by jphilo | Jul 8, 2014 | Recipes, Top Ten Tuesday
Summer in Iowa and the eatin’ is tasty! Gardens are overflowing with produce, and in honor of this bounteous time of year, here this year’s top ten favorite recipes that feature fresh herbs, fruits and veggies. Enjoy!
10. In the spirit of the “Life is short so eat dessert first” school of thought, I’m kicking things off with the recipe for strawberry-rhubarb pie.
9. Any meat marinated in this teriyaki sauce and stir fried with fresh garden veggies will be a summer time hit.
8. I found this kale and sausage tart recipe late last summer, and it was an instant hit.
7. The man of steel loves this grilled turkey pesto sandwich, made with basil pesto (see #5). He’s glad that this summer food is good any time of year, since pesto is easy to freeze and thaw.
6. Tomato season is just beginning. Once it’s in full swing, this fresh summer salsa makes short work of extra tomatoes, peppers, and onions.
5. Non-dairy basil pesto. Spread it on pizza and sandwiches or toss it with pasta. It freezes beautifully, too!
4. No summer recipe list is complete without Grandma Fern’s wilted lettuce. It’s delicious and uses massive amounts of garden lettuce and spinach, too.
3. This absolutely delicious grilled shrimp salad is a summer staple at our house. We feel so virtuous eating it because it’s low-cal and very healthy.
2. Peanut-cilantro pesto vaulted near the top of our summer favorites list about 5 seconds after the man of steel and I tasted it. We like it on crackers, sandwiches, and tossed with pasta. Divine!
1. And finally, the top summer recipe on our little gravel road is fresh peach pie. In a week or two, when the Colorado, Michigan, and Missouri peaches hit the grocery stores, this pie will grace every potluck or food-related social event we attend.
What’s your favorite summer recipe? Leave a link to it in the comment box or share the recipe. Happy eating!
by jphilo | Jun 12, 2013 | Recipes
This week the skies cleared, and the weather served up conditions fit for outdoor grilling. I took advantage of summer’s arrival by trying out a new recipe that came in the Summer 2013 edition of Hy-Vee Season’s Magazine. For those of you not from Iowa, Hy-Vee is a grocery store chain based in our fair state.
The chain has been around for decades, while the magazine debuted about a year ago. So far, every issue has been filled with healthy recipes–many of them dairy-free or easy to convert. The ingredients for shrimp skewers (called kabobs at our house) were at hand–right down to fresh basil waiting to picked in our herb garden–so I gave them a whirl.
The kabobs met two of my three keeper recipe requirements. They were health and easy to make, served with brown rice. However, they did not wow the man of steel or me. We liked them, but not enough to make the recipe a keeper.
It may have been the tomato-shrimp combination that didn’t tickle our taste buds. If that’s the case, and you like tomato and shrimp together, you’ll want to give this recipe a try. Because it really was easy. And healthy enough to make me feel virtuous all evening long!
Spicy Tomato-Basil Shrimp Kabobs
1/4 cup plus 2 teaspoons olive oil, divided
1/3 cup tomato sauce
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon chopped, fresh basil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
pinch of salt
1 pound large raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 orange bell pepper, seeded and cut into 16 pieces*
1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into 16 pieces*
1 small white onion, cut into 16 pieces**
In medium bowl, combine 1/4 cup olive oil, tomato sauce, vinegar, basil, garlic, cayenne pepper, and salt. Add shrimp; stir to coat. Cover and marinate for 30–60 minutes. Meanwhile, soak 8 10-inch wooden skewers in water.
In a bowl, combine peppers and onions. Add remaining 2 teaspoons of oil, turning vegetables carefully to coat them.
Thread shrimp, pepper pieces, and onion pieces on skewers. Drizzle remaining marinade over skewers. Grill over medium heat for 4–5 minutes per side until shrimp are opaque. (It took closer to 10 minutes per side when I made them.)
*I used an assortment of miniature sweet peppers and did not count the pieces precisely.
**I used 1/2 of a large white onion and again did not count pieces precisely.
by jphilo | Apr 10, 2013 | Recipes
We were out of town for a long weekend, during which other people did all the cooking. So I didn’t have a chance to try a new recipe. But, thanks to thoughtful hosts and lovely weather, we enjoyed the first grilled meal of the season, and oh, it was good!
Today, the weather turned cold and rainy again. But more sunny days are on the way. In anticipation of grilled meals to come, here are three fave meat marinades previously featured on Down the Gravel Road:
- Honey Mustard Marinade: This post includes Honey Mustard Marinade within the recipe for Honey Mustard Stir Fry. So dig your way down to the marinade part of the post and use it to prepare pork or some other meat for the grill. Or make the stir fry once garden season begins. It’s good both ways.
- Teriyaki Sauce: This recipe is good with chicken, beef, and shrimp. It’s especially good for marinading meat to go on kabobs with fresh veggies and pineapple. However, the photo shows the sauce used in a stir fry, so just imagine that hodgepodge of veggies on skewers instead.
- Savory Marinade: This is our all time favorite grilling marinade. It works well with any kind of meat–chops, roasts, burgers, and kabobs. It does not, however, taste nearly as good in a stir fry. Go figure! The picture below shows beef cut thin, soaked in marinade for an hour or two, grilled briefly and served over plain rice. It doesn’t sound like much, but boy is it good.
Do you have a favorite marinade for food on the grill? Leave a comment about it or even the recipe if you don’t mind divulging your cook’s secrets. Happy grilling to you!
Photo Credit: www.freedigitalphotos.net
by jphilo | Jul 4, 2012 | Recipes
We were on the road so much last week I hardly had time to cook, let alone try a new recipe. So today, for readers still unsure of what to fix for a Fourth of July meal, here’s a rerun of our current favorite summer grilling recipe. It meets all my criteria since it’s easy, tasty, healthy, and makes decent left overs.
We had it for supper Monday night, for the first time with fresh oregano from my new herb garden. Oh my, oh my, oh my, was that delicious. So give it a try and leave a comment about how it goes over at your house.
Greek Salad with Grilled Shrimp
1 head romaine lettuce chopped (or an equal amount of other greens)
2 sweet peppers, chopped
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1/3 cup kalamata olives, pitted
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
(The original recipe called for two chopped tomatoes and a chopped cuke)
Toss all together in bowl and put in refrigerator. Then prepare the shrimp as follows.
1 pound raw shrimp, shelled and with tails off
1 1/2 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon cajun or creole seasoning
Toss shrimp with oil and seasoning. Thread on skewers and grill for 1 – 2 minutes per side, until shrimp is done. Put on a platter.
Mix together the juice from 1/2 lemon, 3 tablespoons olive oil, 1 teaspoon dried oregano, and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Drizzle over lettuce mixture and toss well. Divide equally among 6 plates. Arrange shrimp on top and serve.
by jphilo | Aug 27, 2010 | Recipes
With all the rain we’ve had this summer, grilling had been a challenge this year. We managed a few sessions throughout the summer. I used this savory marinate on pork chops before Anne came home, and Hiram’s reaction was, “What did you do to these? It’s delicious.” Then when Anne arrived, I used it on thin sliced beef ribs. She looked up and asked, “What did you put on these? It’s delicious.” I used it again a couple nights ago, and again Hiram said, “This meat is so good.”
With reviews like that, how can I not share the recipe with you? The only change I made in the original recipe was to reduced the amount of oil.
Savory Marinade
Whisk together:
1 large clove garlic, crushed
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/8 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard (regular mustard works, too)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon parsley
Marinate meat (chicken, pork, fish, beef, or ground meat) in mixture for 30 minutes to 24 hours in the refrigerator. Grill, bake or, broil and then serve.
The original recipe came from The Occasional Cook: Culinary Strategies for Overcommitted Families by Cyndy Salzmann. Unfortunately, the cookbook, which is full of great freezer meal plans and recipes, is out of print. But it is available for purchase at her website, America’s Clutter Coach.
