It’s baseball time. That and the summer fruits and veggies are two of the things I like most about summer (two of the most or two of the only?).
I grew up rooting for the Blue Jays. My brother and I jumped and cheered so hard when they won the World Series (I don’t remember if it was the first or the second one) that we knocked our VCR off the TV and it fell and made a dent in the wall.
I love baseball. It’s the only sport that I will sit down and watch. I know some find it boring. Not me.
My team is the Red Sox now. I will always be a bit of a Jays fan, but when we watched the Red Sox win the World Series over our 1st anniversary trip in 2007, we fell in love. And they became our team. Husband didn’t love baseball coming into our marriage. That was something that I brought. So it’s been something that we’ve grown to love to do together. We watch our team. We eat hot dogs and chili, we drink Blue Moon, we holler at the umps when they make terrible calls, we laugh at how much Don and Jerry laugh during their broadcast… We just love it. We hope to go to Fenway Park soon to see the Red Sox live… Hope hope hope…
In the meantime, we’ll watch at home. We’d watch every game if we could. And every year we look forward to the All Star Game. In part because it’s baseball, but also because it’s an excuse to have a themed dinner.
Bacon and Egg Burgers with Spicy Roasted Potato Salad:Â Bacon and egg on a burger is a good idea. Roasting potatoes and making them into a Potato Salad is amazing. Eating these together… mind blown!
We love themed dinners around here. Often on Saturdays we’ll have something basebally (that’s totally a word… right?) to eat while we watch the game. Since we’re usually watching from our living room, if we want a hot dog to eat, we’ve got to cook it ourselves.
Done.
The hot dogs that we eat come from Llano Seco Organic Pork. If I’m going to eat a hot dog, this is the one I’m gonna have! I think what I like the very best about them: I can pronounce all of the ingredients on the list (the first two being organic pork and organic beef) and there are no nitrites or nitrates added (“except for those occurring naturally in sea salt and celery powder”). Winner! (PS They also sell bacon. It is literally the best bacon I have ever had. Ever.)
Along with those hot dogs are some Braised Beans. They cook long enough to get a little creamy and so so so thick. Mmmm, better than you could get at the ballpark I think (although I’ll admit that there’s just something about that ballpark food that’s so yummy… we just won’t talk about what’s really in the nacho cheese, ok?!).
It feels like it’s one bazillion degrees out. So I refuse to cook today. I will, however, gladly eat a salad with chicken, veggies, and almonds, topped with a Honey-Dijon Dressing. Yes, yes I will.
You can use your favorite summer veggies. I’m using what I have on hand (and what I think will taste good). This salad is great in the wintertime too, with broccoli and cauliflower instead of tomatoes and bell peppers. If it were a few months earlier we’d be using sugar snap peas and sprouts.
I used leftover chicken. It makes this salad a synch to make. But, cooking up a chicken breast or two isn’t all that difficult, so don’t let a lack of leftovers deter you.
You could omit the chicken and add some crispy tofu, or tempeh. Do what works for you, with the ingredients that you have in your kitchen!
This can be a main dish, or it would be great alongside a chicken that’s been roasted and brushed with some of the dressing. Ooh, or you could grill it and then brush with dressing… I’m gonna have to try that some time… it sounds really good!
