Pork Verde Stew with Cornbread Dumplings

I received product samples from Sam’s Fresh Salsa to help in the creation of this post. All opinions are my own.

Yes, it’s summer, but the weather here hasn’t felt like it the last week or so. All the dreary, rainy days have me craving comfort food so I took one of my summer staples – salsa! – and turned it into the perfect rainy-day dinner.

Tender chunks of pork are stewed in a couldn’t-be-easier verde sauce and then buried in piles of fluffy cornbread dumplings. Finish with a dollop of sour cream and you have the perfect meal!

A bowl with chunks of pork smothered in a verde chile sauce with a cornbread dumpling to the side. The bowl is on an orange napkin and a blue pot is in the background.

I created this recipe for Sam’s Fresh Salsa Blogger Recipe Challenge and couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out!

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Watermelon Salsa

One of my highlights of summer is the availability of fresh, local produce. Between our CSA and local farmer’s market, we’ve had an abundance of seasonal fruits and veggies. This week, I’m sharing some of the things I’ve been cooking up as part of #FarmersMarketWeek.

My first recipe is a quick, no-cook salsa. Instead of tomatoes, the base of this is watermelon – making a perfect summery salsa with a touch of sweetness.

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Strawberry Avocado Salsa #ImprovCookingChallenge

It’s strawberry season here! The kids and I spent yesterday morning at one of our favorite local farms picking a whole flat of gorgeous berries – so now we’re making everything strawberry.

Strawberry Avocado Salsa 2

Do you want to take bets on how many things I can stick strawberries in over the next few days?

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Mexican Lasagna

The weather this past week was such a tease. Several days of warm-enough-for-just-a-sweatshirt, and now we’re back to endless cold and snow. Granted, we’re fairing better than a lot of the country, but I’m still bitter. I’m ready for spring.

Until it gets here, I’m going to be all about comfort food.

Mexican Lasagna 1

This dish is a fusion of two of our favorites – Tex-Mex and Italian. Lasagna is layered with taco meat, refried beans, and cheese, then topped off with your favorite taco toppings.

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Fresh Corn Salsa #farmersmarketweek

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One of the things I love about being part of a CSA farm is that I’m learning a lot about how to prepare food. Like, last year I got schooled in sweet corn. Do you cook it? Then you’re doing it wrong!

Fresh from the field corn is so, so good raw. One day when we were there, they taught the kids how to pick and husk the corn in the field, and told them to try it raw. It’s even sweeter raw, and the kids gobbled it up. For the rest of the summer, it was their snack of choice and I didn’t get a chance to cook another ear!

This easy salsa uses farm-fresh sweet corn. If you have a local source, that’s your best option. We love this with chips, but it’s also great tucked in burritos and to top tacos.

FreshCornSalsa

Fresh Corn Salsa
(a Kate’s Recipe Box original)
Makes about 2 cups

3 large ears of sweet corn, cleaned and cut off the cob
1/2 green pepper, finely chopped
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
2 Tbsp. chopped cilantro
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 tsp. lime juice
Salt and pepper, to taste

Stir together the corn, pepper, onion and cilantro.

In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, lime juice, salt and pepper.  Pour over the corn and toss to coat.

Fresh Corn Salsa

Looking for more #farmersmarketweek inspiration? Here is what my fellow bloggers are cooking up today!

Tuesday #FarmersMarketWeek Recipes