Perfect Summer Salad with Chickpea Burgers!

When my friend and I decided to cook dinner in one night a few weeks ago we decided on trying out a recipe for chickpea burgers. I thought a little summer salad would be a good side, so I came up with this mixture of ingredients to highlight some of the fresh basil from my porch! It was a great refreshing salad to put together but it's best served soon after you make it - so don't make too far in advance.

Tomato Basil Corn Salad
1/2 TB white wine vinegar
1 TB olive oil
salt and pepper
1 ear of corn (cut off, not cooked)
2-3 tomatoes
1/2 tsp chopped garlic
2 TB green pepper, chopped
lots of fresh basil!

Get out of your Salad rut!

Sometimes salads can get boring if you make the same kind over and over again - so I decided to try out a couple new ideas that I've seen at restaurants a couple times. Once is a nice filling salad and the other is a bit lighter, but both are perfect for a dinner party first course when you're trying to impress!

Roasted Pear and Goat Cheese Salad

Pears (halved)

Goat Cheese

Lemon Juice

Toasted Walnuts

Greens (Butter Lettuce mix)

Apple Juice (baste the pears)

Brown Sugar

Red Onion

Dried Cranberries

Lemon Blueberry Buckle

It's that time of the year when all of your desserts should start to include fruits and berries - they're fresh, sweet, seasonal and there are endless options for cakes, breads, muffins and more. A cross between a crumble and a cake, a "buckle" is a new type of dessert I discovered last summer. This recipe is reliable and delicious - and can even double as a brunch option. This time around I served it for dessert when I had some friends over for dinner last weekend.


Sunday Dinner with Friends: Spinach Artichoke Dip, Roasted Pear and Goat Cheese Salad, Chicken with Mango Mint Dressing, Green Beans and Mashed Sweet Potato, Lemon Blueberry Buckle

Happy Belated Easter Dinner

Because, I'll be honest, holidays these days are more about the fact that I get to cook a big, fun meal for family and try out new dishes. This past Easter weekend was no different - despite the usual spiral ham, all other dishes were left to my choosing this year. This was the menu I settled on:

Easter Spiral Sliced Ham
with Twice Baked Potatoes, Spiced Apple Carrot Casserole and  Steamed Green Beans

I bought a fresh pineapple and cut half slices, pinning them onto the ham with toothpicks. Cherries are a nice addition too!


Before dinner comes appetizers!

Ladies Dinner Night - Cauliflower, White Beans and Berries, Oh My!

As you saw last week I bought a head of cauliflower and used 1/2 for the Curried Cauliflower Soup, which meant that I still had 1/2 left. With my ACIS ladies coming over for dinner Sunday night I knew I wanted to incorporate this cauliflower into something, but I didn't know what. Then I remembered I saw Rachel Ray use cauliflower in a mac and cheese recipe, and I thought - that's perfect! I'll note that the ladies have very different food preferences - 1 vegetarian, 1 vegan-to-be and 2 we'll eat anything kind of girls (yes, one of those is me), so I knew I wanted to make something vegetarian, but still filling!


This was the first dish I decided on for a little something to nibble on while my friends arrived, I was still cooking and for catching up over wine!

Mediterranean White Bean Dip
1 15 oz. can of cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
Head of Garlic, roasted*
2 TB fresh lemon juice (1/2 lemon)
1/3 cup olive oil plus 1 TB
1/3 cup loosely packed fresh parsley leaves
1 stalk scallion, chopped
1/4 tsp salt and 2 grinds of fresh pepper
Veggies, Pita Chips, Marinated Artichokes