3 Salads Recipes

Salads are delicious, great for spring and summer. We love salads any time of the year. When hot outside we want the oven off. Salads are great for side dish or for lunch. What's your favorite salad? Leave a comment below.

Recipe Here

Recipe Here

Recipe Here

Until next time,

Christine

Winner Corn

I forgot to take picture, so I went to my pantry and took picture of can corn. We love corn but corn on the cob is best.

Ingredients:

1 - 15.5 can corn, I didn't drain

salt and pepper, to taste

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 tablespoon roasted garlic herb

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon butter

Directions:

In sauce pan, over medium heat. Mix all ingredients together. Serve warm.

Until next time,

Christine

Zucchini and Tomato Skillet

Zucchini is a summer squash. Meaning zucchini harvested while immature. The rind is tender and edible. Botanically zucchini is a fruit. In the culinary world it's treated like a vegetable. It's harvested when it reaches 9 to 10 inches long, it loses taste if it grows longer than 9 to 10 inches. 

Zucchini was developed in Italy in 19 century near Milan. Their name comes for an Italian word, squash ("zucca"). The other name courgette comes from French for this vegetable. Zucchini came to North America in 1920s, may have been brought by Italian immigrants. Good chance is was first cultivation in California. People in USA, Canada and Australia call it the Italian name, Zucchini. In South Africa is called "baby marrow." 

Zucchini like the temperate climate and is easy to cultivate. Farmers try to control production by harvesting the flower, which can be sold at high cost, due to it's consider a delicatessen. They required a great number of bees for pollination. 

Zucchini very healthy, because they contain folate, vitamin A and potassium. As mention, they are harvested when very young for good taste. 

Zucchini can be eaten raw in salad, or grilling, frying, steam, boil and baking. 

Zucchini flowers are stuffed, battered and than deep fried. Tempura, Japanese dish.  

Mexicans like to use zucchini in soup. Quesadillas for a filling. 

Easy way to cook zucchini is slice it with skin on cooked in butter or olive oil with seasonings.

In Bulgarian, they cook zucchini as a snack, serve with dip. 

Egyptians, cook zucchini in tomato sauce with onions and garlic. 

History by Vegetable Facts

Asian Flavor Green Beans

These green beans reflects the Asian flavor. They'll make everyone want to eat their vegetables, even the picky eater. 

Green Bean with Mushroom Saute

Today, black pepper is such a common pantry item. It was once so valuable that it was used as currency. We take it for granted, but the majority of savory recipes include black pepper as an ingredient.

Steamed Asparagus

Asparagus became widely available in America during Colonial times.  

Parsley Potatoes

Whenever possible, choose fresh parsley over the dried form of the herb since it is superior in flavor. Choose fresh parsley that is deep green in color and looks fresh and crisp.

Sauteed Mushrooms

Look for crimini mushrooms that are firm, plump, clean and brown in color. Those that are wrinkled or have wet slimy spots should be avoided. If your recipe calls for caps only, choose mushrooms that have short stems to avoid waste. Fresh and dried button mushrooms are available throughout the year. 

Potato Packet

Whether mashed, baked , grilled or roasted, people often consider potatoes as comfort food. It is an important food staple and the number one vegetable crop in the world. Potatoes are available year round as they are harvested somewhere every month of the year. 

Stuffed Tomatoes

Tomatoes in North America... "English herbalist William Salmon...In 1687...he left for the New World...He traveled to New England and the Caribbean and practiced medicione in South Carolina...During the early years of the eighteenth century, he began working on his major work, Botanologia; he completed it in 1710. In an early section of the herbal, Salmon revealed that he had seen tomatoes growing in Carolina, which was in 'the South-East part of Florida.'

Roast And Veggies

The Sunday roast is a traditional British main meal served on Sundays (usually in the early afternoon for lunch), consisting of roasted meat, roast potato or mashed potato, with accompaniments such as Yorkshire pudding, stuffing, vegetables and gravy. 

Fancy Green Beans

A delicate looking herb with a penetrating fragrance, thyme is a wonderful addition to bean, egg and vegetable dishes. Both fresh and dried thyme is available in your local supermarket throughout the year.

Thyme leaves are curled, elliptically shaped and very small, measuring about one-eighth of an inch long and one-sixteenth of an inch wide. The upper leaf is green-grey in color on top, while the underside is a whitish color. Along with fresh sprigs of parsley and bay leaves, thyme is included in the French combination of herbs called bouquet garni used to season stock, stews and soups.

Thyme has a long history of use in natural medicine in connection with chest and respiratory problems including coughs, bronchitis, and chest congestion. Only recently, however, have researchers pinpointed some of the components in thyme that bring about its healing effects. The volatile oil components of thyme are now known to include carvacolo, borneol, geraniol, but most importantly, thymol.

Thyme has been used since ancient times for its culinary, aromatic and medicinal properties. The ancient Egyptians used it as an embalming agent to preserve their deceased pharaohs.

In ancient Greece, thyme was widely used for its aromatic qualities, being burned as incense in sacred temples. Thyme was also a symbol of courage and admiration with the phrase "the smell of thyme" being a saying that reflected praise unto its subject. Thyme's association with bravery continued throughout medieval times when it was a ritual for women to give their knights a scarf that had a sprig of thyme placed over an embroidered bee. Since the 16th century, thyme oil has been used for its antiseptic properties, both as mouthwash and a topical application.

Thyme is native to areas such as Asia, southern Europe and the Mediterranean region and is also cultivated in North America.

By http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=77

Skillet Green Beans

Copyright 2011 Christine's Pantry. All rights reserved.

The green bean originates in Central and South America. The green bean was domesticated in ancient times, but researchers can’t say exactly where, although seeds of cultivated forms were found in deposits from Callejon de Huaylas, Peru with a radiocarbon dating of 7680 B.P. and from 7000 B.P. in Tehuacán, Mexico, although atomic mass spectrometry dating contests this dates by measuring the age as only 2, 285 ± 60 B.P.

The green bean was introduced to the Mediterranean upon the return of Columbus from his second voyage to the New World in 1493. In Columbus's diary from November 4, 1492 he describes lands in Cuba planted with faxones and fabas "different than ours." Later he encounterd fexoes and habas that were different than the ones he knew from Spain. Faxones was probably the cowpea and fabas and habas was the fava bean. The beans Columbus found were undoubtedly what is now designated Phaseolus vulgaris .

The earliest depiction of a New World bean in Europe is thought to be the woodcut in the herbal published by Leonhart Fuchs in 1543. The bean spread into the eastern Mediterranean and by the seventeenth century was cultivated everywhere in Italy, Greece, and Turkey. In a 1988 study of the phaseolin structure of the common bean researchers traced the beans now grown in the western Mediterranean as ones originating in the Andes.

The phaselus and phaseolus beans mentioned in the Roman authors Virgil and Columella are now believed to be another leguminous plant in the genus Dolichus , that is, the hyacinth bean. Phaseolus is a New World plant and all the so-called phaseolus from the Old World have been re-classified as vigna .

There are four major cultivated species: P. vulgaris , P. coccineus (scarlet runner bean), P. lunatus (lima or sieva bean), P. acutifolius var. latifolius (tepary bean). A fifth species, P. polyanthus , is cultivated in the New World, but it is not found in Mediterranean cultivation. 

There are today many cultivars of green beans, more than 500, with variations in pod, texture, or seed color, for example the yellow wax beans.

Seed saver exchange, an international network of seed collections based in Iowa, has over 4,000 varieties of beans in their collection and still counting. The best known dry or horticultural beans, such as kidney beans, pinto beans, black beans, and navy beans, are members of this species. So too are most of the familiar bean varieties such as great northern, flageolet, haricots vert, cannellini , borlotti , Jacob's Cattle, Kentucky wonder, Blue Lake, and all the rest.

Horticultural beans are a class of beans grown specifically to be shelled when their seeds are mature. These varieties of horticultural beans usually have maroon-streaked pods and their seeds are two colored. Commercially, beans are either shell beans or pod beans. The pod beans are sold and eaten while still unripe and are called string beans, green beans, snap beans, or pole beans. String beans have over the years been cultivated so that they will be “stringless,” that is, so they do not have the fibrous inedible string along the pod seam. Shell beans are either low bushy plants that don’t need support or climbing (pole) beans which do require support.

By http://www.cliffordawright.com/caw/food/entries/display.php/topic_id/6/id/5/

Skillet Green Beans

Copyright 2011 Christine's Pantry. All rights reserved.

Ingredients:

1 box of frozen green beans, thawed

4 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon garlic powder

pinch crush red pepper

Directions:

Melt butter in a nonstick skillet. Add crushed red pepper. Then add green beans, salt, pepper and garlic powder.Stir well. Heat through, about 8 minutes. Enjoy!

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Copyright 2011 Christine's Pantry. All rights reserved.

Production of Brussels sprouts in the USA began around 1800, when French settlers brought them to Louisiana. The first plantings in California's Central Coast began in the 1920s, with significant production beginning in the 1940s. Currently there are several thousand acres planted in coastal areas of San Mateo, Santa Cruz, and Monterey Counties of California which offer an ideal combination of coastal fog and cool temperatures year round. The harvest season lasts from June through January. They are also grown in Baja California, Mexico, where the harvest season is from December through June.

Much of the United States production is in California, with a smaller percentage of the crop grown in Skagit Valley, WA, where cool springs, mild summers and rich soil abounds and to lesser degree on Long Island, NY. Total United States production is approximately 32,000 tons, with a value of $27 million.

80% to 85% of US production is for the frozen food market, with the remainder for fresh consumption. Once harvested, sprouts last 3 to 5 weeks under ideal near freezing conditions before wilting and discoloring, and about half as long at refrigerator temperature.

By http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels_sprout

Award... I would like to take a moment to thank http://kristygourmet.blogspot.com for this honor. Please take a moment and visit her blog. Her blog is wonderful. I always enjoy reading her post.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Copyright 2011 Christine's Pantry. All rights reserved.

Ingredients:

1 (14 oz) Brussels Sprouts, thawed (I used Pictsweet)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon garlic powder

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large mixing bowl add Brussels sprouts, olive oil, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Toss well. Line a sheet pan with foil and spray with a nonstick cooking spray.  Pour Brussels sprout onto pan and spread out so sprouts are in a single layer.  Roast for 30 to 35 minutes or until lightly browned, crisp and fork tender. Turning once. Serve warm. Enjoy!