Summer Cooking

In the summer, when it is hot, I do a lot of salads for dinner.  And with my garden in full swing now, I try to use what I am harvesting that day.  Since the cabbage is looking so ready, I decided to make a Chinese Chicken Salad. 

I had just picked up a rotisserie chicken at Sam's.  I had everything I needed except the Ramen noodles that I had to run out buy.  I had brought in a pretty good harvest yesterday, and in addition to the cabbage and cilantro, green onions, and sweet peas for the salad, I put together a little produce package to send home with Erika.

My friend Thea asked me if I had tried making any of the stuffed zucchini blossoms yet.  I have not, but have been wanting to.  I think they are so pretty when they are open in the morning. 
Today, since I had more cabbage to use, I decided to cook a pork tenderloin, and make a slaw for the pulled pork sandwiches. 
I put the pork in the crock pot about 10:00 this morning.  In addition to the pork, I added a large onion  roughly chopped, three jalapeno peppers chopped, seeds and all, about 6 cloves of garlic, chopped, salt and pepper, cumin, about 1/4 cup, or so of brown sugar, and one can Pepsi.

Turn crock pot to high, put lid on, and cook for several hours.  At about 4:00, I added one jar of BBQ sauce, and put lid back on until 6:00.  I then shredded the pork with two forks, and reduced heat to low.

Meanwhile, I shredded another smaller head of cabbage, and added it to a mixture of rice vinegar, soy sauce, teriyaki, and a wee bit of sesame oil.

Toss the cabbage in the sauce to coat well.   I let it sit in the mixture for a little while.  Oh, I added a handful of sesame seeds too.
I served it on toasted hamburger buns. 

TO DIE FOR delicious!  I ate alone tonight, because Greg had a double header.  But I packed him up a pulled pork sandwich with the slaw on the side so it won't get soggy, and a nice salty dill pickle.
Tonight when I was watering the garden and seeing what I could harvest, I filled a big bucket of fresh produce.

Cabbage, broccoli, zucchini, yellow squash, green beans, sweet peas, cucumbers, jalapeno peppers, and lots and lots of tomatoes!
Here it is all washed, and packaged to put in the fridge to use and share this week.

After trimming up the cabbage, I have all of these huge leaves left.  They will go to feed to the chickens.

You can see that there has been some munching on the leaves.  Probably by grasshoppers.  Those outer leaves peel away, and the cabbage inside is completely untouched.  I will put these leaves in the outside fridge to give to the girls later.  The rest of the pieces go into my compost crock that I will add to the compost bin in the garden when the crock is full.

Nothing goes to waste.  What is not consumed by us, the chickens get.  The rest goes into the composting bin, and back to the earth after the process is complete. 
What are you cooking this week?  Summer salads?   Do you garden?  Do you go to Farmer's Market and cook with fresh produce?  Cooking what is in season is the best! 
Oh, and one more thing.  I was in Sam's the other day, and ran into a friend.  She had several bags of this stuff in her cart.  She said it was soooo good!  I didn't buy any that day, but saw it at Sprouts the following day and bought a bag.  Greg and I were nuts about it! 

We are big popcorn lovers here.  Greg makes it for us with his whirly popper all the time.  I kid you not, this tastes just like freshly popped corn!!

But buy it in the big bags at Sam's.  Much cheaper.  This will be a staple in our house!!!!
We are mid week!  I am looking forward to the weekend.  How about you?
XO  Kris