One of the appetizers that I planned to serve at the 4th of July party was these cheese-filled grilled mini peppers.

Don’t they look yummy? My guests never got a taste, let alone a glimpse, of them. This photo of some other cheese-filled peppers is lifted from the web. That’s because, my grill-master husband turned the 30 little peppers, that I lovingly spent time and effort cleaning out and stuffing, into charcoal.

Photos of his burnt-to-the-crisp peppers at the bottom of the post.

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My dad loves pot roast. Winter, spring, summer and fall – no matter the temperature, he wants me to make pot roast.

The 1971 invention of the slow cooker (also known by its brand name Crock-Pot) made it an even easier meal to make. No heating up the entire kitchen when you use a slow cooker. Still, eating a heavy pot roast when it’s 106 degrees outside doesn’t appeal to most. Not an issue for Dad!

Dave was out-of-town this past weekend, so I indulged my dad by making his precious pot roast for our Sunday supper.  I do my best to change it up each time to try to keep it exciting since I make it so often throughout the year.

This time I reverted to a very classic pot roast recipe … well not so much the recipe … more the technique. Allow me to explain.

In 1963 House & Garden Magazine published a recipe by Elizabeth (Betty) Wason, an American author and broadcast journalist. The classic technique I took from her recipe was the way she floured the meat.

Instead of dredging the beef in seasoned flour, Betty beats the flour into the meat with the side of a plate, which creates a thicker crust and a smoother gravy in the end. It’s rather cathartic, beating in the flour with a dish, similar to that satisfying feeling one gets when kneading bread dough.

If you’re not up to pot roast in June, bookmark this recipe and remember to make it this fall or winter. I am hopeful that the fall or winter is the next time I’ll be called to make it … but it’ll probably be much sooner. Oh well, gotta give the people what they want.

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This light summer salad is so delicious and refreshing. An added bonus – no cooking or heating up the kitchen is involved!

One more thing … it’s pretty as a picture.

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After visiting The Simple Farm last week, I was inspired to make a meatless meal.

This meal is “Connor Approved!”

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On May 29, 2011, I posted a recipe for Jalapeño Poppers.

Poppers are jalapeño peppers, cleaned out, filled with cheese, wrapped in bacon, and baked. And in this case, brushed with apricot preserves. The spicy morsels make for one delicious and addictive appetizer.

A little more than three years later, I have another delicious and addictive recipe for you … not little poppers, but instead, great big firecrackers!

I’m calling them firecrackers because they have an extra flavor explosion – chicken and BBQ sauce. The firecrackers can be sliced and served as appetizers or cut in half, on a diagonal, and served as the main course.

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When you live in the restaurant world, you work late at night and all too often eat fast food, late at night, after a long shift. After years of working with chefs and seeing the burger wrappers and French fry containers in their cars, I know this all too well. My son, Connor, is now in that very position. He gets off sometime between 10 and 11 PM and picks up the drive-thru on his way home.

Even though there was often a plate ready for him in the fridge, for whatever reason, he would eat the fast food at night and save the plate for lunch the next day. Eventually, he got sick of it and finally asked for a healthy, vegetable and protein-heavy, but still light “something” for dinner. Sometimes, it takes time to realize what the body really wants.

These colorful stuffed peppers fit the bill.

Since I saw no reason to use half a package of turkey, half a can of beans, half a can of chiles, and so on – the filling makes enough to fill at least 6 peppers, or 12 servings, which is a lot of servings. Instead, this is a wonderful “cook once, eat for two days” recipe. With some lettuce or taco shells, the filling is perfect for a main dish salad, lettuce wraps, or tasty tacos for lunch or dinner the next day.

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Peggy’s ex-husband, Kevin along with his girlfriend, Sushil, hosted a graduation party on Sunday for the kids and for Sushil’s son, Neeraj, who is also a proud high school graduate.

The food was mostly Mexican with a little Indian and vegetarian thrown in. There were chips and Kevin’s famous (and fabulous) salsa, guacamole, queso dip, and samosas for appetizers. Freshly made margaritas, beer, wine, and Samme’s Bloody Mary bar for drinks. And the main meal – I know, that already sounded like enough, but there was much more – including Peggy’s beans and rice, Kevin’s beef brisket tacos, Sushil’s butternut squash tacos, vegetarian and chicken enchiladas, and finally – this salad that Sushil made.

I requested the recipe from Sushil and she told me she found it on foodnetwork.com but made it her own by adding a bunch of cilantro. Good call – it’s another great refreshing summer salad to add to your repertoire.

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By far, our favorite tapas while visiting Barcelona were jamón ibérico and patatas bravas. If you’re interested, you can read more about jamón ibérico HERE.

And if you happen to have $630 to spare, you can purchase a whole bone-in jamón ibérico de bellota (the highest quality of jamón ibérico) HERE. If you go to that extravagance, I hope and pray that you’ll invite me over!

When we had our Spanish party over a week ago, we did not have jamón ibérico. I could not find it, so we had to settle with prosciutto. Prosciutto is delicious in its own right, but a sorry substitute for the fabulously famous Spanish ham.

Luckily, we did not have to settle when it came to the patatas bravas (brave potatoes) – they were just as good as those we enjoyed in Spain. What makes them so tasty and crispy is the double-frying of the potatoes along with the spiciness of the pimentón sauce.

You’ll use two varieties of pimentón; smoked sweet and smoked hot. Both are easy to find and well priced at Home Goods or Amazon.

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If you’re anything like me, you have a variety of open olive jars in your refrigerator. And if so, then this recipe is for you!

I had partial jars of stuffed olives, pitted olives, black olives, green olives, and olives with the pits still inside. Any and all of those can be used here.

So clean out your fridge and make a great addition to a tapas bar at the same time.

Tapas Bar Olives

16 ounces of a variety of olives
3 long slices of orange peel
4 fresh bay leaves
1 small hot red pepper, cut into thin circles
Olive oil

Place a third of the olives in a large jar with a tight-fitting lid. Add an orange peel strip, a bay leaf, and a couple of pepper slices to the olives.

Top with another third of the olives, another bay leaf, and a few more pepper slices.

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I have a confession. It is really hard to get back into the swing of cooking and cleaning and real-life after nearly 3 weeks of being out-of-town and having company. I have no drive or motivation to do … ANYTHING!

Dave is knee-deep in tax season, so we are like ships in the night.

Connor works from 2:30 PM to midnight, five to six days a week, so he’s rarely home for dinner.

And although I didn’t have jet lag in the usual sense, I now realize that although I wasn’t waking up in the middle of the night… I am tired all day long!

I mean, when 3:30 or 4:00 hits each afternoon… I’m ready for bed! It takes all my power to stay up. Seriously, I feel like I need toothpicks to hold my eyes open! I think the latest I’ve hit the sack since our house-guests left is 8:00 PM. My usual bedtime is 10:30 or 11:00.

Enough of my first-world woes. I did get somewhat inspired by a package of sausage, of all things.

It’s a really good sausage! Aidells sausage from Costco. And one of my favorite flavors ~ Habanero with Pepper Jack!

I went on the Aidells website and found a recipe to zip up to our liking. Here is one of the two sausage dishes we had for dinner on Sunday night…

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