Watermelon Pineapple Salsa

What's the deal with watermelons these days?  Have you noticed how they are all perfectly round and seedless now?  My state is famous for it's watermelons, and in Arkansas it's just not right, and it goes against the natural order of things, I say, to have perfectly round watermelons!

Anyway, I was at Walmart today and I finally found a big, irregular shaped watermelon with seeds.  We cut into that thing, and it was so sweet and juicy!  We ate half of it at lunch, and the other half we turned into Watermelon Pineapple Salsa (we had friends over for dinner so I made a lot of salsa; you might want to half the recipe).

Watermelon Pineapple Salsa

3 cups watermelon, diced
1 cup fresh pineapple, diced (not canned, not ever)
1/2-1 cup red onion, to taste
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
Juice of one lime
salt to taste

In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients and stir.  Refrigerate for 1-3 hours.  Serve with chips or over grilled fish. 

Farmers' Market Tomato Bruschetta

We have a Farmers' Market in our town on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings on the downtown square.  I personally prefer to do my actual shopping on Tuesday or Thursday, and keep Saturday for walking around with the family, getting the girls' faces painted, buying flowers, and people watching. 

So the kids and I went this morning and picked up a ton of beautiful, multi colored, cherry tomatoes.  Then, we dropped by Little Bread Co., my very favorite local bakery, to get a baguette.  I knew just what I was going to do with them......

Farmers' Market Tomato Bruschetta (adapted from PW's Marinated Tomatoes)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 whole green onions, sliced
9 whole basil leaves cut into a chiffonade (roll 'em up longways and then cut into strips)
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 pound tomatoes, cut up
1 whole baguette sliced
goat cheese, to garnish

Mix the oil, vinegar, herbs, and spices, and add tomatoes.  Allow to marinate 2-3 hours or longer. 

Slice baguette, drizzle with olive oil.  Broil for 2-3 minutes, until they start to brown. Turn them and broil for 2-3 more minutes.  Top each piece of bread with the tomatoes, using a spoon to allow for some extra juice to drop onto the bread.  Garnish with goat cheese.

Pomegranate and Chicken Salad with Goat Cheese and Almonds

I ran across a package of pomegranate arils (those seeds inside a pomegranate) at my Walmart Neighborhood Market yesterday and I knew a big salad was in order! It was a perfect, quick dinner because all I had to do was throw it together.

The kids ate the chicken and some spinach, but didn't care for the pomegranates.  I think they are a little too tart for them.  But I love those things! And the creamy goat cheese goes perfectly with the tartness of the pomegranate.

Pomegranate and Chicken Salad with Goat Cheese and Almonds
arugula and baby spinach
rotisserie chicken
pomegranate arils
goat cheese
slivered almonds
Champagne vinaigrette
2 tablespoons Champagne vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
pinch of salt and pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
Mix ingredients in a lidded jar and pour over salad and toss.

Iced Mint Sweet Tea

I got this tea recipe from my friend Jill, who got the recipe from our friend Ashley, who got the recipe from Mrs. SoandSo, who I'm sure got the recipe from an older Mrs. SoandSo.  It's all of our favorite summer drink! 

This iced tea is so refreshing, and zero calories and zero caffeine to boot! If you have some fresh mint, it's even better.  And I've heard tell of people adding a little vodka to turn it into a cocktail, too....

Iced Mint Sweet Tea

3 decaf family size tea bags (I like Luzianne, but it's a Southern brand you might not be able to find. Lipton is good, too.)
2 spearmint regular size tea bags (Bigelow Plantation Mint)
1/2 cup-2 cups Splenda, to taste.  The more Southern you are, the sweeter you'll like it. :) I use 1 1/2 cups for one gallon of tea.
fresh mint

Fill a medium sauce pan about 3/4 full with cold water.  Bring to boil and then add the tea bags.  Turn off the heat, cover the pot and allow the tea to steep until it's at room temperature.  When it's cool, add the Splenda to a big pitcher, pour the tea over the Splenda, and stir well.  Add cold water to fill the pitcher, some fresh mint, and chill before serving.
 

NWA Bloggers Meetup

The Northwest Arkansas blogging community is pretty amazing and full of such cool and interesting people.  And I finally got to meet of bunch of them at the NWA Blogger Meetup at the Acumen office yesterday! 

John and Josh got the idea to do this meetup a couple of weeks ago, and invited a handful of bloggers to come so they could get some ideas about how to actually host a meetup.  Well, it kind of snowballed, and there were more than 60 bloggers there! Even though the whole event was thrown together at the last minute, it went off without a hitch. 

Here's my brilliant husband, completely in his element, talking about one of his favorite subjects, Google analytics.  If you come to our house at any given time, you'll find him sitting exactly like this (without the big screen, although I'll bet he wishes he had one connected at home).  Here's a link to his presentation, if you missed it.

 

A few of the lovely Arkansas Women Bloggers I finally had the privilege of meeting.

 

And the lunch.....I had this crazy idea that I'd make lunch for the group.  And then the group kept growing.  I'd never cooked for 75 people before and I started to stress.  But I still really wanted to do it, because I knew it would be fun and a great jump start for my blog.  With a little organization, babysitting help from my parents, and Sams Club, I pulled it off!! 

Oh, and some serious last minute sandwich making from my friend, Jennifer.  She stopped by Monday morning to help me pack lunches, and that girl rolled up her sleeves (figuratively...she didn't have sleeves) and saved the day!! Thanks, Jenn!

 

So I made all these lunches, printed a cute little menu to go on the lunch sacks that included my blog url, but guess what I forgot? To take pictures of the food. Duh. Live and learn, I guess.

Leftovers Frittata with Bacon

I had such a fun morning making boxed lunches for the NWA Bloggers Meetup today (I'll talk about that later this week),  but I didn't really think ahead to dinner...oops.  Leftover time!!

I love frittatas because you can really add most any meat, vegetables, and cheese you have to some eggs and call it dinner.  Tonight, it was bacon, fresh tomatoes, green onions, orange peppers, and mozzarella cheese.  We also had an arugula salad with my favorite honey vinaigrette, goat cheese, and almonds.

Leftovers Frittata with Bacon

Preheat broiler to high.

Using a nonstick skillet, brown 3 slices of bacon, chopped (I like to use kitchen scissors to "chop" bacon). 

Drain excess fat if there is more than a couple of teaspoons after the bacon is cooked. Add whatever raw veggies you are using (I used fresh tomatoes, green onions, and orange peppers) and cook until soft. 

Meanwhile, whisk 2 eggs per person (I use one whole egg and one egg white per person) with a little milk, and salt and pepper. Pour egg mixture into pan with bacon and vegetables and stir.  Cook for 4-5 minutes until the egg mixture has set on the bottom and begins to set on top. Sprinkle top with mozzarella cheese.

Place pan under the broiler for a few minutes until lightly browned and fluffy. Watch it closely!
Serve by cutting like a pie and with a salad.

NWA Blogger Event / Summer Panzanella

I made a super quick Summer Panzanella for dinner tonight, because I've been B-U-S-Y getting ready for the NWA Blogger Meet Up on Monday.  I'm making boxed lunches for everybody at the event, and today I was working on baking brownies.  And not regular ol' brownies, folks.  Barefoot Contessa's Outrageous Brownies. And outrageous is right!! I can't wait for you to try them.

Have you RSVP'd for the event?  It's on Monday from 11-1 at the Acumen building on Gregg Street in Fayetteville (across the street from Arsaga's).  It's going to be so fun to finally get face to face with some local bloggers I've "met" on twitter.  I seriously cannot believe how many of y'all are coming!  If you haven't RSVP'd, take a second to do it, just so I can make sure I have enough lunches for everybody.   I'm so excited about lunch, but I don't want to tell you the menu quite yet...

Summer Panzanella

I made it tonight with yellow peppers, green onions, farmers market heirloom tomatoes, and day old bread from Walmart (97 cents, yo!).  It was so cold and refreshing on this hot summer night.

Grilled BBQ Chicken with Sauteed Fresh Corn

This meal epitomizes summer to me.  Fast, simple, cooked outside, and healthy.   It helped that the kids were starving and worn out from a fun day, but they still ate every bite!

The Sauteed Fresh Corn with Basil is always a hit! And I made Pioneer Woman's marinated tomatoes (which were fantastic by the way), but I'll talk about those later.

 

BBQ Grilled Chicken

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded thin (or buy the thin ones in the store to save time)

1 cup bottled BBQ sauce

salt and pepper

Salt and pepper chicken.  Heat grill to HOT, and grill chicken, brushing with BBQ sauce until it's done.  HEALTH NOTE: remember the brush has touched raw chicken, as has the BBQ sauce you dipped the brush in.  Throw away any extra sauce and don't use the brush to put sauce on the cooked chicken.  Always be careful not to cross contaminate!

Cedar Grilled Salmon

I ran across some super cheap cedar planks at Walmart the other day and tonight we grilled some salmon with them.  It's my new favorite way to eat salmon.  So good!

Cedar Grilled Salmon

salmon fillets
salt and pepper
1 lemon and lemon zest
olive oil

Soak cedar plank for a couple of hours so it doesn't burn on the grill.  Preheat grill to about 400. 

Drizzle salmon with olive oil.  Add a big pinch salt, pepper, and lemon zest to each piece of salmon. 

Put the wet cedar plank on the grill until it it makes loud crackling noises.  Place salmon and cut up lemon directly onto the plank.  Grill for about 15 minutes (more of less depending on the thickness of the fish).  Do not turn salmon.  The plank will be black and charred, so remove salmon from plank to serve.  Squeeze lemons on top of fish (they will have a smokey flavor as well).

The Best 4th of July Cake

In honor of the 4th, here is the BEST flag cake you'll ever eat.  It's not the quickest or easiest to make (there isn't any cool whip or instant pudding involved),  but it's the one you'll want to take to your 4th of July party.  I had 6 little hands helping me decorate mine, and I was wracking my brain to answer all the questions about how many stars and stripes are really on the flag and what they all mean, all with a pastry bag in hand, so yours will be more perfect, I'm sure.   I should have brushed up on my American history before we started the cake....

This is a Barefoot Contessa Recipe, but Pioneer Woman did a step by step a while back.  If you need more direction, go there. 

For the cake:

2 1/4 sticks butter
3 cups sugar
6 eggs
1 cup sour cream (not low fat, Jeffrey wouldn't like that, now would he?)
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups flour
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda



For the frosting: 
3- 8 oz packages cream cheese
4 sticks butter
1 pound powdered sugar (about 4 cups)
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 pint blueberries
2 pints raspberries
 

Cake:

In a mixing bowl, mix butter and sugar together on high until light and fluffy, about a minute or so. Add eggs, two at a time. Mix after each addition. Add sour cream and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, kosher salt and baking soda. Turn mixer to low and gradually add flour mixture to butter/sugar mixture, one scoop at a time. Mix after every addition. Keep adding the flour mixture, mix until just combined. Do not overmix!

Grease and flour a 17 x 12 1/2-inch sheet cake pan.

Pour the thick cake batter into the pan. (It’s much thicker than regular cake batters.) With a knife or offset spatula, spread the cake batter evenly over the pan.

Place the pan into a preheated 350-degree oven and bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. I baked mine for exactly 20 minutes, so you probably want to start checking then.

To make the cream cheese frosting, in a mixing bowl, add softened cream cheese and butter. Whip to combine. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Mix until thoroughly combined, scraping the sides once during mixing.

Put about 1/2 the frosting on the cake. Mark off the area of the stars with a toothpick. Prepare a pastry bag with a large star tip and fill up to 2/3 with icing. Fold down both corners to keep icing from splurging out the top.

Gripping the folded-down end tightly under fingertips and start squeezing two lines of frosting at the bottom of the cake. Make two rows of raspberries on the cake, then add another two lines of frosting.
Keep repeating: two lines of frosting, two lines of raspberries, two lines of frosting, etc.

Fill the square in the corner with a nice layer of blueberries. With the star tip, squeeze little dollops of frosting all over the blueberries.