Mozzarella, Basil, & Grilled Cherry Tomatoes

Jan and I got a “come on over for dinner” call from our good friends Mary Alice and Bob. We had been working in the yard, and it was the perfect thing to look forward to for the evening. I love spur of the moment get togethers. There is no pressure to put on the perfect party; it is just good friends having a great time together.
 
I picked basil and cherry tomatoes out of my garden for the appetizer I decided to bring. I had purchased a baguette to go with our dinner I had planned for that night, but I still had to send Jan to the store to pick up some fresh mozzarella. I made crostini by slicing the baguette and brushing both sides of the slices with olive oil and sprinkled them with garlic salt. I placed them in a single layer on a cookie sheet and put them into a 425 degree preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes until they were crisp and golden brown. Meanwhile, I put the cherry tomatoes into a grilling basket in a single layer. If you are doing a lot of tomatoes, do more than one batch you because you want them to carmelize, not steam. Grill them over a hot fire until they burst and are blackened on the outside. Don’t worry about the juices leaking onto the fire- what remains of the tomato will be delicious! Slice the mozzarella and place on a platter with tomatoes and whole basil leaves.  Serve with a basket of crostini. 
 
Mary Alice served perfect martinis and made a wonderful pork tenderloin dinner. After dinner, we discussed what were our biggest “nigglies”. Nigglies are, you know, those things that are really of no importance, but still really bug you. Just be careful that your niggly isn’t something that the person sitting next to you does all the time! Or worse yet, that their niggly is something you do all the time. Oh well, when it comes to friends, the nigglies just aren’t nigglies anymore. We had such a great time!

The other day while I was roaming about the wonderful world of Twitter, I came across a post asking what my favorite green salad was. I thought it would be an easy question to answer, but not so much, because I realized I love all salads! If I had to narrow it down though, I really do enjoy salads with an Asian twist. Lately I have been using Saucy Mama’s Sesame Ginger Dressing on everything- chicken, pork, and yes, even salads (imagine that!). That dressing can spice up any simple salad; last week I just drizzled some over sliced baby cucumbers and sweet grape tomatoes…delicious!

Anyways, I looked through our recipe submissions from last year’s food blogger contest to see if there were some other recipes using the Sesame Ginger Dressing, and voila! I found another simple, easy, and healthy recipe from Em at Kitchen M. Check it out below, and make sure to visit Em’s site also!

Ingredients:

1 lb pork loin, sliced paper thin
1/2 medium onion, sliced paper thin*
1 bag spring mix salad lettuce
Saucy Mama’s ® Sesame Ginger Dressing
Cracked pepper to taste

Directions:

Fill a small bowl with cold water, soak sliced onions and set a side.

In a medium sized pot, bring water to boil, and quickly cook the sliced pork (it will only take a minute). Turn off the heat, drain water and rinse it with cold water.

Drain water from the onion bowl.

Assemble salad lettuce, onions and pork on serving plate(s). Drizzle dressing and sprinkle cracked pepper on top to finish. 

*You can substitute the yellow onion with red onion.

This is a hugely exciting week for us, because our first major contest is live and underway.  A little less than a month ago, we posted a few Tweets and sent out a few emails asking food bloggers to enter our contest - to test out our new Saucy Mama collection, and to post their recipes online.  Well, the packages went out and most of our 25 fabulous contestants are now working furiously to showcase their cooking skills.

At stake: an Amazon Kindle, Amazon gift cards, some AudioVox under-counter DVD players, plus bragging rights with the winning recipe to appear on Saucy Mama packages!

Make sure to follow our blog, as we’ll be linking to many of these great recipes.  Such as THIS one, from Andrea at www.BellaEats.com …

Don’t forget – if you like the recipes you see and want to re-create them for yourself, Saucy Mama products can be purchased directly through the Barhyte Specialty Foods web site anytime!

Stay tuned (or better yet, sign up for our FeedBurner delivery, so you don’t miss one great recipe) and we’ll share more with you as the contest rolls on!

Happy Days!!

My good friend Jo Simpson had our monthly Bunco night at her house out in the country last night. Cheryl Doyle, another very good friend and I were co-hostesses.  Jo ordered a Mediterranean Chicken light crust pizza from our local Papa Murphy’s www.papamurphys.com so she could just slip it into the oven after we all arrived.  I made an asparagus salad using Saucy Mama Sesame Ginger Dressing.  For dessert Cheryl brought raspberry sherbet and butter cookies.  It all made for a very tasty very easy meal with no stress and lots of fun.  It was great to sit out on her deck watching the evening colors change on our beautiful Blue Mountains, catching up on each others lives and doing a whole bunch of laughing.

This salad is easy to make and travels well.

Asparagus Orange Salad with Glazed Almonds

Serves 8

1/2 cup whole almonds
3 tablespoons Saucy Mama Sesame Ginger Dressing
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce

4 bunches asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1 to 2 inch pieces
2 large oranges
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
1 large avocado cubed
1/3 cup Saucy Mama Sesame Ginger Dressing
2/3 cup fresh cilantro leaves

Place almonds in a heavy skillet set over medium heat.  I use my trusty old cast iron skillet.  Stir until almonds are lightly toasted, about 5 minutes.
Increase heat to medium high and add dressing and soy sauce.  Stir until the liquid has evaporated and the almonds are coated.  About 1 minute.  Transfer the almonds to a cutting board and coarsely chop as soon as they are cool enough to handle.

Cook asparagus in a large pot of rapidly boiling water for about 2 minutes until bright green and just tender.  Immediately plunge the asparagus into ice water to stop the cooking.  Drain well.

Use a sharp knife to remove the peel and pith from the oranges and divide the orange sections removing the membrane.

Toss the asparagus, oranges, onions, avocado and dressing together.

Place into a pretty serving dish and top with cilantro and almonds.