Cook Crook Creation: Heirloom Tomato and Blue Cheese Salad

Nothing gets my attention more during the summer than tomatoes! I am especially a sucker for heirloom tomatoes, the various colors and tart flavor are a treat! I really wanted to showcase the tomatoes as well as make something with a lot of flavor so I pulled out one of my other favorite ingredients: blue cheese.

Blue cheese, especially the quality kind purchased from a specialty store or a grocery with a good cheese case, is strong so a little goes a long way. It also has a natural saltiness so extra salt is often not needed. For this creation, I decided to go very basic: simply red wine vinegar, red onion, olive oil, the blue cheese and tomatoes and some fresh ground black pepper.

The result was a very pretty and fresh tasting salad that went perfect with that evenings grilled ribeye steaks. It reminded me of the days when my mom would bring in ripe tomatoes from out garden, slice them and then crumble blue cheese on top of them. I think the heirlooms are beautiful and their acidity combined with the blue cheese creates a nice bite of flavor.

Steal of the Week: Black Bean and Mango Salsa

A dear friend of mine came for a visit and of course I wanted to cook some yummy stuff for her! We have the same likes and when I saw that mangoes were on sale at the local grocery store for $1 a piece, I immediately thought about making mango salsa. I found a pretty good recipe in my trusty The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook ( I also recommend Best of America's Test Kitchen: The Year's Best Recipes, Equipment Reviews.) The fact that it also called for black beans and I was sold. Of course I made modifications as I always do. In this case I omitted the pineapple juice (I have NEVER had a mango salsa with pineapple juice)and replaced it with red wine vinegar and I omitted the jalapeno and replaced it with cayenne.

Black Bean and Mango Salsa

Ingredients

• 1 - 15.5 oz can black beans, rinsed
  
• 1 - mango, peeled, pitted, chopped fine
  
• 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped fine
  
• 1/4 cup minced red onion
  
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
  
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
  
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
  
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
  
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
  
• To taste sugar, salt and pepper
  

Combine all of the ingredients, seasoning at the end with a little sugar (I probably used about 1/4 teaspoon) and fresh ground pepper and Kosher salt to taste. The result was sweet and spicy and delicious. I served it with the spicy grilled shrimp and basmati rice and the next day we were eating leftovers of it right out out of the bowl with tortilla chips!

Summer Drinks!

Between Pinterest and Facebook and all of the other food blogs I follow, there is an endless selection of summer beverages. From the lime sherbet margaritas to various fruit sangria, Summer appears to be the season of imbibing! I developed a drink based on a delicious one I had out in Arizona: blue lemonade .

I can't get enough of fruit juices and the various combinations with different liquors. Next up is a martini I tried that was Captain Morgan's, Amaretto and pineapple and cranberry!!

Happy sipping!

Link to Love: MyPodCooks!

Okay so maybe this is a little self-promotion but my first cooking article was published for the new website mypodcooks.com. I will hopefully be a regular contributor writing articles and sharing new recipes. The best part for me is being part of a new site devoted to one of my favorite things!

Take a look at my first published recipe:
http://www.mypodcooks.com/quickandeasy/articles/pan-seared-scallops-with-bacon-and-spinach

This dish was AMAZING...so much so I made it twice in two weeks!

Check out the site and look for more articles from me in the future.

Wordless Wednesday: Happy 4th of July!