I’m still on my summer cooking kick. It’s just so. dang. hot. here. This is the first time I’ve ever lived without air conditioning, and I’m realizing how little my cooking has changed seasonally. When I sit down to plan my meals, the things that keep coming to mind are roast chicken and pot roast and yet, those don’t sound so appealing to make in an 80 degree house. Oh what I wouldn’t give for a grill right about now, but Bear the Grillmaster wants a fancy grill or none at all, and a fancy grill is just not going to happen this summer.

A while back I ordered a salad at a local upscale pub/brewing house type restaurant and absolutely loved it. So once again, I tried to copy.

Tresa’s Steak and Spinach salad with Tomato Vinaigrette

2 bunches of fresh spinach leaves
8 oz of Gorgonzola cheese
small pack of sliced almonds
1 pint of grape tomatoes
1 red onion, chopped
a big hunk of beef

Wash all the vegetables, cut the stems off the spinach, and toss everything together in a bowl. For the beef, the best results would be to grill up a couple of steaks, slice them up, and throw them into the salad. Since I am lacking the grill, I actually pan fried the steaks. It was not wonderful, but it was fine.

Tomato Vinaigrette
2 T olive oil
1/2 onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 can tomato sauce
1 can diced tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
3 T balsamic vinegar
1/4 C red wine
Salt and pepper to taste

In a small saucepan, combine the olive oil, onion, and garlic and sweat on low heat until the onions are translucent. Add all the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Let simmer for about 10 minutes to allow the flavors to meld. Refrigerate until cool, then toss with the salad.

I think this is best served with the dressing cool, and the steak hot, so prepare the dressing ahead of time. Also, this makes a ton of dressing (because 1/2 a can of tomato sauce in the fridge is only asking for trouble, but extra dressing is manageable) so taste as you toss. The finished dressing is chunky and thick and bears a strong resemblance to marinara sauce, so Bear poured it on his salad like he would his pasta and ended up scraping the stuff off his spinach leaves. Use caution.

I really love this dressing because it is so strongly flavored. I usually have mixed feelings about meat in my salads. So often chicken is just tossed on top of any old thing just to give you the protein, but it just doesn’t belong there. At least chicken is mellow enough to be OK, but throw steak on iceberg, and normally it’s kind of gross. With the spinach and the strong cheese and the strong dressing and the onions, it all stands up to the steak enough to actually make it really yummy.

I have been having a total nightmare of a time trying to find stuff to cook. My kitchen is still paint project central, our garbage disposal has decided to give up the ghost, and all of my cookbooks are packed. Then there is the additional problem of being married to the king of meat and potato men and living in a very warm San Diego climate in a house with no AC.

I guess I’ve never managed to be healthy enough to cook regularly during the summer time when I wasn’t working way too much to do anything other than order take out. But considering that in our eight years of marriage I’ve always either worked like a crazy woman or been an utter invalid, (no middle ground for me!) that pretty much figures.

There was a fancy salad/sandwich place I used to go to once a week when I was working the temp job to reward myself for managing to not fall asleep at my desk. It was a place called Croutons (naturally) and they served everything you’d expect a fancy salad place to serve – lots of paninis, a chinese chicken salad, a bbq salad, a ceasar salad, one with walnuts and apples, etc, etc. The only one I hadn’t encountered before was one called a chopped salad. It was full of cheese and salami and garbanzo beans(!) and was crazy delicious. I craved the salad like it was served with meth dressing.

Since this salad was so stuffed with protein, I thought I might actually have a chance of serving it to Bear without too many complaints, and I was right. He really liked it and it managed to fill him up.

Chopped Salad:
1 head of romaine lettuce, torn and washed
1 can garbanzo beans, washed
1 pint of grape tomatoes (pint? that’s the little one, right? You want the little one.)
1 C grated mozzerella cheese
1/2 lb salami, sliced into chunks (have the deli person slice it thick for you) (a mild salami is best)
Homemade croutons
Baked cheddar cheese crisps

Croutons are so easy. Tear up pieces of somewhat stale bread (I used sourdough) toss with olive oil, Parmesan cheese and your choice of herbs (I used rosemary and dill) and then pop in a 325 oven until they’re crispy. It is SOOOOO worth the minor effort. It’s like the difference between a twinkie and an eclair.

Then, make the cheddar cheese crisps. These are even easier. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silpat mat. Then grate a bunch of cheddar cheese on top and spread around until you have a thin layer. Bake at 325 until crispy. When it cools, just crumble on top of the salad.

Throw everything else into a great big bowl and toss.

I tried to whip together a mustard vinaigrette for this, but failed miserably. I tried to just figure it out as I went, but I got crazy with the vinegar and it turned out inedible. Must try actual recipe next time.

Instead, we just used Newman’s Balsamic vinaigrette and it was completely delicious.

I’ve had a note to myself to write about this for weeks. Oops. But hey, the summer’s not over yet, surely we’ll all have more BBQ’s and picnics that call for yummy baked beans. If not, well hey, the note is not going to keep till next year.

We spent the 4th up at Bear’s folks place, but we came from our early anniversary date in LA, so I had to make my contribution to the picnic there in someone else’s kitchen with all different stuff than I’m used to, and with no recipes since mine are all still packed up. So I did what I always do in a pinch, I went to foodnetwork.com and looked for a recipe by Alton Brown. That man has never steered me wrong. I came across this recipe which looked great for a starter, and then I monkeyed with it a little bit. But a very little bit because Alton can always be trusted. I just didn’t have two days for bean making, so I had to improvise.

Tresa’s Spicy On the Fly Beans
2 cans Great Northern beans
1 pound bacon, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 large can tomato paste
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
dash of liquid smoke (optional, don’t go buying liquid smoke just for this)
red pepper flakes to taste
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons kosher salt
Random spice mixtures if you’ve got em.

Place a big fat pot or skillet over medium heat and stir the bacon and onions together until enough fat has rendered from the bacon to soften the onions, about 5 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste, dark brown sugar, and molasses.

Add the beans including all the liquid to the bacon mixture. Bring to a boil over high heat. Add in cayenne, black pepper, red pepper, liquid smoke and salt. This is also a good place to use any miscellaneous spice mixtures you having cluttering up your spice cabinet. My Mother-in-law had some big tub of Emeril spices lying around, so I dumped a little of that in. If I was at home I would have used this great spice rub mix I got from my favorite BBQ restaurant.

Turn the heat down to a low simmer and allow to cook for at least 20 minutes, but the longer the better. Serve immediately.

My friend Schelle and I were having one of our marathon phone conversations the other day. The kind where you’ve been talking for an hour and don’t have anything new to say, so instead of just getting off the phone like a sane person would, you end up going around the house doing your chores together. I was planning my meals for the week and she was cleaning out her pantry when she told me about a recipe she invented that her family just loved, and she loved it because it was a leftover meal that was very nearly a free nights cooking.

She said that on Sunday, she would throw a pot roast in the crock pot and they’d eat that one night with vegetables. Then on Monday night she’d take the leftover pot roast, shred it, and simmer it in a yummy sauce to make sloppy joes. She gave me the following recipe which she has graciously allowed me to share with all of you. All measurements are approximate:

Schelle’s Sloppy Joes
Leftover pot roast
1 C tomato soup
1 1/2 to 2 T Worcestershire sauce
1/4 C onion, diced
1/4 C green pepper, diced
1/2 tsp salt
2 T vinegar
1/4 t garlic
1/4 C brown sugar
1 t chili powder
6 to 10 drops tabasco sauce

Saute onions and peppers in butter. Add all other sauce ingredients and cook till warm. Shred meat and add to sauce. Simmer for 20 minutes to an hour. The longer the better. Serve on good rolls.

This sounded great to me so I wrote it all down, but I didn’t label it “Schelle’s Sloppy Joe Recipe,” I just scribbled it on the back of my grocery list. So by the time I got around to actually remembering to defrost the roast in time to cook it, I had forgotten all the actual instructions. I had in fact forgotten that it was a sloppy joe recipe. I thought I had written down her recipe for pot roast.

So I sauteed the onions and peppers, I mixed up the sauce, I chopped up potatoes and carrots, threw it all in the crock pot and set the thing on high.

Then I saw I had written something about shredding the meat and a lightbulb went off in my head. I was super disappointed because I thought I had just ruined the dinner I had spent days forgetting to make. I decided that since I had already put the work in, I might as well just let ‘er rip and see what came out.

Turns out, I can out-Martha Martha even without reading the instructions.

It was so incredibly good. Apparently, I just invented a crock pot swiss steak recipe. I did go on to make the sloppy joes, which were very very good themselves, but I was more thrilled with the swiss steak because I fell butt first into this great little concoction.

So I give you all my wonderful new recipe. I’m very proud.

Schelle's Sloppy Joes Tresa's Swiss Steak 

Leftover Pot Roast Big Hunk of Raw Roast
1 C tomato soup
1 1/2 to 2 T Worcestershire sauce
1/4 C onion, diced
1/4 C green pepper, diced
1/2 tsp salt
2 T vinegar
1/4 t garlic
1/4 C brown sugar
1 t chili powder
6 to 10 drops tabasco sauce

Saute onions and peppers in butter. Wonder why you need to cook the onions for a pot roast. Shrug your shoulders and don’t think about it too hard. Realize you didn’t buy tomato soup so scour your shelves for some tomato based product you can add to the mix. Figure watered down tomato paste would work fine. Toss it all together. Chop potatoes and carrots and throw in the crock pot. Drop hunk of meat on top. Slather tomatoey sauce all over the top. Wonder how carrots would taste cooked in tomatoes. Put the lid on and turn the crock pot on high. Ignore until it smells really good. Get lucky.