Tag Archives: summer

Grilled Shrimp Salad with Mediterranean Lemon Dressing

Posted on by TheLittleGSP

Matt and I are getting married in 2 days! All of our wedding prep is pretty much done and now we’re just relaxing and waiting for the weekend to get here. (Oh, and also checking the weather about a million times a day… Tropical Storm Andrea better hurry up and get out of here in time for our outdoor ceremony on Saturday afternoon!) :-)

We’ve been going out to eat a lot lately but we did make one planned meal this week using a new cookbook that my mom got us as a wedding present. The book is entitled Salad for Dinner so, as you might guess, our meal was a nice and hearty entree salad! This was a fresh, summery meal that was perfect for the warm weather we had earlier this week. Doesn’t it look yummy?

Grilled Shrimp Salad with Lemon Mediterranean Dressing

Grilled Shrimp Salad with Mediterranean Lemon Dressing (from Salad for Dinner)

For the Mediterranean Lemon Dressing…
1 tablespoon Tahini (ground sesame seed paste)
2 cloves Garlic, pressed through a garlic press
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/4 cup freshly squeezed Lemon Juice
1/3 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

For the salad…
1 lb. large Shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 tablespoons Olive Oil
1-2 cloves Garlic, pressed through a garlic press
8 oz. Mini Bell Peppers
8 cups Baby Spinach
1 pint Cherry Tomatoes, sliced in half
2-3 Persian Cucumbers, sliced into 1/4″ rounds
1/4 – 1/2 Red Onion, very thinly sliced
Feta Cheese, crumbled
Fresh Oregano Leaves
Lemon Wedges
Pita Bread Crisps*

Directions:
Combine all of the dressing ingredients in a jar. Close the lid and shake vigorously to combine. (You could also use a bowl and whisk the ingredients together if you don’t feel like shaking.) Refrigerate the dressing until you are ready to use it.

Mix together the shrimp, garlic and olive oil in a large bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. After the shrimp has marinaded, remove from the fridge and stir in the mini bell peppers. Grill the shrimp and bell peppers over medium-high heat. When the shrimp turn pink (3-5 minutes), remove them from the grill and set aside. Continue cooking the bell peppers until they are soft and blackened in spots.

In a large salad bowl, combine the spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers and onion. Dress with the Mediterranean Dressing and mix well. (I used about half of what the recipe made.) Toss in the warm shrimp and bell peppers. Serve the salad in shallow bowls with pita crisps and garnish with feta, oregano, and lemon.

Grilled Shrimp Salad

Grilled Shrimp and Bell Pepper Salad Close Up

*To make pita bread crisps, slice pita bread into 1 – 1 1/2″ strips. Place on a cookie sheet, brush lightly with olive oil and season with salt. Bake in a preheated 425°F oven for approx. 10 minutes, turning once, until golden brown.

No-Bake Coconut Cream Pie

Posted on by TheLittleGSP

Hello!  I’ve been pretty bad about posting lately but I have a good excuse… Matt and I are getting married in 11 days!  That means that I’ve been busy making wedding things (place cards, welcome bags, menus, programs, burlap table runners…the list goes on) and doing pre-wedding activities like wine-tasting at our venue, Grace Winery, taking first-dance dance lessons (we’re doing the rumba!), writing our ceremony and going to dress fittings.  Whew!

But, enough about the wedding… this post is about PIE!  Easy, no-bake coconut cream pie, to be exact.  :-)   This is our second foray into the world of no-bake pies (see our Peanut Butter Cream Pie for the first) and it further solidified our love of these super-simple desserts.  We used store bought pie crusts, pudding mix, and cool whip and the whole recipe only took about 20 minutes of “active” time.  Perfect!

Coconut Cream Pie

Easy No-Bake Coconut Cream Pie (from Kraft.com; doubled to make 2 pies)

You will need…
4 – 3.4 oz. packages of JELL-O Vanilla Instant Pudding
4 cups Cold 1% Milk
1 – 16 oz. container Cool Whip Topping, divided
2 cups Sweetened Coconut Flakes, divided
2 store bought Graham Cracker Pie Crusts

Directions:
Beat pudding mixes and milk together in a large bowl of a stand mixer for 2 minutes.  Mix in about half of the cool whip (approx. 2 cups) and 1 ½ cups of the coconut.  Pour the mixture into the two pie crusts and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or until the pudding is set.  Store the remaining Cool Whip in the refrigerator (not the freezer) so that it will be spreadable later.

While the pudding sets, spread the remaining coconut out onto a baking sheet and toast in a preheated 350°F oven for 10-15 minutes.  Check on the coconut frequently and stir it to keep from burning on the edges.  The coconut is done when it turns golden brown.

Take the two pies and the Cool Whip out of the fridge and top each pie with the remaining Cool Whip.  Sprinkle the toasted coconut over top and enjoy!

Coconut Cream Pie

Coconut Cream Pie Slice

Mediterranean Quinoa Salad

Posted on by TheLittleGSP

We are at the point in the wedding process where glorious wedding gifts are occasionally waiting for us by the garage when we get home from work.  (Thank you friends and family!!!)  One gift that’s had an immediate impact on our cooking habits is our amazing Zojirushi rice cooker.  This countertop gadget cooks every type of grain imaginable and it’s incredibly easy to use.  It’s also so satisfying to pop open the top at the end of the cook time and find perfectly cooked, fluffy, steaming hot rice.  Yum!

In addition to cooking the perfect pot of rice, the Zojirushi can cook quinoa, a protein-packed ‘superfood’ that, according to wikipedia, is actually more closely related to beets and spinach than grains.  Quinoa can easily be substituted in for grains in a well-rounded meal so, armed with our new rice cooker, Matt and I decided that we’d try our hand at a nice summery quinoa salad.  I found a great looking recipe on Garnish with Lemon and, after a few small tweaks (because I never follow recipes exactly), we ended up with a delicious, healthy salad that we’ll continue to enjoy all week for lunch.

Mediterranean Quinoa Salad

Mediterranean Quinoa Salad (adapted from Garnish With Lemon)

You will need…
1 1/2 cups raw Quinoa (or about 6 cups cooked Quinoa)
1/3-1/2 cup Red Wine Vinegar
1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 Red Onion, finely chopped
1 Red Pepper, chopped
1 Cucumber, peeled and chopped
1 pint Cherry Tomatoes, quartered
1/2 cup Kalamata Olives, halved
1/2 – 1 cup Crumbled Feta Cheese
1 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Pepper
Juice of 1/2 – 1 Lemon

Directions:
Cook the quinoa on the stovetop according to the package instructions or, if you have a rice cooker, cook it in the rice cooker on the normal white rice setting with a 2:1 water to quinoa ratio.  When cooking is complete, transfer the quinoa to a large bowl, cool for 5-10 minutes and stir in the vinegar and olive oil.

Allow the quinoa to cool completely to room temperature, then gently stir in the next 6 ingredients (onion thru feta).  Season with salt and pepper (add more to taste if needed).  If you have the patience, chill the salad for 2 hours (we ate it immediately and it was still good) and “garnish with lemon” just before serving.

Mediterranean Quinoa Salad 5

Mojito Limeade

Posted on by TheLittleGSP

Happy Spring!  Here in southeastern Pennsylvania our Spring basically arrived overnight.  Last week, on April Fool’s Day we had 2-3 inches of snow and this week the temperatures are in the 80s.  What a change!  The sudden warm up has energized all of our flowers and blooming trees… our first daffodil opened up yesterday and our pear tree’s white blossoms opened up this morning.  I bet that our weeping cherry, crab apples, and maybe even a few tulips will be open by this weekend.  :-)

In honor of our summery weather I wanted to post the recipe for a refreshing beverage that Matt and I whipped up yesterday afternoon.  It’s modeled after Cosi’s Mojito Lemonade but we used a limeade base so we’re calling our version ‘Mojito Limeade.’  Oh, and we didn’t try it yesterday, but this would probably taste great spiked with a little rum…!

"Mojito" Limeade 2

Mojito Limeade  (makes one pitcher)

You will need…
1/3 cup Mint Leaves, loosely packed
1 – 12 oz. can Frozen Limeade Concentrate
Approx. 60 oz. Cold Water (about 5 empty cans full)
2 Limes, cut into thin rounds
2 Lemons, cut into thin rounds
Ice

Directions:
Place the mint leaves and a little bit of the limeade juice into a large pitcher and “muddle” the mint (i.e. crush it) to bring out the flavor.  Add in the rest of the frozen limeade and the water and stir well until the limeade dissolves into the water.  Add the limes, lemons, and ice, stir again, and enjoy!

"Mojito" Limeade

August Cheer for a Rainy Day

Posted on by TheLittleGSP

As predicted, Hurricane Sandy is slowly turning into the New Jersey coast and we have already experienced 40 mph wind gusts, almost 2 inches of rain, and a short power outage.  We’ve also found a leaky spot in our roof by the chimney… eek!  Other than that everything is fine so I thought I’d share something completely unrelated to the storm: photos from my garden in August!

This pink zinnia plant was at its peak in early August but, believe it or not, it STILL has a few blooms on it today! We’ll see how they look after the storm…

These Gladioli bloomed in August and did a nice job of covering up the big propane tank that powers a little stove in our living room. That stove might come in handy if the power goes out tonight!

Vine-ripening tomatoes in early August… yum!

These “Dinnerplate” Dahlias bloomed outside of our front door for most of the summer.

I picked all of these vegetables during my lunch break one day in August. Pretty good harvest, right?

And, last but not least, an isolated Orange Cosmo. You might recognize this plant from my August post “The Bee’s Knees.” I’m definitely planting more of these flowers next year!

Thanks for stopping by my blog and good luck to everyone in the storm’s path!

Volunteer Vegetables!

Posted on by TheLittleGSP

Guess what?  All of these veggies came from “volunteer plants” in my garden.  Volunteers are plants that grow on their own, either from the wind or a bird dropping a seed or, in my case, from compost.  Seeds aren’t normally supposed to sprout out of your compost so, judging by the huge quantity of volunteers that are growing around my house, I think I must be doing something wrong!  (Or very right, depending on how you feel about volunteer mystery plants!)

The squash and pumpkin plants sprouted by our front door and quickly took over our pink cosmo/dahlia flower bed.  By mid-August the crooked-neck gourd vines were completely out of control and could be clearly seen from the street so we picked the mature squash and ripped out the vines.  The pumpkin vines were growing across our front walk so today I finally decided that the pumpkin looked ripe enough to pick it and pull out the plant.

The tomatoes are the most exciting volunteers because we’re actually getting to eat those.  We have about a dozen volunteer tomato plants and the campari-sized tomatoes are just starting to ripen on their vines.  This is perfect timing because my “planned” tomatoes are pretty much done producing.  Can’t wait to each some of them for dinner tonight!

Radiatori with Sausage and Garlicky Broccoli

Posted on by TheLittleGSP

Matt has a knack for creating great flavors in meat and pasta dishes.  Some of my favorite recipes on this blog are entirely his creations (like Chicken Cutlets and Bucatini with Asparagus and Sausage in a White Wine Sauce!) and he carried on the tradition of melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness with this simple combination of sausage, broccoli and pasta.

If you don’t have broccoli on hand, you can easily substitute other in-season vegetables and feel free to try other types of sausage and pasta as well.  Last week Matt made a version of this dish using zucchini, Orecchiette, and freshly made Chicken Cordon Bleu sausage from Maiale and it was so delicious that we ate all of it before I had the presence of mind to snap a photo!

Radiatori with Sausage and Garlicky Broccoli

You will need:
6 Tablespoons Olive Oil, divided
10 cloves Garlic, sliced into thin discs
1 ½ – 2 cups Broccoli Crowns, cut into bite sized pieces
1 Yellow Onion, sliced into ¼ inch rounds and quartered
2 Sweet Italian Pork Sausages, grilled and sliced into bite sized pieces
1 teaspoon Chili Garlic Sauce (in the Asian food section of most grocery stores)
1 lb. Pasta, cooked according to package instructions (We used Garofalo’s Radiatori pasta)
Salt and Pepper to taste
Grated Parmesan Cheese

Directions:
In a large skillet or wok, heat 4 tablespoons of the Olive Oil over medium heat.  Add the sliced garlic and sauté until aromatic, 1-2 minutes.  Add the broccoli, stir well to coat with the oil, and allow to sauté for approximately 20 minutes, stirring only occasionally until broccoli starts to brown.  Remove broccoli and garlic from wok and set aside.

From left: Broccoli with garlic, onions, and finished, combined pasta dish

Add remaining 2 tablespoons Olive Oil to wok and return to medium heat.  Add the sliced onion and sauté, stirring frequently, until onions start to become translucent.  Add the cooked and sliced sausage and the chili garlic sauce and mix until the onion and sausage are evenly coated with sauce.  Return the broccoli to the wok and stir well to combine.  Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

Carefully add the cooked and drained pasta into the wok and stir well to combine ingredients and coat the pasta.  Sprinkle on 1/4-1/2 cup of shredded Parmesan and mix well.  Enjoy with your favorite chilled white wine or, if you’re like us, with a good Oktoberfest-style beer!

Shh… It’s a Surprise!!!

Posted on by TheLittleGSP

Last weekend my mom and I threw a surprise birthday party for her fiancé.  I don’t want to get into too many personal details, but suffice it to say that he was VERY surprised to walk into his own kitchen after a day at the golf course to find 20+ of his closest friends and family ready to party!

My mom and I had a blast planning the menu and secretly hiding the food in the days before the party.  By the morning of the party my mom had managed to successfully conceal 2 dozen brining chicken breasts, impressive amounts of peppers, onions and potatoes, and all of the dips, dressings, and glazes in the refrigerator behind little walls of soda and beer cans and a few strategically placed bags of salad greens… good job, Mom!

One of my culinary contributions to the party was a platter of single-serving Caprese Skewers.  Combining each bite of cherry tomato and mozzarella onto skewers allowed our guests to snack on the caprese with just one hand (leaving the other free for a beverage!) which made this a great appetizer for a party.  It’s also an easy dish to make for a party because you can assemble the skewers several hours ahead of time and then simply garnish with some fresh basil right before serving.

Bite-Sized Caprese Skewers with Tomatoes, Mozzarella, Basil & Balsamic Glaze

You will need…
2-3 small handfuls Arugula
25-30 Marinated Mozzarella Balls, approx. 1″ in diameter
2 pints Cherry Tomatoes, cut in half and kept “paired” with their halves
Toothpicks; can use the slightly longer “sandwich picks” for a little extra space
6-8 extra Cherry Tomatoes, cut into quarters
Balsamic Glaze (use a bottled glaze or make your own balsamic reduction)
10-15 Basil Leaves

Directions:
Arrange the arugula along the center of a serving tray.  Slice each mozzarella ball into 4 pieces by slicing off the rounded ends (2 pieces) and cutting the center of the ball in half (2 pieces).  Set the small rounded ends aside.

Skewer the top of a tomato half with the toothpick and slide the tomato onto the stick.  Next, slide one of the center mozzarella pieces onto the toothpick.  Skewer the bottom half of the tomato and slide it into place on the toothpick as shown in the photo.  Repeat with all of your halved tomatoes and mozzarella, arranging the skewers onto the arugula as you go.

Sprinkle the rounded mozzarella ball ends and the quartered tomatoes onto the arugula as a garnish.  Drizzle the balsamic glaze over the entire tray.  If needed, you can refrigerate the tray until party time at this point (that’s what we did!).  Before serving, roll up the basil leaves and use kitchen scissors to cut them into long slices.  Arrange the basil slices over the caprese skewers.  (The basil isn’t shown in my photos since I took them a few hours before the party started.)

Adding Some Pizazz to Weeknight Tortellini

Posted on by TheLittleGSP

Despite what you might think based on all of the semi-complicated recipes on this blog, there are plenty of nights when Matt and I resort to quick and easy dinners like take-out pizza, frozen dinner entrees, and basic pasta. One of our go-to pasta dinners is tortellini with a sprinkle of garlic powder and Parmesan cheese (healthy, I know!), but last week we decided to add a little pizazz to the dish by incorporating a few simple ingredients.

This entire meal only takes about 15 minutes to make… including the time it takes for your tortellini to cook! The asparagus gets added to the pasta water for the last few minutes and, after straining, all of the ingredients are tossed together in the same pot, making this a simple one-pot meal.

Quick and Easy Pesto Tortellini with Asparagus and Tomatoes (makes 3-4 servings)

You will need…
1 lb. Tortellini (we love Drake’s Frozen Cheese Tortellini)
1 bunch Asparagus, cut into 2″ pieces
2 tablespoons Olive Oil
2-3 tablespoons Pesto (I used 2 “Pesto cubes” that I froze in an ice cube tray last week)
1 cup Cherry Tomatoes

Directions:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook the tortellini according to package instructions. When there are 3-4 minutes left on the cook time, add the cut asparagus to the pasta water and allow the pasta to finish cooking. Drain pasta and asparagus and return the empty pot to the stove over medium-low heat. Add the Olive Oil and drop in your pesto “cubes.” Stir constantly as the pesto thaws. (If using fresh pesto you can skip this step.)

I made this pesto last week using basil and garlic from our garden. For easy storage I spooned the pesto into an ice cube tray and made 10 frozen pesto cubes — perfect for use in quick weeknight meals!

Add the hot pasta and asparagus back to the pot and stir to combine with the pesto (if the pesto wasn’t already completely thawed it will be after a few stirs!). Add in the uncooked tomatoes, stir a few more times, and serve!

The Bee’s Knees

Posted on by TheLittleGSP

First of all, congratulations to Pami from Pa-BLAM and Om Nomalicious for winning the Digital Kitchen Scale in the Slimkicker Giveaway!  Pami, please e-mail team (at) slimkicker (dot) com to claim your prize!

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Matt is at a lacrosse tournament this weekend so Bailey and I enjoyed a lazy Saturday.  She spent hours lounging in the shade watching for groundhogs, birds, and squirrels (her favorite summer pastime) and I browsed the aisles of Pier 1 (I love looking at all of the plates, trays, and glasses… is that weird?) and spent some time enjoying my garden.

There are several flowers blooming in the garden now including gladiolus, superbells, canna lilies and cosmos.  We planted the cosmos in May and recently they have really taken off.  There are dozens of perfect orange blooms and several bees happily buzzing around from flower to flower.  Here are a few photos of them, enjoy!