balsamic

Strawberry Arugula Salad with Watermelon and Feta

This healthy strawberry and arugula salad recipe with a simple balsamic vinaigrette dressing gets even sweeter with watermelon that’s topped with feta cheese and nuts.

Strawberries. Watermelon. Arugula. Feta.

Sweet. Sweet. Bitter. Tang.

This super simple arugula salad with fruit and a quick balsamic dressing melds so perfectly together it creates a total flavor explosion. It’s smooth, it’s crunchy, it’s fresh, it has bite. And it lets every one of your senses know that baby, summer is on its way.

During spring and summer, I bet I make a version of this strawberry and arugula salad with watermelon, feta cheese and nuts at least once or twice a week. I LOVE the ying and the yang of the flavors and textures. Shockingly, the other two in our trio of a family didn’t get the fruit-in-salad-loving-gene.

Since meal time it’s a democracy in at 0ur house, when I say fruit goes in salad, this democratic (?) Queen (that’s me!) gets her way every time. And guess, what? Thanks to repeated exposure, my king and my princess have seen the light and converted to fruit-in-salad-lovers too.

All hail the Queen! (Still, me.)continue to the recipe… about Strawberry Arugula Salad with Watermelon and Feta

Mediterranean Grilled Balsamic Chicken with Olive Tapenade

A simple marinade with two kinds of balsamic vinegar, fresh herbs, and grainy mustard gives this grilled balsamic chicken topped with an easy olive and sun dried tomato tapenade a classic Mediterranean flavor zing.

This recipe is brought to you by Kroger

It’s no secret that I have a love affair with Mediterranean flavored food, and there’s no better season than summer to really get into exploring all the flavors as a cook and relishing every bite as an eager eater.

From Italian-style Burrata and Heirloom Tomato Caprese Salads to classic Greek Pork Souvlaki and The Best Lebanese Fattoush Salad, summer is the season to take advantage of Mediterranean vegetables in their prime, fresh herbs at their peak, and outdoor grilling techniques that naturally become the dinnertime norm.

This grilled balsamic chicken served with a super-simple-to-make olive and sun dried tomato tapenade is one of my favorite, and easiest gateways to making healthy Mediterranean eating a weekly ritual.

continue to the recipe… about Mediterranean Grilled Balsamic Chicken with Olive Tapenade

Peach Panzanella Salad with Burrata and Bacon

This recipe is not your classic, traditional Italian or Greek panzanella salad, because with sliced sweet peaches, savory bacon, and gooey burrata crunched with sourdough bread chunks and dressed in an easy to make golden balsamic vinegar dressing, this healthy-ish salad goes well beyond the regular old panzanella each and every meal of the day.

Here we are, just three days into spring, and I’m already counting down the days to summer. That would be 72 if you’re wondering.

It’s not the hazy, lazy summer days lounging at the pool I’m waiting for (although that IS always on my summer happiness list), it’s the food I’m craving now. After a winter of simmering soups and savory stews, this girl is ready for the fresh, bright colors of salads of every color. And if it said salad has even a hint of caprese salad fixings—which I classify as a salad that includes some sort of mozzarella dressed in olive oil and balsamic and topped with basil—I am so 100% all over it.

It’s just one reason why I stopped dead in my flipping-the-pages-tracks while perusing the new cookbook of one of my favorite friends, then swiftly scoped my pantry stock for golden balsamic vinegar, checked on my countertop basil plant to be sure it hadn’t expired due to dehydration (those babies dry out fast!), and then headed straight to the grocery store for three loves of my foodie loving life: peaches, burrata, and bacon. Okay, make that four loves, with sourdough bread too.continue to the recipe… about Peach Panzanella Salad with Burrata and Bacon

Pesto Pizza with Balsamic Chicken and Peaches

This pizza gets its savory wings thanks to a fresh, green pesto and thinly sliced balsamic chicken that goes with summer’s best, sweet peaches and provolone to create a pizza that’s worth every bite.

With peaches at their peak, there’s plenty of ways to savor them besides smoothies (although this one is GRAND), my grandma’s peach and blackberry cobbler, and even as a balsamic-ed topping for grilled pork chops.

But one of my new favorite peach recipes comes from FoodieCrush contributor Hayley of the blog Seven Day Weekend. She sent me this recipe a year ago, and with seasonal peaches in their prime, it’s due time she shares it with you too. Take it away Hayley!

There are very few things I could eat every day without getting tired of them. Pizza is one of those foods, only I don’t eat it every day, because unfortunately I don’t have the resilient and forgiving metabolism of Chrissy Teigen (and her cookbook is great!).

For a long time now, my go-to pizza toppings have been pepperoni, mushrooms, and green peppers. But that’s comfy pizza—the kind you eat too many slices of, in your pajamas, on the couch, after a long day. Or even more likely, after a long night.

When I want fancy pizza though, I always welcome deviations. I try to embrace what’s in season. Sometimes it’s a white pie with bacon, potatoes, Swiss chard, and rosemary in the fall, or garlicky, lemony roasted broccoli with Italian sausage and goat cheese in the winter.

But one of my favorite slices is a summery one, inspired by a pizza I had several years ago at a cute little café in Raleigh, N.C., called Zest.

continue to the recipe… about Pesto Pizza with Balsamic Chicken and Peaches

Mediterranean Quinoa Salad

This healthy vegetarian quinoa salad makes for a simple lunch or dinner, thanks to staples like roasted red bell peppers, kalamata olives and feta from your fridge and pantry.

I get that feeling. I look at my watch. Scratch that, I look at the clock on my iPhone—after annoyingly plugging in my 4 number password twice because I have bubblethumbs—and realize, CRAP! It’s lunch!

Now what?

If I’m not going out to lunch with my husband (we’re pretty good at day-dating) you’ll find me in the kitchen adding odds and ends from the pantry and fridge for a cobbled together salad of leftovers, canned beans and anything with a pucker.

Where this salad may have started off without much of a thought in serving up me, myself and I for a one-on-one lunch, it proved its worth in spades when I pulled it out of my recipe hat and made it for a lunch to serve 16 food bloggers.

It’s a good one for that.

continue to the recipe… about Mediterranean Quinoa Salad

Bacon Wrapped Grilled Peaches with Balsamic Glaze

The first bite of recipe creating inspiration for me often starts with—you got it—the first bite.

Case in point, my dinner last Friday night. Even though it was Labor Day weekend, the mountains delivered a chilly preview of what’s soon to be in store. I love fall. I can’t wait.

My husband and I were invited to mark the end of summer at the Wasatch Mountain Table at nearby Solitude Resort. It was a very, very long table set at the bottom of a ski hill among forests of trees and a wandering river.

We met some incredibly fun tablemates and laughed the night away, because that what food and drink does to a crowd. But the real focus of the night was the delicious food accented with beer pairings from one of my husband’s favorite local brewers, Epic Brewery.

Peaches are a staple fruit in Utah with orchards dotting the freeways that run north all the way to the border of Idaho. One of the appetizers at our Friday night dinner was a grill full of these Bacon Wrapped Grilled Peaches. Chef Neville cooked down Epic Brewery’s Brainless on Peaches Belgian Ale into the balsamic glaze.

continue to the recipe… about Bacon Wrapped Grilled Peaches with Balsamic Glaze

Grilled Pork Chops with Spicy Balsamic Grilled Peaches

Sometimes it’s hard to say goodbye. Unless you have something bright and shiny and new to say hello to. And if it makes delicious food, then in my book, my welcome mat is always ready.

We recently welcomed a new addition to the family and gave a fond farewell to one of our trusty summertime soldiers. And so we begin today’s post with a wave goodbye and well wishes to our 15 year+ outdoor gas grill who will surely find a great new home as soon as we set him to the curb. He served us well, but after several grill surgeries and a starter that forgot it’s duty and brought too many near misses of singed eyelashes and a voluminous WHOOMP when he finally caught fire, his time had come.

With July deemed as National Grilling Month, our bright and shiny new grilling addition is going to get a workout because I’m taking note and will be sharing a new grilling recipe each week. We’ll be going beyond the standard grilling fare of burgers and dogs to dive into simple, but juicy-packed-with-flavor dishes that will have you racing to break out the barbie.

This week’s grilling subject is meat. My first recipe out of the gate is this Grilled Pork Chops with Spicy Balsamic Grilled Peaches. A long title for a relatively no fuss recipe that is totally divine thanks to a soak in a salty brine to assist in making an amazingly juicy chop.

continue to the recipe… about Grilled Pork Chops with Spicy Balsamic Grilled Peaches

Burrata and Heirloom Tomato Caprese Salad

My mantra? The simpler the recipe, the more imperative the need for extraordinary ingredients. Case in point: my Burrata and Heirloom Tomato Caprese Salad.

Okay, Okay. I’m pretty sure I know what you’re thinking.

Yes, I have gone a bit bonkers on the tomato recipes of late. And yes, this basic summer salad barely constitutes an entire blog post. But I realized something when I was looking over my recipes that include the summertime C word, like my Avocado Caprese Wrap, Grilled Caprese Skewers, Quinoa and Burrata Caprese Salad and my Caprese Sandwich with Arugula and Olive Spread.

I realized that the actual basic caprese salad was the missing link in my recipe repertoire.

Plus, once we pulled this dish together I knew those heirloom tomatoes were too darn pretty not to share.

Let’s call this recipe an impulse post. Sadly I have no new impulse-purchased shoes to go with it.continue to the recipe… about Burrata and Heirloom Tomato Caprese Salad

Avocado Caprese Wrap

Whether its a celebratory lunch for a crowd or just a quick bite for one, making Avocado Caprese Wraps are a filling and healthy way to take a bite out of summer.

I’m guessing I’m like a lot of you round about this time of summer. Fresh flavors are being craved by my taste buds sending shockwaves of recipe ideas to my hot little head. But with the daydreams of swimsuits and pool time on this hot, dry days, lighter fare is always on my mind.

I don’t know if I will ever tire of the classic caprese. Salads, sandwiches, pastas. You could turn this thing into a taco or french toast and I’d eat it. Weak in the knees. It’s what I’ve become. Prepare to see more.

And now, this wrap. It tingles my palate.

continue to the recipe… about Avocado Caprese Wrap

Strawberry Bruschetta Grilled Cheese and Friday Faves

It was that sock that sat right in the middle of the floor for over a week. And her flip-flops that were haphazardly strewn about the living room along with a pile of papers and markers and other 8 year old stuff. And the pile of yet to be cleaned paint brushes sitting on the counter after my husband deposited them, left to languish next to the pile of clean towels that never seemed to get put away.

The little annoyances that last week gave me prickly heat every time I saw them, melted to the background after several national events reminded me that life as we know it can change in an instant.

I’m just grateful I get to once again have this gentle nudge to not take “stuff” so seriously. It is, afterall, just stuff.

As I show you my favorite recipes or share the latest shoes I covet, I don’t want to be insensitive—or on the flip side too melancholy—to events beyond our control. I think it’s important to remember that while we’re all affected by national circumstances, and while saddened or frustrated by them, we must also learn something from them. So I’m working on learning to turn a blind eye to MY issues with what gets my dander up, and be thankful I have loved ones to contribute to my self-induced peeves.

Yesterday I asked Facebook what you were craving to continue my Grilled Cheese Month Friday recipes: Savory or sweet? While the savory side seemed to weigh in pretty heavy, there were a fair number of you in the sweet camp as well. So I made a compromise: Let’s do a savory AND sweet grilled cheese this week. And here she is.

I present…Strawberry Bruschetta Grilled Cheese.continue to the recipe… about Strawberry Bruschetta Grilled Cheese and Friday Faves

Brined and Grilled Pork Loin Roast with Balsamic and Raspberry Chili Glaze

This week has definitely been one for the record books.

Thank you, thank you for all of your amazing support of—and eyeballs on—the launch of the Summer 2012 issue of FoodieCrush magazine. Your comments through the blog, on Twitter and Facebook reinforce my belief that there IS an audience that loves food bloggers, their recipes and photography and you too want to know more about these talents beyond their blogs.

Please don’t stop learning about these bloggers after you click close on the magazine. Visit their blogs and let them know you’re there with a simple comment, a wave or a shout and let them know you like them and their work.

One of the articles I was most excited to share is the Boys of Summer feature, featuring some of the best boy bloggers on the web aka Verses From My Kitchen, The Sophisticated Gourmet, SippitySup, Closet Cooking, A Thought for Food and Eat the Love, to give them some man-love-food props and strut their boy food stuff. I keep thinking they would make an amazing boy band, I’d be a groupie for sure.

There are so many amazing food bloggers on the www. I swear I have enough content to publish a new issue every week. Hey, that might be something to aspire to right?

So getting another issue of FoodieCrush out the door. Whew. That was a big deal.

And another big deal happened for me too, something some of you may have seen a mention of on Twitter or Facebook.continue to the recipe… about Brined and Grilled Pork Loin Roast with Balsamic and Raspberry Chili Glaze