Easy, Summer Entertaining
Things I’m reading and listening to:
🍦Jeni’s x Chapmans: Say no more
🥃 Garden to Glass: a Cocktail Competition: Understory’s mixologist will be whipping up drink concoctions using locally forged herbs and fruits + small plates by local restaurants at the Franklin Park Conservatory.
🍒 Giada De Laurentiis on Cherry Bombe’s podcast at SXSW. Always interesting to hear from someone who’s done so much in the food space.
I finally added all of my home cookbooks to my Eat Your Books profile. I’ll never not know what to do with an ingredient in my refrigerator. Inquiring minds, I have 62 recipes in my cookbooks that use peaches… helping me use up my 12lb box of peaches in my garage 🍑
Our Summer started off with a busy and fun few weekends, hosting out-of-town visitors. Hosting for us, means finding lots of activities for all ages which leaves little mental space for organizing meals. I rely on favorites to easily get food on a the table for a crowd. Here are some ideas!
Balsamic marinated Chicken Skewers: A quick marinate of a 2:1 ratio of balsamic vinegar and olive oil, combined with salt, 2 cloves of garlic, a tablespoon of brown sugar and a 1/2 teaspoon of oregano gives you a flavorful combination for your chicken. It’s just as easy to make for a family of 4 or double for a crowd. I cut my chicken into chunks, skewered them, and threw them on our smoker for a few minutes. YUM!
introduced me to pesto’s cousin, Pistou: a combination of almonds, basil, garlic, red wine vinegar, honey, salt and olive oil and I can’t stop making it. It tastes very similar to pesto but has more of a paste consistency, minus the cheese, and sub almonds and vinegar. It’s an easy topping for meats or fish!
I also am a firm believer of using in season produce & not over complicating it. Let the produce shine! It’s farmer’s market seaon after all.
Dinner on a night with our best friends from Chicago included brats on the grill, a simple caprese salad (tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese, basil leaves, drizzle of olive oil, and balsamic glaze), and chips and guac. I think I made guacamole 3 times those two weekends we were hosting. It comes and together in 3 min and is always a hit. The way I make mine is how I remember my Aunt Lynn making it when we visited her house growing up. I haven’t fact checked the recipe, but this it how I remember it, and it’s delicious!
Aunt Lynn’s Guacamole
2-3 ripe avocados
1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon of onion powder
1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce
1/2 lime juice
Kosher salt to taste
Until next time,
