Black Bean Salad with Grilled Veggies

As we get into summer, the challenge for me is to keep things cool. My specialty dishes tend to be things that are heavy, warming, and exactly the wrong thing you want to eat on a hot summer evening. I am always looking for new ideas on tasty things I can put together that work for summer dinners. This black bean salad turned out to be one of the better ones I have tried recently. First things first, I grilled all the vegetables that it made sense to grill, and even one that turned out to NOT be a good idea. 

Plate of grilled veggies

 For the record, grilled onions sounded like a great idea. The only problem was that the execution turned out to be trickier than I initially expected it would be. One of the things about onions is that they are like ogres - they have layers. When onions are raw, these layers stick together really well for the most part. When onions are cooked these layers break apart - like when you cut onions into wedges and try to grill them as I did. The onions broke apart and ended up not as well cooked as I had hoped for, so I had to toss them into a frying pan to give them a quick cook (no oil - high heat) to get them how I had wanted them to be. I do want to try grilling onion again, but might try doing it in rings instead, or trying to hold the layers together with toothpicks.

Full mise en place for the black bean salad

 Once the grilled veggies had cooled somewhat I started assembly on he salad. One can of black beans, one grilled red pepper, one half of a roasted onion (finished in a frying pan), one roasted zucchini, two ears roasted corn, about half a container of cherry tomatoes (raw) and about 4 ounces of Monterey Jack cheese. I cut all the ingredients up into a small chop - about the same size as the black beans (give or take a bit) and put it all in a large serving bowl. I added some salt and pepper, some good chili powder, dried cilantro, some cumin and some smoked paprika. Then I sprinkled it with about two Tbsp of vegetable oil and lime juice. This was then set in the fridge to cool completely and allow the flavors to come together. I didn't measure the spices, I just put stuff on until it tasted good to me.

Completed black bean salad

 This salad was wonderful and versatile. It was fantastic all on it's own, it went great on some warmed tortillas (not homemade today - sorry) or with some taco-flavored beef in a bowl. It was light and flavorful and everything one could probably want on a warm summer evening.

Black bean salad in a bowl

Black bean salad on tortilla 

 So however you plate it up, make sure you grill it up first. The grilled smoky tastes of the grilled veggies really make this salad stand out among some of the other recipes I have tried in the past, and is definitely work your time and worth firing up the grill. Hey, even if you plan on cooking up some burgers and dogs or some chicken later this can always be done earlier in the day or the day before to allow those flavors to come together longer while in the fridge.

What is your favorite cool summer salad? Let me know on Facebook or in the comments below!

New classic combos

Today was a momentous day in our household. My 6-year old attended his final day of kindergarten today, so as a result I decided to make one of his favorite specialty pizzas for him. I also saw a "throwback" on my Facebook feed that reminded me of an absolutely tasty pizza that I had made last year that I just had to make again.

For my son, I made him macaroni and cheese pizza. Well, he only wanted half to have macaroni on it, so I was happy to oblige and cook it how he wanted. I used macaroni and cheese from a box because it was much easier to do with the kids around. I sprinkled the macaroni with a little mozzarella cheese, and then covered the remainder of the pizza with the mozzarella to make it a plain pizza.

Completed half macaroni half plain pizza

For the other pizza, I made one of my favorite brainstorm pizzas ever. My (in)famous cheeseburger pizza. About a year ago I was trying to get out of a rut with my pizza toppings. Sure peppers and onions are tasty and easy to do, but what about something TRULY diabolical? This was my lightbulb moment - when I decided to see if I could make a piece of pizza taste like a cheeseburger.

It starts with the beef

To start off with I cook up about a half pound of 80/20 ground beef until it is brown all the way through. This is seasoned with Worcestershire sauce, onion powder, kosher salt, black pepper and a hint of garlic powder.  Drain the fat and set aside to cool. The next thing I do is chop a half an onion, and then let it sit in some warm water for about a half hour or so. This pulls out some of the pungent compounds from the onion and makes it milder, especially if you aren't going to cook it until it is caramelized in a skillet.

Cheeseburger pizza in process

The next step is to form the pizza dough into the pan, spread a light layer of pizza sauce, and spread around the beef and the onion. Then add some dill pickles (drained of the brine) to the pie. For these I used my own homemade pickles, but you can certainly use store-bought if you have a favorite brand. This all gets topped with sharp yellow cheddar cheese, and then baked in the oven as normal. 

Finished cheeseburger pizza

Let me just say that eating a slice of this pizza tastes like eating a hamburger. You get the meat, the bread, the onion, the tomato, the pickle, everything. I am sure that if you wanted to you could even include mustard on the pie too - if your burger would not be complete without mustard as well. I promise you if you go to the trouble to make this pizza you will NOT be disappointed. What is the craziest thing YOU ever put on a pizza? Maybe the craziest pizza you ate while out at a restaurant? Let me know on Facebook or in the comments below!

Steak fajitas

Often times my wife will send me a recipe that she wants me to try out. Recently she sent me a recipe for steak fajitas that sounded simple and fantastic. Last night I made this dinner, and I will confirm that it is simple, yet fantastic.

One of the things that made this recipe so fantastic was probably the length of time I left the flank steak in the marinade. I had planned to make this recipe before our long weekend trip to see family over Memorial Day weekend, but we were not able to fit it in. So I put the gallon zip top bag containing the steak and the marinade in the freezer. Then this morning I took it out to thaw. Not only was the meat infused with flavor, but it stayed super juicy while being grilled - which is not always an easy task.

Grilled flank steak resting on a cutting board

The rest of the meal was simple. Tortillas - which I made a little ahead from scratch - and sautéed onions and peppers. Serve the meal family style and add in some sliced avocados and you have yourself some simple steak fajitas. The recipe says you can add sour cream and fresh cilantro, but after having them I say they are definitely not necessary.

Steak fajitas dinner

 I grilled the steak outside on my gas grill, about 8 minutes per side. This gave the steak a fantastic medium doneness to the meat, and left it juicy inside. If you prefer your meat a little rarer, you can certainly reduce the cooking time some, but for us this was fantastic.

Cutting flank steak for the meal. 

I am not sure if it was the marinade or the simple magic of grilled steak, but the meat was HEAVENLY. I could have sat there and just ate the meat all night - and so could my wife judging by her reaction to a taste test. Wrapping it up in a tortilla with some onions, peppers and avocado seemed like a little much for such a tasty morsel.

Steak fajita, anyone?

The recipe for the fajitas (which includes the marinade) is available on About.com in their food section, and a link directly to the recipe is HERE. If you want to go whole hog and make the fajitas dinner be my guest. but if you just want to start using this marinade for all your steaks like I do, then you can just go ahead and join me in doing that.