Sensational Summer Suppers from Sunset

I am lucky enough to have parents-in-law who wanted 1) an escape from the heat and 2) friends to hang out with them. So, they used Vacation Rental By Owner to find a fantastic "cabin" (4 bedroom house on a golf course) outside of Flagstaff, AZ, about 2 hours from Phoenix, where the air is cool and the pines smell fantastic. Thinking that they were even-ing things out, they said they'd pay for the cabin if the rest of us provided food. Silly them. That turns out to be an added bonus for me! I took it upon myself to do all the cooking for the 10 days, and just had others contribute funds toward the cause. So, I got to plan the meals and cook them, while Marilyn happily took care of Pax. It was a vacation for both of us!

At some point, Jay had picked out a few recipes from the Sunset magazine (a new favorite of mine) that sounded good to him, and so I made those, along with a few other things. I kept them all in a Google Doc if you want to see the nitty-gritty :-) Also, let it be known, that almost every meal involved some grilling (which was not intentional), and Jay gladly did a fantastic job of grilling everything I handed to him. Here are some of my favorites from the week:

• This is a simple uncooked tomato, basil and garlic pasta sauce served over seashell or spiral pasta and I made some super-fast acorn squash in the microwave with a bit of butter and brown sugar, with a salad for good measure. A light, refreshing, summer meal!
• Another fantastic summer meal was going out on a limb, for me. I made Indian-Spiced Salmon with a grilled Potato Salad. And for a girl who doesn't like fish, it was pretty darn good! A unique spice blend that wasn't overpowering or too spicy. And another salad. I'm pretty sure we rounded out almost every meal with a salad :-)
• Using my new favorite ingredient, smoked paprika, we had a great Chicken, Corn, and Spinach Salad with a paprika dressing. (It's my new ingredient because it's great, but also because it took me forever to find it! Thank you Winco!) 
• One of the first nights, I made a Slow-Cooker Curry Chicken that was decent the first night, but when I had it left over the rest of the week, it just got better and better, especially with brown rice pilaf, diced apples and raisins. (I did decrease the cayenne on this to a modest 1/2 teaspoon for this non-Texan.) 
• One morning, we had an excess of bananas left over from grilled peanut-butter banana sandwiches, so I located a recipe for Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins and modified them a bit. I substituted 2 bananas for the oil and then divided the batter in half. Half of it I made as peanut butter banana chocolate-chip muffins and half as peanut butter banana and jelly. To do this, I filled the muffin tins half full, put a teaspoon of jam on top, and then added more batter so they were 3/4 full and baked them. Both were yummy! :-) I would still like to find a way to work some oatmeal into them somehow or another... Also, I made them as regular muffins (not mini) and baked them for 20-25 minutes at 325. 
• For dessert one of our last nights, I felt we needed something light and summery, so I made Strawberry Shortcake. I had a favorite recipe for this at home which is almost more like a pound cake and is rich and buttery, but for this occasion, I decided to go with the biscuit style, that I grew up with at home. I followed this recipe, but with 2 extra tablespoons of sugar to give it just a bit of sweetness (but less sugar on the strawberries). I didn't get around to whipping the cream, so we just poured it over the top and it was heaven! :-) 

Then, when we got home from Flagstaff, the only thing I wanted to get done in the three days before we left for our next vacation (!) was to use up the leftovers. It was a challenge, but we got it done :-)