took this was just like today's weather--sunny and in the 70's. I'd love to be under that tree right now with a good book.Neither do I. I was hoping some of you might. At least it's cooler today! We're currently at 74°, which is fine by me. We'll still be getting some warmer than usual weather later in the week, but for now, I'm totally enjoying this. It was so hot last night that I didn't even cook anything. We had roasted red pepper hummus and summer salad with whole wheat pitas and feta. So good, and no heating up the kitchen!
I've got a couple of recipes to share today. One is for a most delicious salad, created by Jerry at Cooking by the Seat of my Pants. You should check out his blog--he has great food to drool over. Jerry came up with this recipe for the Royal Foodie Joust sponsored by Jenn, The Leftover Queen, at the Foodie Blogroll. Please check her blog out, too, and if you haven't joined the blogroll yet, have a look around!
Since I won the previous joust, I got to pick the three required ingredients for this one, and those were...surprise! raspberry, lime and almonds. The jousters came up with such great recipes to feed my addiction, hehe. (It's almost like I had minions catering to my raspberry and lime whims!) I had to try the salad, not only because it looked delicious and had my favorite things in it, but because it's got my name on it! I think if something's named after you, it's a given--you've got to make it. It's so good! And will be a regular around here this summer. The dressing is tangy and not too sweet, the chicken is tender and nicely flavored, and all the extras in it come together to make one great meal. I couldn't find any sliced almonds at the store, so I used pecans--also delicious. The vinaigrette is like any dressing, to taste--I ended up adding a bit more raspberry jam (Trader Joe's low sugar jam) and lime juice. Actually, I just about doubled it so we'd be sure to have enough. I also added some fresh raspberries to the salad.
This one's definitely going to be on the menu again soon, and I hope you'll all check it out!
Almost forgot to link to the salad! D'oh! La Salade d'Elle (Chicken Salad with Almonds, Queso Fresco, and Raspberry Lime Vinaigrette.)
Next recipe! I must warn you, these pictures you're about to see aren't pretty. But! It won't matter because the food is so freaking good! It's typical baseball park, tailgating, or street food. So funny, because it's such a simple thing to make, but for me, it's such a treat. I'm like a little kid when we have these. So is my husband! He's happy when we have this. It's easy to feed a crowd with these, too, or cut back and make a smaller batch if you like. You can do these in the house, as I've done here, or on the grill, with a pan so you don't lose stuff to the coals. Either way, it's goooood eating!
Sausage, Peppers and Onions
For this batch, I used Sweet Italian Sausage, ten of them. They were on sale, what can I say? Normally I don't make ten at a time, but they're still so, so good the next day. I used three red bell peppers--use whatever color peppers you want, and two longish light green peppers. No idea what they were, but they were sweet, not spicy. I also used two large sweet onions, and about seven or eight cloves of garlic.
10 Sweet (or hot, if you like) Italian Sausage; you could also use chicken or turkey sausages
5 sweet bell peppers, any color, sliced into long strips
2 large sweet onions, sliced
7 cloves garlic, minced
vinegar (I usually use white wine vinegar, but use whatever kind you have)
fresh cracked black pepper and salt if you taste and think it needs some
sandwich rolls
yellow mustard (you can use spicy mustard if you want, but the best way to enjoy these is with good old yellow mustard)
In a large pan on medium heat, brown the sausages, about 3 minutes on each side, for a total of about 12 minutes.
Remove from pan and set aside to cool a bit, drain most of the oil from the pan.
Add the peppers, onions, and garlic, and saute until they get soft, but don't brown them too much. Stir them around occasionally for even cooking. You can add a little olive oil if you need to.
Before!
After!While the peppers and onions are cooking, slice the sausages almost all the way through lengthwise, but leave one end intact so you can open them up, like this:
See? I told you these weren't pretty.
Doesn't have to be pretty to be freaking delicious!
See? I told you these weren't pretty.Add about 1/4 cup or so of vinegar to the onions and peppers and stir to coat evenly.
Open up the sausages and place them over their bed of peppery-oniony-vinegary goodness.
Cover the pan and lower the heat to medium low for about 10 minutes.
Serve in buns with yellow mustard, and lots of napkins. Street food is messy food.
Servings depend on the size of the sausages. Yes, size matters. We had stubby ones and needed two per bun. God, I can't believe I just typed that, hehe!
Open up the sausages and place them over their bed of peppery-oniony-vinegary goodness.
Cover the pan and lower the heat to medium low for about 10 minutes.
Serve in buns with yellow mustard, and lots of napkins. Street food is messy food.
Servings depend on the size of the sausages. Yes, size matters. We had stubby ones and needed two per bun. God, I can't believe I just typed that, hehe!
Click on the widget to print the recipe.
