Simple Summer Salad

Oh how I love summer and everything about it. The lightning bugs, long days, and lemonade. The popsicles, sandals, and grilling. And with grilling you always need a simple side dish. This pasta salad is simple and quick to make. You can vary the ingredients how you prefer. This pasta salad is my go to salad when I need a side dish with a great burger.

Simple Pasta Salad
16 oz. tri-color rotini pasta, cooked according to package directions
pepperoni, cut in half
shredded cheddar cheese
chopped tomato
McCormick Salad Supreme seasoning
Italian Dressing

Cook and drain pasta according to package directions. Be sure to rinse the noodles in cold water! This stops the cooking process and doesn't heat up the ingredients or melt the cheese!

Chop the pepperoni and tomatoes, add them to a bowl along with the cheese. The amount you use with each ingredient depends on how much you want. You can also add other vegetables such as cucumber or radishes. You can also use cubed ham in place of the pepperoni.

Add the cold pasta to the bowl. Toss with the vegetables. Add the dressing to coat. Add a couple palmfuls of the salad supreme seasoning and mix (the salad supreme mix is my secret to give this salad more umph!)

Mix to make sure the seasoning gets incorporated and the noodles get coated. Chill and enjoy!

Try this salad with some tasty ground pork burgers or roast beef sandwiches!

Slow Cooker Roast Beef Sandwiches

In the summer we grill. A lot. Once in a while I like to use my slow cooker, especially on a rainy day when grilling can get wet and soggy. One of my favorite summer recipes for the slow cooker is roast beef sandwiches. I cook the beef in the slow cooker and then shred it at the end of the day for juicy sandwiches with tons of flavor. You just can't go wrong with these roast beef sandwiches!

Roast Beef Sandwiches
beef roast (your preference of cut and size)
1 packet onion gravy mix
1 packet au jus mix
pepper, to taste
1 cup water

Combine everything in a slow cooker and cook on low for 4-6 hours. I don't add any salt because I think that the gravy mixes give it enough.

After 4-6 hours, I let the meat sit in the slow cooker on the keep warm setting for several hours before I touch it. After the meat has set in the slow cooker, take it out and shred it. Then put it back in the slow cooker to soak in all the juices for about a half hour to an hour before serving. This step is very important!

Serve on buns with your favorite toppings. The meat will just melt in your mouth and the bun will soak up some of the juice. It's hard to eat just one sandwich!
You can also use the juice in the cooker as an au jus dip if you want to make french dip sandwiches. It has a ton of flavor from the gravy mixes and juices from the meat.

However you like to eat your sandwiches, this is a simple recipe that makes flavorful, juicy meat. Enjoy!

Linking up to Hunk of Meat Mondays!

Ground Pork Burgers

If there is one thing that I make on the grill that is my hubby's favorite, it's these ground pork burgers. With onion and cheese, these burgers satisfy the need for a burger that is a little different!

Ground Pork Burgers
1 pound ground pork
chopped onion
shredded cheese
salt
pepper

Chop the onion. Add it to a bowl with the shredded cheese. The amount you use depends on your taste, although if you use too much it will be hard for the burgers to stay together.

Add the ground pork and the salt and pepper. Don't be afraid to add a little more salt. The salt will help to absorb some of the moisture and help the burgers to bind. I probably add about a teaspoon.

Make as many patties as you wish. I usually make four patties for us.

Grill on a preheated grill until done. They will stick to the grates and make a mess, so it is a good idea to grease them first. Except I usually am too lazy to do that.

Serve with tomato, onion, lettuce, cheese, jalapeno, and any other topping you wish! My hubby prefers mayonnaise. I eat mine chopped up with pork and beans. My daughter eats hers by dipping in ketchup.

Happy grilling!

Valentine's Day 2012

I know it's not Valentine's Day anymore, but a post about it is better late than never, right? We had a great Valentine's Day this year. We were able to celebrate as a family and enjoy a meal together! With the heifers calving that does not happen much this time of year! Hubby is also busy loading out hogs and getting the barn ready for new ones. There's always something to do on the farm!

 Holly and I made a heart shaped pizza, using my homemade pizza recipe. I let her help me spread the sauce and add the toppings. She had a blast and it was great to spend the time together! I think that she will like cooking as much as me!

Holly and I got flowers at school from Daddy. She loved it! I got her from daycare so that she could see them. I wish I would have had my camera. The look on her face was priceless. She was trying to smell them and smiled when I told her they were from Daddy. She is such a Daddy's girl!

 
I also made cupcakes for Holly to take for treats to daycare and some for us at home. As you can see I did not get a chance to decorate them. Holly took off with my red frosting before I could use it! (It showed up a few days later, although I don't actually know where it was. I swear I looked everywhere for it!)

We bought David this picture. He is a very proud farmer and I thought this would be a nice tribute to that. I bought the picture online at Old West Cedar Mill.

I hope that all of you had a great Valentine's Day and got to celebrate with your loved ones!

Miscellaneous Monday: A Favorite for Monday

I just wanted to share with you one of my favorite songs this morning. Everyone needs a feel good song on a Monday morning! Enjoy your week!




Linking up to miscellany monday over at lowercase letters!

S'mores Bars

I am definitely a summer gal and I love everything that comes with summer. I especially like summer foods. Nothing beats a juicy burger off the grill with a tall glass of lemonade and fresh sweet corn. I even like cooking hot dogs over the campfire. And I LOVE s'mores over the campfire! I recently found a recipe for s'mores bars on Pinterest that I thought I would try and they were delish! I can now have s'mores year round, even during a blizzard (given I have electricity)! If you like s'mores as much as I do, you need to make these! You can find the original recipe here.

You need:
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 king-sized milk chocolate bars (I used 4 regular sized bars because that is what I had)
1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (not melted marshmallows)
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Add in the egg and vanilla. Add the flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt and mix at a low speed until combined. Divide the dough in half and press one half into the bottom of your pan. I used my handy Baker's Roller. It made it real easy and left a nice ridge on the edge.

Put your chocolate bars on top. The original recipe says that two king size bars will fit about perfectly in the pan. I had regular bars so that is what I used.

Spread the marshmallow cream on top of the chocolate.

Spread the other half of the dough on top. I flattened pieces with my hands and pieced them together to make a top crust. It worked for me best this way.

Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.

Cool before cutting, if you can wait! Don't these just look fabulous?

Linking up my new favorite remind me of summer treat to Made From Scratch Tuesdays with From Mess Hall to Bistro!

Jalapeno Stuffed Burgers

We are about to fill our freezer with beef next week! Ooh, yummy! In order to get ready for this, we cook as much beef as we can to make room! I have been making a lot of beef dishes lately. Now, however, all I have left is ground beef. I don't really want to heat up the kitchen with outside temperatures so hot, so I have been enjoying being able to use my grill! Since we have been eating a lot of burgers, I have been thinking of how to make the mundane burger a little more interesting. So last night I added a jalapeno popper in the middle! A jalapeno stuffed burger with a side of homemade onion rings! Perfect for the hubby who loves jalapeno poppers! And perfect for me since I love onion rings!


I started out by cooking my jalapeno poppers. I cook them first so that they aren't undercooked when the burgers are done.

Then I got my burgers ready. I added some salt and pepper to the ground beef and mixed it all up with my hands.

Then I shaped the patties. Again, I just used my hands and I made the patties kind of thin since I would be doubling them up and adding a middle!

I put a popper on the two thin patties that I made.

Then I covered them with another thin patty and sealed the edges. 

I made two jalapeno popper stuffed patties, one regular, and one mini burger for Holly. 

Grill until they are done. I had them on for about 4-5 minutes on each side. I wanted to make sure that they were done and the cream cheese in the popper melted! Serve with topping of your choice! Hubby really likes cheese, lettuce, and tomato. He dipped the burgers in my homemade ranch dressing, too!

Now, for the onion rings. I really don't do anything special for this. But I will tell you that using vidalia onions is what we do since they are a sweeter onion. I also salt the onion rings as they come out of the fryer to bring out more flavor. They taste better this way!

Do you have any interesting burger recipes that I could try? I'd love more suggestions!


Linking up to Hunk Of Meat Monday with Beyer Beware!