Becker tuna salad (p. 164), Spicy watermelon salad (p. 170), and Baked hominy (p. 350)

I knew I was going to be extremely busy during the week so I decided to cook as much as possible during the weekend. That being said, most of the stuff I was making wasn't immediately available to eat (ie the chili that I will write about in a future post) so I whipped up some Becker tuna salad (p. 164).

I combined tuna, chopped cabbage, carrots, celery, a bit of parsley, some Tabasco, a little lemon zest, some Balsamic vinegar, and a small amount of mayo.




And that was that! As you all know, tuna is one of the very few foods that I absolutely will not eat. Josh loves it though, so it was all his. Josh said that the tuna salad was very untraditional but very good--particularly good if you like crunchy food. I thought it looked much more healthy than your average tuna salad--a lot more veggies and a lot less mayo.

Dad gave me some of the cutest tiny watermelons so I decided to whip up some Spicy watermelon salad (p. 170). This was a truly strange recipe. I mixed up some chili powder, salt, and ground red pepper in a little prep bowl. In another bowl I tossed some watermelon, half an onion, a diced jalapeno pepper, some lime juice, and some cilantro in a bowl (TJOC says serving bowl, I used Tupperware).



This was an extremely strange dish. It was rather pleasing though--the heat of the chili powder, red pepper, and jalapeno, the bite of the raw onion, and the coolness of the watermelon. I ate quite a bit of it, all the while thinking it was kind of good and kind of gross. I don't think I'll ever make it again, although that is partially because I really hate dicing and seeding watermelon (does anyone have a good way to do this? It takes me forever).

I made Baked hominy (p. 350). Josh really likes hominy--I had never tried it until recently. I think hominy tastes a lot like popcorn, which makes sense, because it's essentially corn that's been treated with lye.

I knew this was going to be a strange recipe right from the get-go--it says to cook some onion and either baked ham or peeled apples in some vegetable oil. Ham or apples? Doesn't that seem strange? I don't really see those as interchangeable. I chose ham.



I added drained canned hominy (although you can used cooked dry hominy or thawed frozen hominy), diced tomatoes, salt, and pepper.



I removed the pan from the heat and added bread crumbs and grated cheddar to the top of the hominy mixture:




I dotted the top with butter and popped it into the oven for about fifteen minutes.




The main problem with this hominy is that it made a LOT. That would be terrific if you were cooking for a family of six, it was waaayyy too much for the two of us. We liked the flavor and Josh really liked the crunchy top, but we were tired of eating the hominy long before it was gone. And it's extremely filling. So if you need a cheap dish that you can really stretch, this is a really good choice.