Note: I was sent a box of Vidalia onions to make this post. Opinions are mine alone.
Spring is one of my favorite times of year for cooking. As the weather warms, all sorts of fun produce hits the shelves, bringing so many more options for creative meals! One of the most versatile spring produce options are Vidalia onions.
Vidalia onions are known as America’s favorite sweet onion.
Grown in 20 counties in Southern Georgia, their distinctive taste is a result of the combination of weather, water and soil in that specific region.
Vidalia onions are in season from April to August, so this is the perfect time to show them off in some recipes! This recipe for Peach, Vidalia Onion, and Pancetta Flatbread plays off the sweetness of Vidalia onions with grilled peaches, while balancing out the flavor with some pancetta and a touch of chili powder. The rosemary and chives add some freshness to the flatbread, brightening up the other flavors.
Ingredients:
4 oz Pancetta, cubed
2 Vidalia onions, cut into thin slices, then halved into half moons
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
Pinch chili powder
Store bought pizza dough (use gluten free dough to make recipe gluten free)
2 large ripe peaches, cut into wedges (or, if not in season, frozen peach slices that have been thawed work too)
I’m on a bit of a feta kick at the moment. I absolutely love French feta, which is a bit more mild and creamier than the more tangy, crumbly version most people associate with feta cheese.
When I came across a recipe for Feta Dip, I loved the concept, and knew French Feta would be perfect for it.
This dip is a nice alternative to the normal dips found at parties. The flavors are similar to tzatziki; serve with toasted pita or pita chips.
Ingredients:
12 oz French feta
1 cup non-fat plain Greek yogurt
8 oz cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
Note: I was sent a Labell Board to write this post. Opinions are mine alone.
Cutting boards are a staple of any kitchen. They (of course) are used to cut, chop, mince, and dice vegetables, fruits, and protein for meals, but I love to also use them for presentation. There are some cutting boards, like this one from Planches Labell, that need to be shown off!
Labell boards are made from premium Canadian recovered/recycled hardwoods and are produced with the highest production standards. With the new abilities in wood manufacturing Planches Labell has the capacity to take this raw material, otherwise disposed of, and turn it into culinary works of art. Offerings include Rustic Tree-Cut Serving Platters, Paddle Boards, Utility Boards and Butcher Blocks.
To show off this beauty, I decided to make a White Bean-Tahini Dip inspired by a recipe I found on Food Network. This dip is very similar to hummus but uses cannellini beans instead of chickpeas. The added spices of cumin, za’atar, chile powder and garlic powder really amp up the flavor! (Za’atar, specifically the blend I used, is a combination of sumac, thyme, sesame, and salt.)
Ingredients:
Toasted Pita Chips:
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons za’atar
1 teaspoon chile powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
4 pitas
2 tablespoons olive oil
White-Bean Tahini Dip:
1 (15 oz) can cannellini beans, drained with liquid reserved
Note: This post is sponsored by Moyer Beef. All opinions are mine alone.
This past weekend, we had my parents over for dinner. I had a hankering for Lamb Kofta, which is a dish of ground lamb with spices formed into meatballs and grilled.
My dad isn’t exactly the most adventurous eater, and doesn’t like lamb, so I instead decided to adapt the spices added to kofta into a marinade for beef kebabs. Kofta can be made with any ground meat, but I had some beautiful Moyer Beef’s Rib Kebab meat on hand, so kebabs it is!
Kofta can be made with quite a range of spices, so this recipe is very adaptable. This version uses fresh parsley as well as dried spices to add a different dimension of flavor. I also served it with some tzatziki for dipping.
Ingredients:
Tzatziki (omit to make dairy free):
1 cup plain low-fat Greek yogurt
1/2 cucumber, seeded, finely diced
1 garlic clove, minced
the zest of one lemon
the juice of one lemon
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
Kebab:
4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1/4 cup chopped yellow onion
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
2 lbs kebab meat (I used Moyer Beef’s Rib Kebab meat)
NOTE: I was sent a pack of Sourdough Crackers and Szechuan Candied Pecans from Aida for this post. All opinions are my own.
I love a good cheese plate, they are great as an appetizer or as an end to a meal.
I was contacted by Aida, a specialty food brand created by the owners of the East Village wine-on-tap bar, Lois. Aida, recently launched, features handcrafted cookies, nuts, and crackers inspired by the products they created for their wine bar. I was sent their Sourdough Crackers and Szechuan Candied Pecans, which I thought would make for the beginnings of an awesome cheese plate!
Aida is a New York City-based, women-owned business that makes a curated line of pantry staples and entertaining essentials. Founded in 2016 by Nora O’Malley and Phoebe Connell, Aida products are inspired by the recipes and customer relationships that they developed in their tiny East Village all-tap wine bar, Lois on Loisaida Avenue. Today, Aida’s mission is to make eating well and entertaining easily simple by offering inspired and reliable go-to products.
In my opinion, you can’t really do a cheese plate wrong, whatever sounds good to you will work just fine. I wanted to play off of the spicy-sweet flavors of the pecans, so I went to my local cheese shop and asked for help choosing cheese that would work well with spicy and sweet flavors. Here is what I ended up with:
1605 Manchego: A sheep milk cheese from Spain, this Manchego is earthy and sweet. I added a drizzle of honey on top to bring out more of its sweetnes.
Von Trapp Oma: Made by the famous Von Trapp family, this cow’s milk cheese from Vermont is very creamy, buttery, and slightly funky. I added a bit of spicy whole grain mustard to balance out the funkiness of this cheese.
Delice de Bourgogne: A cow’s milk cheese from France, this cheese is creamy and slightly salty with a buttercream flavor. I served this with a spiced peach jam that my sister-in-law gave us.
I also added dried apricots, hot sopressata, and the Szechuan candied pecans to the plate, and served the sourdough crackers alongside the cheese plate.
Each of these cheeses worked well with either something sweet or something spicy on the plate.
The sourdough crackers were the perfect accompaniment, because the flavor is relatively neutral so it lets the rest of the ingredients shine.
I had to keep adding more and more Szechuan Candied Pecans to the plate because my husband kept eating them all! The spicy-sweet flavors are addicting!
Aida has a bunch of other offerings as well, including:
Currant Crisps: a spiced interpretation of the shortbread cookie.
Lemon Candied Pepitas: salty pepitas with a healthy dose of sweet citrus and a subtle peppery kick.
Rye Crackers: Old World flavors, both complex and comforting.
In addition to being available online, Aida is currently available in the following specialty food shops throughout New York City: Bedford Cheese Shop, BKLN Larder, Stinky BKLN, Alphabet City Beer Company, and Malt & Mold. More retail locations to come, but food lovers everywhere an purchase the products at www.AidaEats.com.
What are some of your favorite add on’s to a cheese plate?
Tomorrow is one of my favorite events of the year: Flavors on the Avenue! I’ve written past posts about this event, but this year, they are switching things up a bit. The event, usually held under a tent, is coming out onto the street to make for what should be a pretty awesome five block street festival tomorrow, April 30 from noon to 5 pm. The event will be held around the Singing Fountain at the intersection of S 11th, Tasker and Passyunk.
Tickets aren’t required to attend the event, although they are strongly encouraged. Cost is $50 each and include all of the dishes, two glasses of beer or wine, and valet parking – a $130 value. You can also pay as you go; each dish will be priced at $3 to $6. Further details can be found here.
East Passyunk Avenue is known for its fantastic restaurants, and a bunch of them (27!) are participating in this event. There will also be free kids’ activities and a crafter’s market. Here is a list of participants and the food they will be serving: (note: options shown in photos above are in bold)
Bing Bing Dim Sum: Pork Buns, Corn Rangoon
Birra: Pizza slices, plain and pepperoni
Brigantessa: Chorizo Cotto with whipped ricotta and peas
Cantina los Caballitos: Tacos al Pastor, Elote, Classic and Cucumber Margaritas
Chhaya: Fried chicken and waffles, Iced coffee
El Sarape: Tacos al Pastor, Pina Coladas
Fond: Salmon Tartare with sesame, nori and avocado
Izumi: Pork Gyoza
Laurel: Chocolate egg cream pudding pops
Le Virtu: Octopus and chick pea salad
Mamma Maria: Cheese ravioli
Marra’s: Mozzarella pizza
Noir: Arancini balls, watermelon salad
Noord: Bitterballen (Dutch meatballs with nutmeg and mustard)
Paradiso: Arancini Di Riso
Perla: Pork Belly, Adobo with garlic rice
Plenty Cafe: Choripan (Traditional South African sandwich with chorizo, chimichurri, and pickled red onion on a baguette)
Will BYOB: Caramelized onion crepes, Banana and caramel crepes
I had the opportunity to go on a media tour a try a bunch of these bites. Noord’s Bitterballen remains one of my favorites (they serve it every year, and every year I love them). New to Flavors is Sate Kampar, and all of their offerings are fantastic! Absolutely go try the Achat, Sago Hula Melaka, and Chicken Sate.
One of the restaurants on the media tour was Brigantessa. If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen my high praise for their Charred Ramp Arancini. They were absolutely delicious. Unfortunately, Brigantessa is not serving these for Flavors, but is serving Chorizo Cotto with Whipped Ricotta and Peas that sounds right up my alley as well. There will be plenty of arancini available though, a few restaurants are serving it.
I wanted to try my hand at making the Brigantessa Aracini, so here goes! I adapted this recipe to include charred ramps, which adds a slight onion flavor to the cheesy rice ball.
One of my favorite parts of this blog is challenging myself to use new and different ingredients and/or new and different techniques. So when I was contacted to participate in CFE’s International Saltfish Blogger Recipe Challenge, I jumped at the chance.
So what exactly is saltfish? It is fish, typically cod, pollock, or other white fish cured with dry salt to preserve it. This method of preservation dates back centuries, as it helped preserve fish without refrigeration.
CFE International offers a number of brands of salt fish: Buena Ventura, Cristobal, BacalaRico, and Isla Brisa. For this challenge, I was sent some Isla Brisa Salted Alaska Pollock Fillets to use in a recipe. (You can find these brands of saltfish in your local Cousins, H-Mart, Jetro, Price Chopper, and Price Rite supermarkets.)
I decided to do a spin on Brandade (Whipped Salt Fish Spread), a salt fish spread popular in Mediterranean countries. It’s also known as Brandada in Spain, and Baccala Mantecato in Italy.
The spread is whipped salt fish, potatoes, olive oil, and cream with seasoning and is served with crusty bread. My version below adds in some roasted garlic, caramelized onions, and horseradish to add new layers of flavor.
Note: I was sent some products from Bob’s Red Mill, including Orca Beans. All opinions are my own.
There are some ingredients that catch your eye, and you just know you have to use them in a recipe. Orca beans are definitely one of those ingredients. Luckily, Bob’s Red Mill sent me a bag of their orca beans, which are grown in Moses Lake, Washington exclusively for the company.
Orca beans, also known as calypso beans, are black and white splattered, and keep their cool coloring even after cooking. This heirloom bean is high in fiber and iron, and work great in any recipe where you would normally use beans.
But. They are so darn pretty I wanted to let them stand out by using them in a very colorful dish.
Cowboy Caviar seemed like the perfect way to show the orca beans off. Typically made with black eyed peas, cowboy caviar is a bean salad / salsa that is great as a party app, on top of grilled chicken, or just on it’s own!
My goodness the holidays are approaching quickly. What happened to 2016?!
This is the time of year for parties and of course party appetizers. This party appetizer for Pomegranate Glazed Lamb Meatballs is so simple to make, but it is fancy enough to serve at a dinner party.
I found this recipe in New York Times’ cooking section and just had to try it out. Lamb meatballs with a pomegranate molasses glaze? Sign me up!
I served the Pomegranate Glazed Lamb Meatballs with some plain Greek yogurt with mint leaves mixed in, simple but a great complement!
Last weekend, friends of mine invited us to an awesome Scotch tasting. They had recently visited Islay and brought back some for us to try as well! Each Scotch was paired with a bite of food to bring out some of the flavors, including oysters, lamb kofta, pheasant sausage and so much more.
I naturally didn’t want to come empty handed so I brought this simple olive tapenade along with me.
Tapenade is a pureed mixture of olives, anchovies, capers and olive oil. Salty foods always pair nicely with spirits, so this recipe was an easy choice to bring to the party.
Note: I was sent a jar of Maille Rosemary Honey Mustard to try. Opinions are my own.
I’m kind of obsessed with my new Coyote OutdoorGrill. I’ve basically made a game out of finding things I can grill that are a bit outside of the box. (To see some of my other recipes I’ve made using my beloved grill, check them out here.) So, today, I bring you a grilled cheese plate, specifically a Grilled Camembert Cheese Plate.
Cheese with a thick outer rind, like a Camembert or Brie, are perfect for grilling. The inside becomes this beautiful gooey dip that I just cannot get enough of.
Just sticking a round of cheese on a grill honestly wouldn’t make for much of a recipe, so I decided to grill the whole cheese plate! I paired my lovely cheese with Grilled Rosemary Cashews and Brandied Rosemary Cherries. To finish off the plate, I included honey for drizzling as well as Maille’s Rosemary Honey Mustard that comes in the most beautiful green sandstone jar.
I was sent a jar of the Honey Mustard and I knew it would be the perfect addition to this cheese plate!
I was sent quite a few jalapenos as part of my Door-to-Door Organics box, more than I could really use in a normal time frame. So as part of #MyFarm2Table dinner, I decided to make Stuffed Jalapeno Poppers as one of the side dishes to use up the jalapenos.
I’m not the biggest fan of super spicy dishes, so after cutting and seeding the jalapenos, I placed them in a bowl of water for at least an hour to try to take some of the heat out of them. There was still some in the peppers, but it did help! (Note: there were still a couple of peppers that packed a punch, so be aware that every pepper is different in terms of heat).
This Saturday marks Jarden Home Brands fifth annual Can-It-Forward Day, which will be broadcast live online at FreshPreserving.com from 11AM – 4PM EST from the new state-of-the-art Jarden Home Brands headquarters in Fishers, Indiana.
An event celebrating the joys of fresh preserving, the -It-Forward Day webcast will have an integrated chat function where viewers can submit their home canning questions to be answered in real time. New this year, there will also be an exciting celebrity mason jar auction unveiled during the webcast!
My future sister-in-law is big into canning, and I’ve “helped” (a.k.a kept her company in the kitchen) once before, but the process of canning is really intimidating to me. I was told that if I can boil water, I can can, so I was both wary and excited to try this out!
I need to give a little shout out to my city, because the Mason jar was, in fact, invented and patented in Philadelphia in 1858 by local tinsmith John Landis Mason. So, this should be in my blood, right?
The Ball Canning Discovery Kit is a great beginners kit; it comes with a canning rack that fits into most pasta pots, a recipe guide, and three jars. The kit is really affordable ($11.99) and allows you to assess if canning is for you before investing fully into the process.
My sister-in-law assured me that if I had a Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving, I’d be just fine canning. So. WHEW. This book lays out each step of the process (and even tells you why you are doing it this way) to ensure a successful canning process. The step-by-step guides are particularly helpful as a beginner.
The Red Design Series Lidsare normal lids and bands, just prettier. 🙂 The lids can only be used once during canning, so it’s helpful to have extras on hand. (You can reuse the jars and bands as many times as you want)
The Ball Fiesta Salsa Mix makes the process of seasoning salsa super easy. You just need fresh or canned tomatoes, a splash of vinegar, and the mix to make a yummy salsa!
I decided to make a salsa from the Ball Blue Book, but adapted it slightly to include the Ball Fiesta Salsa Mix. The recipe is simple, and is basically just cutting up the ingredients, so this post is more about the canning process than the actual recipe.
I am absolutely a beginner with this, but luckily was able to glean some tips from my sister-in-law and the Ball Blue Book, which I will share as well.
I also am giving away a coupon for a free case of jars! Details at the end of the post.
Zesty Salsa (adapted fromBall Blue Book Guide to Preserving)
Yields ~3 pint jars
Ingredients:
5 cups chopped cored peeled tomatoes (fresh or canned)
4 green bell peppers, seeded and chopped (~2.5 cups)
1 large onion, chopped (~2.5 cups)
1 large jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped (~3 tablespoons)
2 garlic cloves minced
2/3 cup cider vinegar
1 tablespoon fresh cilantro, finely chopped
1/4 cup Ball Fiesta Salsa Mix
Gear:
Ball canning rack with lifter
3 Ball Pint Jars with lids and bands (I used the Red design series lids and bands)
Large stockpot (at least 7.5 inches tall and 9.5 inches in diameter)
a non-metallic spatula (I ended up using chopsticks. They worked just fine)
This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #JustAddRotel #CollectiveBias
With the big tournament upon us, having yummy snacks to share with a crowd is a must! I love party appetizers that can be set on the coffee table in front of the TV and enjoyed as a group.
This recipe for Seven Layer Dip Nachos adds the ingredients of a seven-layer dip right on top of tortilla chips to make a convenient and super yummy loaded nachos recipe.
I was planning on using Original or Mild RO*TEL Diced Tomatoes to make a quick and easy guacamole and pico de gallo (no dicing of tomatoes, woo hoo!), so having the flavors of lime and cilantro already combined in the diced tomatoes was an awesome find!
The Mexican Lime and Cilantro Diced Tomatoes mix vine-ripened tomatoes, with jalapeno peppers, garlic, cilantro, and lime juice, making it the perfect ingredient for this recipe!
These nachos are topped with seven layers of deliciousness: cheese, refried beans, guacamole, pico de gallo, lettuce, sour cream, and sliced olives. You may need to double the recipe though, they are super tasty!
Ingredients:
1 (10 oz) bag corn tortilla chips
6 oz shredded Mexican blend cheese (or a mixture of Monterey Jack and cheddar cheeses)
1 (10 oz) can RO*TEL Mexican Lime and Cilantro Diced Tomatoes, drained, divided
1/2 medium sized red onion, diced, divided (about 4 tablespoons)
