Yesterday, I shared Barb’s Baked Eggs with you – today I’m giving you another of her fabulous recipes! Many thanks to Barbara Fenzl for allowing me to share her Les Gourmettes cooking class recipes with the masses.

Barb made shrimp sliders in class, I made shrimp burgers, with the same recipe and bigger buns, at home. My family went crazy for them!

One super-smart thing Barb does with her sliders – is she cuts out the center section of the King’s Hawaiian rolls, making them a more manageable size. When you eat it, you get less bun in each bite and more shrimp.

She saved all the center portions of the buns from all six of her classes and used them in her Thanksgiving stuffing. See, I told you she was super-smart!

King’s makes hamburger buns too, so I used the buns in place of the rolls, changing the sliders to burgers. Either way … Delish!

Note: I was feeding a crowd, so I doubled the recipe and made 12 burgers out of 2 pounds of shrimp. The recipe, as written, would have made 6 burgers and makes 12 sliders. Don’t let the photos vs. the recipe quantities confuse you.

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Roasted vegetables are one of the most versatile foodstuffs to have on hand.

Case in point – I roasted up a bunch of vegetables last week for a meeting I had here at the house.

I used a few cups of the finished product for mini-pita sandwiches, which were devoured between the meeting attendees and my guys, after the meeting.

A couple of nights later I used them to make enchiladas for dinner.

And all week long, I added them to scrambled eggs for breakfast.

No need for the sandwich or egg recipes; just stuff mini-pita halves and warm in a skillet before stirring in a couple of beaten eggs. The enchilada recipe is below.

The link for how to roast the veggies has three more recipes using roasted vegetables. The only difference in how I roasted them this time, was instead of using olive oil, I sprayed the foil-lined pans with Pam, placed the vegetables on the foil, and then sprayed the vegetables again with Pam before seasoning with salt and pepper and place in the oven.

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Isn’t this tart beautiful?

You will not believe what this ultra-rich and creamy dessert is made with.  And believe it or not, it is all raw. No baking involved, perfect for Arizona summers.

This is the final recipe I will be sharing with you from my full-day cooking class at Ballymaloe Cookery School in Ireland.

I have saved the best for last.

When I first heard what the secret ingredient was, I was certain that I would not like this dessert. Oh, how wrong I was! You’ll have to read the recipe and check out the photos to see what I’m talking about. I don’t want to give it away quite yet.

Instead of a tart pan, the dessert uses a springform. Since it’s not cooked, there is no reason to cut out a perfect circle to line the bottom of the springform. Just place a piece on the bottom part of the pan…

Attach the sides, the ring part of the pan, and you’re ready to rock and roll.

Removing it is a breeze as well. Run a sharp knife around the edges to loosen, then remove the ring and slide a long thin pallet knife or spatula between the paper and the base…

…to move the tart, with the paper, to the counter.

Then, use the removable bottom of a real tart pan to transfer the tart from the paper to a serving plate.

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I’ve seen this cool tip for cutting a bunch of cherry tomatoes at one time all over the internet and on Pinterest. I’ve used it for some time now, but keep forgetting to share it with you. It not only comes in handy for this salad but is especially fabulous for THIS RECIPE and any other recipes calling for roasted cherry tomatoes.

Summer Squash and Salmon Salad

1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 pounds zucchini, ends trimmed and then thinly sliced
2 tablespoons pepper jelly
3-pound salmon fillet, skin on
2 cups cherry or grape tomatoes
6 cups fresh spinach leaves
1/2 red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
2 avocados, diced
1 cup chopped pecans

In a large bowl, whisk together the olive oil and lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper. Add the zucchini, toss to coat and let marinate at room temperature for at least 15 minutes.

Spread the pepper jelly on the flesh side of the salmon. Heat a grill or broiler to high.

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This was the “main course” for my Pool Party class at Les Gourmettes. It’s a bit chunky, a sorta soupy, kinda spicy, and really good!

Fire-Roasted Gazpacho

1 large onion, peeled and cut into 3 thick rounds
2 zucchini, trimmed and cut in half lengthwise
1 each red, yellow, orange bell peppers
2/3 cup olive oil
3 thick slices fresh sourdough bread
4 garlic cloves; 1 of the cloves peeled and cut in half and the 3 remaining cloves peeled and minced
8 large tomatoes, cored, seeded, and diced
2 English cucumbers, peeled, seeded, and diced
1/2 cup Sherry or red wine vinegar
2 cups tomato juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Garnish
2 green onions, green tops only; thinly sliced on the bias
1/4 cup finely diced red onion
1 avocado, diced

Preheat the grill to high heat.

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This salad is so beautiful, full of color and healthy goodness. The glistening arils from pomegranates, the red chewy dried cranberry, the creamy richness of avocado, the crunch and spicy bite of the pepitas – oh my!

I use the one-pound box of greens from Costco, their “half and half” mix, half baby spinach, and half colorful spring mix.

Any lettuce or combination of greens you prefer works just fine. Be sure to use a full pound though, this is a “big” salad! Once the dressing is added to the greens, the salad won’t keep for long, so be sure to wait until the last minute to put it all together.

I use my Candied Spiced Pepitas. These Candied Almonds would be wonderful too.

Quick Tip: This vinaigrette uses sesame seeds. Store sesame seeds in the refrigerator. Those little things go rancid in a hurry if they are stored at room temperature.

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Connor is between semesters at school so he is home for a couple of weeks. On Sunday, I asked him to decide what we’d have for dinner and he didn’t hesitate – he requested fajitas.

It’s been ages since I’ve made ’em, so I went all out and cooked up not only traditional beef but also shrimp and chicken. The best part about that… we had plenty of leftover beef and had tacos on Monday night. Yay for leftovers!

Connor and I shopped at Food City for our meal. In our search for skirt steak, we happily stumbled upon flap meat. Flap meat can be difficult or next to impossible to find at standard grocery stores like Safeway, so when I come across it, I can’t help but get a little excited.

Flap meat comes from the bottom sirloin, and although it’s from a similar region as flank steak or skirt steak, it’s a different cut. The flap is not very tender, but it is well-marbled and very flavorful. It’s sometimes called flap steak or bavette and is an excellent meat for carne asada and fajitas.

If you can’t find a flap, use either skirt or flank steak for this recipe.

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This is a healthy, refreshing and easy-to-make summer salad, and a great way to use up some of the zucchini bounty from your garden.

It served as one of our side dishes for Father’s Day dinner on Sunday.

Carpaccio is the international name of a typical Italian dish made with very thinly sliced raw meat.

Nowadays the term carpaccio is used for any preparation made with thinly sliced raw meat, fish, vegetables or fruit.

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“Here’s a story of a lovely lady, who was …”

No, stop there! Not “bringing up three very lovely girls. All of them had hair of gold, like their mother, the youngest one in curls.”

Let’s try again…

“Here’s a story of a lovely lady, who is all about getting what she wants. She uses trickery and scams plus plans and schemes, and drives her youngest child insane.”

That could be the theme song for my own sitcom or reality show. Honestly, I drive poor Connor crazy with all my ideas. He desperately tries to resist, but somehow he can’t escape when I pull him into these plans, completely against his will and better judgment.

I’m going to give you the recipe today first, and then if you feel like hearing the story behind it, feel free to read all about it, after the recipe.

This is a fun way to make grilled cheese.

Use whatever cheese or cheeses you like.

Top the cheese with your favorite additional fillings, or no fillings at all.

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Yesterday was National Taco Day, so naturally, we had tacos for dinner. Shrimp tacos to be exact.

Shrimp Tacos with Cabbage Slaw and Avocado Salsa

Cabbage Slaw
1/2 head green or red cabbage, thinly sliced
1/2 cup non-fat Greek yogurt
1/4 cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup pickled red onions
Juice of 1/2 lime
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon chipotle chili powder

Avocado Salsa
5 small or 2 large avocados
Juice of 1 lime
1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
2 medium tomatillos, husked, rinsed and coarsely chopped
1/2 small red onion, peeled and finely diced
1/2 red bell pepper (fresh or roasted), finely diced
Kernels cut from 1 cob of corn
1/4 cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro
Salt and pepper

Shrimp
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined

6 corn tortillas

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