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Thanks for putting my recipes up! For a printable recipe card for Cranberry Salsa, click here.

Here’s the recipe for the Creamy Cilantro Dressing from Cafe Rio. It’s fabulous and easy. You can use this dressing on your own Cafe Rio-style salads, burritos, or –my favorite– on grilled cheese sandwiches. Mmmm. Hope you enjoy! You can download a printable recipe card here.

Creamy Cilantro Dressing

1/3 cup buttermilk
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup cilantro leaves
1/4 teaspoon crushed jalapeno pepper*
1 Ranch mix packet
2 cloves garlic
3 tomatillos

Add all ingredients in a blender, blend until smooth. Makes about one quart.

*The recipe calls for crushed jalapeno, but I used crushed red pepper instead. It wasn’t quite as spicy, but tasted the same.

Some of my most embarrassing memories are of (a) choking down soggy zucchini and (b) doorbell ditching monstrously huge zucchinis on some of our neighbor’s doorsteps. I always thought my mom was crazy for planting a million zucchini plants, but I later realized that she only planted one each year.

My grandparents had us over for couple of weeks ago and we had roast beef and zucchini relish. The relish is delicious, and I’m really excited to make some of my own. I asked my grandma for the recipe, and it turns out it’s my great grandmother Buz’s (Jesse Newton’s) recipe. I just love recipes with sentimental value and family history.

Zucchini Relish

This recipe makes 6 pints!!

• 10 cups ground zucchini peeled and seeded
• 2-3 cups ground onion
• 1 red pepper ground
• 1 green pepper ground
• 5 tablespoons salt
• 5 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 1/4 cups vinegar
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 2 tsp celery seed
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 rounded teaspoon cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg

Combine zucchini, onion, peppers and salt, mix well and let stand overnight or 5 hours. Rinse well and drain. Add remaining ingredients in a pot and simmer for 30 minutes or until clear. Pour into sterilized jars and seal, or in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

This Week for Dinner has saved my life. Jane Maynard‘s fabulous food blog has been a great source of culinary motivation. She posts her menu every week, and encourages readers to post their menus in the comments section. It’s brilliant because it’s a great way to get yummy dinner ideas whether you’re in a food rut or not!

I was so good with my weekly menu for nearly two months, but I’ve seriously slacked off. For the last two, maybe three weeks we’ve either gone out to eat, had sandwiches, or had family over (cooking for us, or with us). So, my menu planning has taken the back burner. Now that life is settling down a bit, I’d like to say that I’m back on board planning menus and making thoughtful, fast and healthy meals; but it might take me a while.

Last night was great motivation to start cooking because we were scheduled to have the missionaries over for dinner. Since one of the missionaries has Celiac disease, anything with wheat or soy is right out. Hmmmm. . . I have ground beef, mint, cilantro, onion. . . what could I make with that? BEEF LAAB with STICKY RICE!!

I found pretty simple recipes here, and here, and mashed the two together; it was delicious and fresh. This recipe is a great summer dish.

Beef Laab
(serves 2 really hungry missionaries or 6 people)

• 3 lbs. lean ground beef (you can use a not-so-lean beef or ground chicken, turkey, pork, etc)
• 1 cup rice, roasted and ground in food processor*
• 2-3 Tbs. ground Thai chilis (depending on how spicy you want it)
• 1/4 c. sweet Thai chili sauce (optional)
• 1/4 c. fish sauce
• 1 cup thinly sliced shallots (I used torpedo onions because they were on hand)
• 1 cup diced green onions
• 1 bunch cilantro, chopped
• 1 bunch mint, chopped
• 2-3 limes, juiced
• head of cabbage or iceberg lettuce
• sticky jasmine rice

If you have lean beef, cook beef in a little bit of water. If you bought the 80/20 ground beef like I did, don’t cook it in water and drain fat halfway through. Add ground rice, chilis, chili sauce and fish sauce. After meat is fully cooked, add shallots, green onions, cilantro and mint and simmer for a bit. Remove from heat. Add lime juice. Serve with sticky rice and cabbage.

*to roast rice, just put rice in a frying pan (no oil, butter, NOTHIN’), and let them toast for a couple of minutes. Be sure to stir rice around with a wooden spoon or spatula so rice doesn’t burn and DO NOT leave rice in the pan unattended. It toasts quickly!