Basically what I’ll be eating all week. I love that Spring is here and that eating healthy seems to taste better…
Today is one of those days. You know the one when you get up early and get so much stuff done that by noon you scratch your head and wonder what else you can do because you are on a roll. Yep, that’s me. I finished planting my vegetable garden, all my flower pots are done, porch and patio are all cleaned (even went to Target to get new rugs for the patio), house vacuumed, laundry folded and put away (3 weeks worth, ugh), floors washed (on hands and knees mind you), hardwood floors cleaned, dog walked twice and I even made my bed! In the midst of all the lousy chores, I managed to make this beautiful salad (take and edit pictures and started to write this blog post too). Geez. It’s only 2:30…
I have honestly been so busy this week that “food” was the furthest from my mind and decided this morning that I’d post something that I always eat. Since I “have” to eat it was easy for me to write this because it’s what I do on Sunday’s. Cook something that I can eat all week. Truth be known, my regular posts that write about, I make up a recipe and then I share with friends and family. I am typically a really “good” eater and a lot of the food that I make, I eat a little and give most of it away because God knows I don’t need all the calories! I workout and play tennis way too much to have all the yummy bad foods in my fridge! Ha! It’s just not my style but I like to create all kinds of foods and heck, everything in moderation is a good thing! So this weeks recipe… is a salad dressing. You all probably know me well enough by now to know that I DO NOT buy store bought salad dressings, period. They are so easy to make, healthy and great to use as marinades too. Thus, this weeks post. I am just going to tell you how to make the cherry pepper ” Da Bomb” vinaigrette. The rest is up to you! Use you imagination, it is limitless and delicious too! It’s just the “Da Bomb”. A vinaigrette that is great as a marinade for pork (pictured), chicken, beef or fish and of course as a dressing for your salad!
In my crazy busy real estate career, I decided to “stop and smell the roses” for a second and in this case, the BBQ. Big Jim’s Ribs to be exact. I seem to drive out to Parker, Colorado a lot and have sold dozens of houses out there but one thing I know for sure is that I have driven by Big Jim’s food truck hundreds of times and yesterday I decided to stop in and actually try it… Damn, I am mad at myself for not stopping in years ago… It was one of those “life changing” food experiences, not only because the food was to die for but because I got to meet Big Jim. I am drawn to people with “big” personalities and Big Jim was right up my alley! Wow! Retired professional football player and high school principle, turned BBQ aficionado. A personality that measures up to his ridiculously amazing food! So I have to tell a quick funny story… It’s well known that we are having a really wet Spring here and yesterday was no exception. The temperature dropped like 25 degrees in a course of 1/2 hour and there we were huddled up in the truck and this totally gorgeous man runs inside while I am face deep in a Big Jim’s rib (seriously, face covered in BBQ sauce) and he laughed and said “is it that good”? I nodded and said “shit, are you kidding me”? Turns out he plays for the Bronco’s and is young enough to be my kid but he was certainly fun enough for me to look at for a half an hour while Big Jim kept shoving food down our faces while we were waiting for the rain to stop! We both kept looking at each other while Big Jim said “try this, y’all, you will love it”. He fed us as me and the “hot” Bronco’s linebacker looked at each other as we kept saying to each other, “shit, this is good”. A normal mundane day turned super fun while I got to eat freaking great BBQ, meet a BBQ master and hang out with a super gorgeous 23 year old while shoving our faces with amazing food. If we could all have those experiences, even once in awhile..
- 1/2 cup good Olive Oil
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 6-8 cherry peppers from the deli, chopped fine
- 1 large clove garlic, minced
- 2 tbs mustard (I use Dijon or a course grain)
- 2-3 tbs honey
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- In a bowl whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, peppers, garlic, honey, mustard, salt and pepper until well combined.
- Use as a salad dressing or as a marinade.
I love these little peppers that you buy at the deli. They work great in this salad dressing.
It’s out of the way for most folks in the Denver area but totally worth the drive! Saturday and Sunday ONLY!
Big Rig that Big Jim operates. Kinda fitting.
Big Jim’s Ribs. Colorado’s finest BBQ.
Did you say protein fix? We did but the coleslaw made it healthy…. So dang good…
I got my community garden plot planted this weekend. It looks so weak now! I can’t wait until it gets BIG! The clouds are pretty stellar and one heck of a view from my garden!