Skinny red pepper chicken sliders

Make these broiled skinny red pepper chicken sliders for a fun and fast weeknight dinner.

I've got another slider recipe for you today -- skinny red pepper chicken sliders, to be specific -- and it's quite honestly because burger buns come in insanely large packages and I hate to waste them.

I'm serious. Think about it. We are just two people but whenever we want to enjoy burgers, I always get stuck buying a package of 8 freakin' burger buns. What's up with that? Does a family of four really eat two burgers each every time it grills? I highly doubt it. So why can't anyone make a package of only four buns -- ostensibly a half package -- for smaller families? I can't be the only one that would be excited about that.

And yes, I've tried freezing the extras. But then I just end up three months later throwing out a bunch of small packages of frozen leftover burger buns instead of day-old ones because, frankly, they never taste any good once thawed, no matter how cleverly I wrap them prior to freezing.

Le sigh.

So my efforts to be frugal and not wasteful with my package of 16 slider buns means that you get a second slider recipe in a row. But this is not a bad thing, trust me. These skinny red pepper chicken sliders are also a great way to use up that half-empty jar of roasted red peppers that's been hanging around your refrigerator door -- not to mention the jar of pepperoncini you just bought to make last week's tangy slow cooker pot roast sliders.

Skinny black bean tortilla casserole

Skinny black bean tortilla casserole is a healthy, fast and easy way to add a satisfying meatless meal to your weeknight dinner rotation.

This may sound really weird but it's really exciting: I've rediscovered the public library.

I told you it would sound weird. I mean, where did it go that I had to rediscover it, right?

I grew up as a library power user: in elementary school, I couldn't wait for summer, not just for the swimming and playing outside and not attending class part but also for the summer reading program at my tiny local library. Whether I knew it or not, I was a lot more Type A back then and the reading program had a contest for which child could read the most books: Let's just say I rose to that challenge and then some.

Not to mention that I just loved spending time in the library itself. It seemed magical to me that I could wander around, browsing through a seemingly endless supply of novels, taking as long as I liked to make my selections and then I was allowed to just take them home. For free. It was better than a candy store for an avid reader.

Even as an adult, I made weekly visits to the library after work to refresh my book pile, largely because I tried to spend my lunch hours reading the novels I so love. The number of books I read each year was a little mind boggling.

But then something changed all that: We moved to a tiny town in Vermont.

Thai green curry noodle bowl

Thai green curry noodle bowl: lots of sweet, tangy Thai food flavor in a lightened noodle bowl for a quick, healthy weeknight dinner.

Yo, peeps: I'm back.

Sorry for being relatively incommunicado over the busy holiday season. It was extra extra busy for The Ninj because ... brace yourselves ... we moved. Again. To yet another state.

(I know, right?)

After bidding farewell to Kentucky, we are now happily ensconced on Maryland's Eastern Shore. (Job 1: I'm personally judging the crab cakes and shrimp salad sandwiches at every local establishment I can find. I mean, how else will I be able to identify The Best?!)

If you've read any of my previous adventures-in-moving posts, you know there's a lot of stress involved. And living in a house that looks like it's built out of moving boxes. And trips to the dump-I-mean-recycling-center. And inability to locate food photography props.

Luckily for you, that box was recently unearthed, which allowed me to photograph and now share this amazing Thai green curry noodle bowl with you.

Trust me, you are going to want to make this for a weeknight dinner ASAP.

Pimento cheese hummus

All the creamy, spicy flavor of pimento cheese in a better-for-you hummus: great as a dip or spread it on sandwiches and pizza.

You've tried my roasted red pepper cheese spread (aka pimento cheese), right? So you know how good it is -- albeit slightly decadent. It falls into the category I call H-and-H -- limited to holidays and houseguests.

Well, you're in luck. Now you don't have to be a houseguest or be celebrating a holiday: The Ninj has managed to turn all that awesome pimento cheese flavor into a better-for-you hummus.

Yes, it's hummus with cheese. Sounds a little quirky, I know, but you know I wouldn't steer you wrong.

This pimento cheese hummus is a real treat. In addition to using it like traditional hummus as a dip for pita wedges or veggies, I've also been spreading it on sandwiches and -- perhaps the best of all -- as the base layer on pizza.

Any way you like to eat hummus.

Savory sausage bread pudding muffins

Savory sausage bread pudding muffins: a fun riff on the traditional breakfast casserole, perfect for feeding a brunch crowd.

I love it when the stars seem to align -- that is, when my real life dovetails perfectly with my blogging life. How so? Katie of Healthy Seasonal Recipes asked me to take part in her spring entertaining giveaway on the very same day that my BFF sent me a recipe for a savory bread pudding that she thought I would like.

Booyah.

Spring entertaining made me think immediately of Easter brunch and, I swear, there is nothing better (or easier) for feeding a brunch crowd than a breakfast casserole. And it seemed to me that this savory bread pudding was just begging to be made into cute single-serving muffins.

(So, should we be even cuter? Should bread pudding muffins henceforth be known as "puffins"? No, I don't think so either.)

Therefore, you can see why I called it an alignment of the stars. 

In my quest to make my recipes more stealthily healthy, I cut way back on the whole-fat dairy in this bread pudding -- and you won't miss it: it's still rich and filling with lots of cheesy flavor. For a vegetarian version, simply omit the sausage and double up on the amount of bell pepper (a combination of red and green looks smashing).

CSA Share Ninja Rescue 2013: basil, peaches and peppers

Happy Monday -- the day we share the CSA Share Ninja Rescue, a weekly feature in which you tell me on Fridays what veg you got in your CSA share box (or found at the farmers' market) that you don't know what to do with and I'll give you a whole bunch of recipe ideas on the following Monday.


This week we're pleasing both coasts: west coast readers want help with an overabundance of peppers and peaches (we're jealous here in Vermont!) and east coasters have a glut of gorgeous green basil.

Basil

• Lemon-lime basil shortbread cookies: Tangy and crisp, these cookies taste like summer
• Classic pesto: Tried-and-true James Beard recipe -- try jazzing it up by subbing half the basil for arugula, too
• Basil jelly: Gorgeous color and delicate flavor -- so unique!
• Strawberry-basil gimlet: You know The Ninj had to sneak one booze recipe into the veggie mix

Peaches

• Peach and bean pasta: It may sound a little strange but it is an oh-so-yummy combination
• Peach cobbler: Described by one of The Ninj's followers as being "like angels are feeding you clouds of peach-flavoured unicorn tears." With an endorsement like that, how could you not try it?
• Blueberry-peach muffins: A lovely breakfast muffin that's perfect for this awesome summer fruit combination

Peppers

• Roasted red pepper cheese spread: Classier,  yummier pimento cheese -- awesome on paninis
• Washabinaros chili: Billed as "wasabi chili" with three kinds of hot peppers -- you've gotta try this
• Cilantro-serrano cream sauce: Cool and spicy, great as a dip or a topping for fish tacos

What's going on in your garden? Do you have tomatoes yet? Leave a comment: The Ninj wants to know.

Roasted red pepper cheese spread

Roasted red pepper cheese spread: it's the hipper cousin of pimento cheese.

Regular readers know that while I was raised a New Englander, I lived away from my homeland for nearly 20 years. And I did most of that living away in the South: Louisiana, Alabama and both the Carolinas, to be exact.

(Not to mention a stint in the surrealistic world of Southern California, but that's a story for another day.)

There are uniquely southern things -- practices, expressions, foods -- that, over those 20 years, I adopted or that managed to weasel their way into my largely Yankee life and traditions: I say "y'all" rather than "you guys", make a mean shrimp and grits and have a dog named for four Confederate generals.

But then there are some Southern things that I just never understood -- like all-day church services and pimento cheese.

To be honest, I never even tried pimento cheese, because it just looked too scary. Given its neon orange hue, I was convinced pimento cheese was probably made up of a whole lotta mayonnaise, some nasty Velveeta and little else. I avoided it like the plague -- or like crispy fried catfish with a side of stewed okra, which is a close rival to the plague in my book.

Red pepper pumpkin soup

Enjoy this easy recipe for red pepper pumpkin soup -- for lunch or dinner, it's a creamy sipping soup that will warm your body and spirit.

Red pepper pumpkin soup

Before you say, "Two soup recipes in a row?", let me point out that, here in Vermont, it is 21 degrees and has already snowed -- before election day.

So yes, soup again.

But I'm giving you a lovely, seasonal soup that is so delicious and easy it would be appropriate to serve at the Thanksgiving table, if you serve a soup course.

So you really can't complain.

(And if you do, well ... no soup for you.)

I love red pepper soup. I have a go-to red pepper soup recipe that I make quite a bit, so I almost didn't try this recipe. I worried that the addition of pumpkin and sweet potato might disqualify it as a sipping soup, which is what my red pepper soup is: a soup that is comforting as well as nourishing, a soup that you drink from a coffee mug in front of the fireplace rather than from a bowl at the kitchen table.

But, being all ninja-like, I threw caution to the wind and tried it.

I think you'll be glad I did.

Savory olive bread

Savory olive bread

It's funny that this bread ended up as the star of its own post.

You see, it began its life -- well, its life in The Ninj's kitchen, anyway -- as an afterthought, just a little somethin'-somethin' to go with a corn chowder recipe I was testing (stay tuned).

And yet, as wonderful as the chowder was (still stay tuned), the bread really deserved some solo props.

I needed a side for the chowder that would suffice as both bread (because I wanted it) and a vegetable or salad (because I needed it). That's a tall order, I know. But I was willing to stretch the truth a little if I found something even close.

Browsing through my Pinterest food boards, I came across a recipe I had pinned a while ago for a quick bread loaded with greens: perfect.

Then I read the recipe.

It involved a whole lot of onion carmelization before you could even start thinking about the bread batter. That wouldn't work, as I needed a quick bread, not a stand-around-and-carmelize-till-the-cows-come-home bread.

Tomato crab pasta: a recipe

Tomato crab pasta

As if we could get through a week without a pasta recipe...

Earlier in the week we had a miracle breakthrough and Mr. Ninj ate asparagus. Well, cream of asparagus soup with crab, but it was still a miracle.

But that left me with some leftover crab and I didn't want to waste it.

Hello, Google.

I found this lovely tomato crab pasta recipe on, of all places, the PBS web site. Yep, PBS. See? Your donation during that pledge drive really paid off, tote bag or no tote bag.

This pasta is super easy to prepare and makes a perfect weeknight dinner. It actually reminded me quite a bit of the Mediterranean Tuna Pasta but less intense. In fact, if you were put off by the tuna recipe because you aren't a big fan of olives or anchovies, I bet you would love this crab pasta -- its flavors are a bit milder but still delicious.

Beef and pepper curry

Beef and bell pepper curry over udon

After all that cheesecake, I think you need to eat something a bit more healthy.

No big family story behind this one, I swear (I'm still a little verklempt over sharing that recipe, honestly).

Always on the lookout for a quick-and-easy recipes for weeknight dinners, I came across this one in the new (June 2012) issue of Eating Well magazine. The timing was great, as apparently it's mega mango season in Mexico, so the stores are full of ripe mangoes, on sale.

(Yes, yes, I try to eat locally as much as possible, but sometimes you just can't if you want to have a little excitement in your diet. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I highly doubt that there are any mango farmers in Vermont.)

What we ate last week: some recipes and some community love

To be honest, I sometimes post these "retrospective" entries either when I've dropped the ball and not posted in a while, due to general busy-ness, or (more often) when all my recipe photos turn out like crap.

Not this time. Well, sort of, since most of my photos did turn out like crap this week.

But I thought it was a great reflection of the power of the blog community I'm working on being a larger part of that my creations last week all seemed to be linked to someone else in the community.

1. Ajvar
I harvested a bunch of red peppers from my fading garden (why do the peppers take so damned LONG?) and asked my Facebook followers for suggestions on what to do with them. Val suggested ajvar, a spicy roasted pepper and eggplant spread from Serbia, and pointed me to a great recipe featured on NPR.

Now this one is a keeper. We ate it both as an appetizer on french bread and then again alongside a lovely broiled halibut for dinner. Very versatile, very delish!

Recipe link: Ajvar