This rich and colorful salsa comes together quickly. It is important to seed the tomatoes, otherwise the salsa will be watery. To seed, simply cut each tomato in half and squeeze out the seeds and juices, then dice.

I served this salsa, along with Cheddar Cheese Button Crackers, Mini Crab Cake BLT’s, Crudités Garden Bowl with hummus, and Elote’s De Lujo Margaritas on Friday night for a Stella & Dot jewelry party I hosted for my friend and neighbor, Amy (Amy of the famous Amy’s Taco Soup).

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I am just getting around to using up the remaining radicchio and Napa cabbage from this post. And I’ll be using a favorite dressing that I’ve already told you about as well, so use the link in the ingredient list for the dressing recipe. I used a portion of the greens already for fish tacos and I’ll share that recipe in a few days. Not much more to say, time is short, so I am just happy to get dinner on the table and have time to post the recipe and keep the streak alive… 71 and counting.

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Last night’s “Blog 2-Year Celebration Cookbook Happy Hour” was a great success and so much fun. Thank you to all the lovely ladies who attended, a few of them are shown here.

One of the many people missing in the photos is Chef Gwen Walters. Unfortunately, in the one photo she was in, she was nearly unrecognizable… looking very incognito in a baseball cap and with a fan in front of her face. Kind of like a restaurant critic or something…. well that makes sense, she is a restaurant critic, so maybe it was intentional… hmmm? I’ve mentioned here before that Gwen is the queen of smoothies; she is also the queen of Tweets. So generous with her promotion of others. Last night she tweeted out a picture of the party. Even pictures from her iPhone are better than the ones I take with an actual camera… check this out.

When the guests arrived, this is what greeted them at the front door.

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The cobb salad was created nearly 80 years ago at the famous Hollywood Brown Derby restaurant and has been an American favorite ever since. I prefer to serve it as individual salads as opposed to presenting on a large platter.  That way it looks lovely for each guest. If served on a platter, it looks great for the first guest or two, but by the end of the line, all the “goodies” on top are either gone or mashed into a nasty looking mess.

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Hello everyone. Linda’s daughter, Marissa, here – reporting with your recipe for today.  As part of my Mother’s Day gift to my mom, I told her I would photograph and write blog posts for the two recipes my dad and I (but mostly me) made her last night for dinner.  My dad was in charge of keeping the cucumber martinis coming, which was also a very important job.  The first recipe is a delicious, fruity summer salad that my mom saw on the menu at Cave Creek Coffee Company, where she and my dad went the morning after their anniversary last week.

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Before I get into the recipes for soup shooters and grilled cheese bites, I want to say Happy Anniversary to David, my husband of 26 years. xoxo  And I want to tell you the story of the cute shooter glasses I found.

I was in Pier 1 Imports about a month ago and saw a great display they have up with an wide and wonderful assortment of mini glasses for a “Tasting Party”. They have mini cordials, mini parfait, mini trifle, mini wine, and mini martini glasses. I was immediately in love with the whole concept and had to hold myself back from buying at least one set of each. Part of what prevented that happening, was the price. Most of the sets were $29.95 each. That would not have been a “mini” amount to spend! So I resisted and just purchased one 24-piece set of the mini parfaits to use as soup shooters.

Once I got home, I looked more closely and saw that the 24-piece set was actually only 12 glasses and included 12 mini spoons. Darn it! That meant I’d just spent $2.50 per glass. But this mistake lead me on the hunt for comparable mini shooters at a reasonable price.

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Do you know what this is a picture of?

It’s the Girl Scout cooking badge.  I’ll be working with 10 young ladies, helping them earn their badges today. A recipe will follow from the class, once I’ve cleaned up the kitchen, that is…

OK, class of over. The girls have their badges. The kitchen is clean and I’ve had my enchilada for dinner. Life if good! One reason I like to use this particular recipe for Girl Scout cooking classes is because it is a real family-pleaser. The enchiladas are creamy, mild, and cheesy, what’s not to like?

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Today we come to the end of our “Cook Once – Eat All Week” use of the Prime Rib.  I call this salad “bicicleta” because the way you arrange it on a platter is made to resemble the spokes of a bicycle wheel.  It’s a pretty salad when it’s laid out that way and even after it’s tossed, so bright and colorful.

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I’ve made these sliders so many times in the past couple of weeks, that I’m afraid they’ve worn out their welcome. When I first made them, all family members were clamoring for more. So I made them again and everyone raved. After FINALLY freeing the house of all things “Christmas” yesterday, I served them again, and this time… the response was barely lukewarm. Oh well, onward and upward.

Give them at try, at least once, I’m sure your family will be delighted. BTW, the reason for the odd amount  (1 1/4 pounds) of ground turkey – that is what our grocery stores sell as a package size, but if you find a 1 pound package, that is fine too. And the buns that I find most readily available are of the King’s Hawaiian Bread variety. I kinda like the sweetness of the bread against the spiciness of the chipotle. Perfect yin-yang.

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I call these A++ BLT Biscuits because we have both avocado and arugula. No actual lettuce to be seen. Although we need the “T”, because if I was to call them BAT, no one would know what I was talking about… but say BLT, and it brings a smile to most every face! My plan was to serve these as an appetizer at a party I had last Friday. As the time approached and I still hadn’t cleaned the house, or even taken a shower… this was the recipe that was sacrificed. I replaced it with something I had in my freezer but I still have all the purchased ingredients in my fridge.  What to do? Make the biscuits sandwich size instead of appetizer size and serve them for dinner to Dave and Marissa. Perfect, and both of them had smiling faces and tummies! Click on the chipotle mayonnaise below and it will take you to a previous post with the directions to make it. Lastly, I don’t know if my gorgeous niece, Raina, reads this blog… but even if not, I send out a huge Happy 25th Birthday to you, Raina! xoxo

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