Labor Day and 101 Grilling Tips

With Labor Day just around the corner, one of the summer’s last opportunities to pull out the bar-be-que is almost here. I found this great list of grilling tips from NYT’s The Minimalist.

Photo source.

I picked a few good tips off the list so here’s a sampling below:

2. Best grilled artichokes: Cut artichokes in half, scoop out the choke, parboil until tender. Grill, cut-side down, until lightly browned; grill a couple of halved lemons, too. Combine the juice from the grilled lemons with melted butter and spoon over the artichokes. Finish with parsley.

33. Smear hanger, skirt, flatiron or other steak with mustard. Grill and serve with grilled shallots.

61. Odd, but good: Strawberries and cherry tomatoes kebabs, finished with basil-laced balsamic vinegar.

80. A chicken or turkey burger worth eating: Cook and chop bacon; mix with ground chicken (or turkey) and grill.

and

101. Actually, this is a drink: Skewer green olives, then char them a bit. These would be a good garnish for shrimp, chorizo or anything else. But instead, make yourself a fantastic dirty martini.

What will you be grilling up for Labor Day?

Cheers,

Jenna Kate

Summer Birthdays

Birthdays are an interesting creature. Mine is in November, which means it’s cold, probably raining, but not cold enough to snow – when fun can be had outside. I used to envy all those late spring/summer birthdays because they had nice weather, could have poolside birthday parties, and always got the day off from school. Unfortunately, Veteran’s Day is not celebrated as a holiday in all states.

Then I found this: A Raspberry and Lemon-Lime Birthday: Raspberry Lemon Lime Sparkling Punch and Layer Cake

from Desserts for Breakfast. And it made me wonder, could I turn my cold, drizzly birthday into a summer flashback? Here is Steph’s recipe for the Raspberry Lemon Lime Punch that inspired this scrumptious cake:

Raspberry and Lemon-Lime Sparkling Punch

1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 cup thawed frozen raspberries (or fresh)
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
2-4 cups sparkling water
lime slices, for garnish
lemon slices, for garnish
fresh raspberries, for garnish

1. In a small saucepan over medium high heat, cook the sugar and water together until the sugar has completely dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool completely.
2. In a food processor or blender, puree the raspberries.
3. Combine in a pitcher the cooked sugar syrup, raspberry puree, and lemon and lime juices. Mix together.
4. Add the sparkling water, adding less for a stronger mix and more for a lighter mix. Garnish with ice, lime slices, lemon slices, and fresh raspberries.

So now the question is, aside from decorating my apartment in lemon yellow and fuscia, are there any summer-themed board games I can pull out at my next birthday party?

Cheers,

Jenna Kate

Pineapple

In my office, they order dinner for everyone who is working late, which I think is really great. My Mediterranean salad from last night had some yummy pineapple chunks mixed in with grilled chicken, dried cherries, sesame seeds, chopped lettuce and a yummy honey-lime dressing. This got me thinking about how I never posted pictures up from Easter when my parents purchased a pineapple core-er.

Here you can see my little brother, coring completed, pouring the extra juice out of the pineapple:

And here’s my handsome (now) fiance proudly showing off his nice towering ringlets of pineapple:

So, in honor of Pineapple Wednesday, here’s an easy recipe for a great summer Pineapple Salsa from BlogChef.net:

Ingredients:
1 can pineapple chunks
1 onion (diced)
1 Red bell pepper (diced)
1 Green bell pepper (diced)
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons coriander leaves (chopped)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 jalapeno pepper (optional)
salt (to taste)

Cooking Instructions:

Photos source.

Step 1: Combine pineapple, red bell pepper, onion, and green bell pepper in a bowl and mix.
Step 2: Add in cayenne pepper, coriander leaves, and lemon juice. Mix well. Let refrigerate until ready to serve.

Enjoy your pineapple today!

Cheers,

Jenna Kate

If I Was a Signature Drink I’d be Strawberry Lemonade…With a Twist

Last night I met up with some Dukies and a few UVA Cavaliers (Don’t judge, VTech is my Virginia school) in Dupont Circle. We ended up wandering down to U Street where we found a great little bar with no line and an amazing air conditioning system. With the heat wave in DC at the moment, it was a critical decision to get out of the heat. While one of the boys was ordering Yucca fries with a tangy mayonnaise sauce, I caught a glimpse of the cocktail menu. They had this delicious glass on their list:

a Strawberry Lemonade. The ingredients were listed as Vodka, fresh strawberry purée, and fresh lemon juice which they squeezed out of a lemon wedge in front of me. I’d definitely call that fresh.

Because the girls and I became immediately obsessed with this drink, I searched for a recipe. This one adds seltzer water, but it suggests using Absolut Citron or another lemon-infused vodka, which is exactly what I will do for my next roof-top party. I’ll probably skip the seltzer water in favor of a fresh, traditional lemonade flavor without the added bubbles. Thanks www.Chow.com for your user-submitted recipe section where I found these instructions:

• 2 ounces vodka (ideally lemon-infused or citron)
• 2 ounce freshly squeezed lemonade
• 1 ounce strawberry puree (doesn’t need to be strained)
• 1/2 ounce club soda or seltzer water
• Half strawberry or mint sprig for garnish

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a separate container, purée strawberries using a blender or hand-held immersion blender. Extra puree can be frozen for future use.
2. Fill a highball glass with ice.
3. Pour vodka, lemonade, strawberry puree, and seltzer water in glass and stir to combine puree with other ingredients.
4. Garnish with half or whole strawberry or mint sprig.

Again, I would skip the seltzer water, and the recipe suggested using any type of berry to make the purée. I’ll definitely try raspberries, but I’d be curious how blueberries might taste as well. Definitely an experiment for August! Share your favorite summer cocktail and I’d love  other recipes to try! Try and stay cool!

Cheers,

Jenna Kate

DIY: Twister Board

My girlfriends in college were obsessed with Twister. Not to say we played a lot, but a Twister board had accompanied us out for the evening on several occasions. I came across this precious DIY project for a custom twister board:

 

Photos from Polka Dot Bride.

This bride-to-be used circles of colorful fabrics on one side for the playing board, and used squares on the other for a fun picnic quilt. I’ll be sure to try out this project soon! Anyone have quilting tips?

Cheers, Kate

Top Etsy Finds: From Camper Vans to Cameos

Popular boutique shopping site Etsy posted up a list of the most popular items on their site. Here are my favorites from each of the categories:

Charms: 24k Gold Acorn necklace

$85 from GurKimel.

Campers: Vintage Camper Birdhouse

 

This item has already sold. I also like The Little Old Trailer desk caddy for $23.50.

Animal Prints: Lisbon Falls. Hand Blown Leopard Hanging Pendant with Chain and Canopy

$59 from Lamp Goods.

Salt: Jalapeno Lime Finishing Salt

This item has already been sold, but check out this seller’s other gourmet finishing salts and spice blends.

Folk and Bohemian: Victorian Ornament Flourishing Folk Porcelain Egg Cup

This item has already been sold. Check out other Victorian egg cups here. The seller VisuaLingual has some great graphic design and screen printing work. I love this ‘Cincinnati Is My Home’ print on vintage wallpaper:

$50 from VisuaLingual

Cameo: 1 dozen Silhouette Cookies

$30 by TabbyCat13.

Hope you enjoy all these fun finds and check out these cool Etsy companies!

Cheers, Kate

The Gloss: You Need A Drink

Thank you to The Gloss for today’s amazing drink recipe and the fabulous witty comments accompanying it. I will be trying when I get home tonight:

 

by: Jennifer Wright: the Strawberry Champagne Mojito

 

Here is what [my mother's lawyer] likes: martinis.
Here is what I like: grass. – Eloise at the Plaza

Here is what you’ll like if you go to The Rose Club at the Plaza: The strawberry champagne mojito. You may not run into Eloise there, but you might encounter Justin Timberlake, P. Diddy, Gwyneth Paltrow, Scarlett Johanssen and Denzel Washington. Though if you’re not a city child, don’t worry – we’ve got the recipe:

Strawberry Champagne Mojito

3 to 4 Strawberries and Half Pint of Loose Fresh Mint Leaves Muddled

3/4 oz of Freshly Squeezed Lime Juice

1 oz of Simple Syrup

2 oz Bacardi Rum

Shake and Strain into a Highball Glass

Finally – Top off with Champagne.

**Garnish – Half Strawberry pierced with Mint Sprig

Maison Cailler Swiss Chocolates

Someone in the office left a bag of Cailler Swiss chocolates in the kitchen today. I took the liberty of sampling them. If Adam gets to go on assignment in Switzerland, I’ll be a very happy girl.

The lait (milk chocolate) was fantastic. Creamy and full of cocoa, this chocolate has a lighter taste than your typical Hershey’s bar. I wasn’t as big of a fan of the dessert or cremant chocolates. The dessert has traces of praline which I’m not a fan of, and the cremant was a ‘extrafine dark chocolate,’ and I’m not into that either. 

But unexpectedly, the blanc chocolate was my favorite. Super silky and supple, just like chocolate should be.  What’s your favorite international chocolatier?

Photo source 1. Source 2.

Peanut Butter

So over the last few days I’ve gotten into too many discussions about words we use back home. In a backpackers community, the first thing you talk about is food. Peanut butter is in fact as American as one could get, except maybe apple pie or Cheerios.

While its fun talking about the things that could be mixed into Champ or the contents of a Dutch breakfast, peanut butter is about the only thing I eat every day that reminds me of home. I now am a 3-cups-of-tea-a-day girl and even eat tomato sauce which tastes nothing like ketchup. All I want to eat for dinner is Hursey’s pulled pork bbq sandwich and a huge basket of hush puppies with a whole case of Bud Light (beer is ridiculously expensive here, like $12 minimum for a 6-pack).

So since my birthday is in about a month, here’s a list of things from home I miss that could potentially be shipped internationally:

Heinz ketchup

J. Crew anything

Kraft 3-Cheese Shells Mac N Cheese

Hursey’s BBQ sauce

Whatever new CDs have come out (anything country, John Mayer’s, etc. Music is like 4 months old here)

A flash drive with all the episodes of The Office, Greek and Gossip Girl I’ve missed

An Elon sweatshirt

An Alpha Chi baseball hat

And hugs. Can’t wait until Adam gets here and we head down to go skydiving!

Tomato & Capsicum

It’s my last night in Auckland and it’s been freezing and raining, so I trudged out to Food Town (a potential Wal-Mart affiliate??) and made myself a Foxcroft classic: tomato soup. I had to settle for toast over grilled cheese.

The soup I picked was interesting one because it was a blend of tomato and red peppers, what the can labeled as capsicum. Once I figured that out, ordering food became a lot easier. The supermarket was slightly overwhelming, but I found familiar Campbell’s and Kraft on the shelves. I even bought bananas from Ecuador and breakfast tea for the morning. Maybe I’ll venture into cheese and unrefrigerated eggs the next time.

And in going with the Kiwi environmental focus, I bought a reusable grocery bag.