SWEET BANANA PEPPERS

After harvesting only one eggplant, a little lettuce and a few peas so far this year, I had several large sweet banana peppers ready for picking! They will end up on a Sweet Pepper Pizza tonight with a base of a little low fat cream cheese, a little sausage and a few thin slices of red onion.

1 Homemade, or prepared 12 inch pizza crust
4-6 sweet banana peppers, cleaned and sliced into rings
1/2 medium red onion, sliced thinly
1 link of fresh (sweet or spicy) sausage, fried and crumbled (optional)
1 - 8 oz. low fat cream cheese
1/2 t salt
1/2 c. plain Greek yogurt
2 cloves finely minced garlic, or about 1 t. dried garlic (more to taste)
crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
Olive oil to drizzle (optional)

If you are making homemade crust, prepare your crust and par bake it until it feels done, but lacks color.

In a small bowl, mix the cream cheese, garlic, salt and the yogurt together and spread on the pizza crust. Top the cheese with the sausage, sliced peppers, and onions. Drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle with a few red pepper flakes if you like.

Bake at 425 for about 6 - 8 minutes, until bubbly and brown.


My basil plants also needed cutting back. So I put most of it into a container of water to use from the counter all week, and the loose leaves will be made into a compound butter. Anything I don't use in a few days, I'll hang to dry.

1 stick unsalted butter, soften to room temp
1/2 chopped basil
2 cloves fresh garlic, chopped
1/2 t kosher salt

Add the all the ingredients to your food processor and whiz until just blended. If you don't have a food processor, just make sure everything is very finely minced when you blend it with the soft butter. Then put the butter into a airtight container and refrigerate.

Use this butter on anything! Melt a little on top of a char grilled steak. Spread on a piece of toasted crunchy bread, melt into a little cooked pasta for the kids!