Caprese salad is one I make all the time in the summer months once we start getting good Jersey tomatoes.  Burrata cheese is a fresh Italian cheese that is made of mozzarella and cream.  It is very similar to fresh mozzarella but the center is creamy.  Along with roasted tomatoes, burrata cheese adds a nice twist to caprese salad. 

You'll Need:

For salad:
3/4 lb mixed yellow and red cherry tomatoes, or just use regular fresh garden tomatoes
2 Tbs olive oil
salt & pepper
1 pkg baby romaine or mixed greens, enough for 4 small salads
1 lb fresh burrata cheese at room temp (leave out of fridge for about 30 min prior to making salad)
10 fresh basil leaves, julienned (sliced into thin strips)


For dressing:
1/8 tsp dry mustard
salt & fresh ground pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice

Half the tomatoes and toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast in a shallow baking pan under broiler for a few minutes until skins just start to get browned.
Remove from oven and let cool while you prepare dressing.  

Whisk together dressing ingredients and set aside.

Arrange salad greens on a serving plate, top with burrata cheese and the tomatoes (which should be about room temperature by now).  Sprinkle the julienned basil on top of the cheese and tomatoes.  Then drizzle the dressing over all and serve immediately.  If making ahead, add dressing right before serving. 

This is an easy but delicious summery salad that I KNOW I ate long ago at Emily's beach house, but she has no rememberance of it...who knows where it came from but it was great and here's what i came up with from what I tasted (or perhaps imagined I tasted).   

Ingredients:
1 lb uncooked cheese tortellini
6-8 oz fresh baby spinach
8-10 oz polish keilbasa
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup grated parmesean cheese
Drizzle of olive oil

Cook the tortellini according to package directions being careful not to overcook (test pasta atleast 2 minutes prior to recommended cooking time).  Drain and place in a large serving bowl.  

Heat a large saute pan over medium heat and drizzle in a titch of olive oil.  Slice your keilbasa into little disks about 1/8-1/4 inch thick.  Working in batches so you dont crowd the pan, brown the keilbasa on both sides in your saute pan.  Don't stir them too much, just add them to the pan and then flip them when they are browned.  As they are done, add them to the bowl with the tortellini.  Don't wipe out your keilbasa pan.  

Wash spinach well and add that to your saute pan.  Cover with a lid and let it wilt slightly.  This will only take a minute or maybe less.  Add the spinach to your bowl.  

Add the tomatoes to your saute pan and cook just until warmed through, maybe a minute.  Add the tomatoes to your bowl, as well, then top with parm.  

Toss and serve!  

Note: If your keilbasa is leaner (like turkey keilbasa) you may need a drizzle of olive oil over the salad.  Salad can be eaten warm, room temp, or cold.  Serves 6-8.  

I absolutely love guacamole - good old fashioned guac with avocado, lime, red onion, and jalapenos.  But my whole avocado loving world changed when my friend brought over guacamole with FETA cheese in it.  Not normal, I know, but please trust me on this and try it out.  This "guacamole" recipe is so good you will probably want to eat the whole bowl yourself...oh wait, that's what my husband did with the bowl Kim brought over!  Ok, ok fine that also what I did when I made my own version the next day!  Point being, it's awesome.

This is what I came up with when I tried to re-invent Kim's awesome guac...

You will need:
2 large tomatoes, chopped
2-3 ripe avocados - chopped
1/4 cup red onion, diced
1 large clove garlic, minced/pressed
1 Tbs parsley, chopped
1 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs red wine vinegar
1/2 cup feta cheese, chopped (I prefer to use the block of feta and cut it up yourself so you can control how large the chunks are)
S&P to taste

To Make:
Now here is the complicated part...but if I can do it, you can do it!  In a bowl, combine everything but the feta and toss.  Tough stuff, I know, I will try for something a little more challenging next time.

The avocado will break apart a bit but I think leaving it chunkier is better (as opposed to smooth creamy like in traditional guac).  Chop feta and add to bowl and toss.  

Serve with tortilla chips and be careful to not eat the whole bowl before your guests arrive (or just make a double batch so you can eat as much as you want).

And thanks Kim for the great idea!  Feta really does make everything BETTA! 

This potato salad was always a favorite of mine from the deli I worked at growing up.  I don't have their recipe but I think this is pretty close.  It's a great addition to any cookout - just brought this one to a party today and came home with an empty bowl.  You can make it creamier by adding more sourcream (duh) but I tend to make mine slightly dry.

You will need:
5 lb bag of redskin potatoes, washed and quartered
1 cup sourcream
3/4 cup mayo
3/4 cup loosely packed fresh dill, rinsed and chopped
3 Tbsp white vinegar
1/4 tsp salt plus 1 Tbsp for cooking potatoes
1/2 tsp white sugar
Pepper to taste

To make:
Place quartered potatoes in a large pot and cover with cold water.  Add 1 Tbsp salt.  Bring to a boil then reduce to simmer and cook, uncovered for about 20 minutes or until tender.  Drain in a colander and immediately sprinkle 3 Tbsp white vinegar over hot potatoes (they absorb it more when hot/warm).  

While potatoes are cooling, mix together in a medium bowl the sourcream, mayo, dill, 1/4 tsp salt (more to taste), sugar and pepper.  Stir until combined.  (Taste this and add more salt if needed but remember that your potatoes will be
slightly salted from the cooking water).  

When potatoes are cool enough to handle, cut into bitesize pieces (the pieces will get a bit smaller as you mix them too) and put them into a large bowl.  Gently fold the sourcream mixture into the potatoes just until potatoes are coated, being careful not to break down the potatoes too much. 

Enjoy!

I am not a huge carrot fan, but I was looking for something to do with a ton of carrots leftover from a batch of baby food for my 5 month old.  I found this idea from an old, old cookbook that I had dusted off from college days (which is funny, because who cooks in college, besides boiling water for Ramen noodles?).  Anyway, Matt called this "20/20 soup"; because it's pretty much all carrots.  I, however, like to think of it as  "complexion soup" : )  Somehow it's a really good and light, summery soup for dinner, or a tasty starter.  It's VERY easy too.

You'll Need:
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tsp honey
3 tsp ground cumin
3 tsp coriander seeds
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tsp ground sea salt
Ground black pepper
3 lbs carrots, peeled and cut into even chunks about 1-1 1/2" long
3 cups chicken stock
3 1/2 oz heavy cream
3/4 cup sour cream, for garnish
A few sprigs of cilantro leaves, for garnish

To Make:
Preheat the oven to 400' F. Combine oil, honey, cumin, coriander, cinnamon sticks, 1 tsp sea salt and lots of ground pepper in a roasting pan.  Add the chunks of carrot and mix well to coat all pieces of carrot.  Roast for 1 hour until carrot is tender (toss the carrots once after 30 minutes or so).  

Transfer half the carrot chunks (minus the coriander seeds and cinnamon sticks), 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock, and 1 cup of water to a food processor or blender and blend until completely smooth.  

To get the carrots into the blender without the coriander seeds and cinnamon sticks, just use your fingers and brush them off.  It's pretty easy.  But you don't want the seeds or cinnamon in the blender because it doesn't ground up very well and then you'll have to pick them out of the soup as you eat (I did this the first time I made it and it got a little tedious).  

Transfer the pureed carrot mixture to a soup pot and put on Medium heat.  Then repeat pureeing the remainder of the roasted carrots, another 1 1/2 c. chicken stock and another 1 c. water.  Add this to soup pot too.  Simmer this for about 10 minutes.  Add the cream and season with salt & pepper as needed.  

Garnish with 1/4 tsp sour cream and a little cilantro sprig.     

Lately I have been making a lot of my own salad dressings...which I never before realized could be so simple and so delicious!  My new favorite go-to is a dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar vinaigrette.  It's a little sweet, got a bit of a kick from the dijon, and goes really well with a light, summery salad.

You will need:
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup canola oil (this is what I used but I imagine any oil will do)
1 heaping Tbs good dijon mustard
2 tsp honey
S&P to taste

SO simple.  You just whisk all those ingredients together and voila!  I like to use fresh cracked pepper rather than all ready ground for a bit more flavor.  And I tend to like this dressing most on a salad with a little bit of sweetness to it (like fresh strawberries or candied walnuts or something).  

Note: You can make your own candied walnuts super easily by simply heating up granulated sugar in a saucepan.  As the sugar heats up, swirl it around until it's all melted and turning caramel colored.  Once all melted pour in a bunch of walnuts and stir to coat.  Turn the walnuts out onto a cutting board and cool.  As they cool they will harden and then you can chop them up and throw them on your salad.  YUM!

I made some summery cole slaw the other day to go with baked beans and Emily's pulled pork sandwiches - so good.  I normally would add just a titch of horseradish to give it a little zing but my Remy would have said "It's too picy" so I held off and tried to be happy that she even eats cole slaw.

You will need:
1.5 Tbs vinegar (cider or white)
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt (more to taste) 
black pepper
1/2 cup mayo
2 carrots, shredded
8 cups loosely packed, shredded or thin sliced cabbage
1/2 tsp celery seed

To make:
Toss together your carrots and cabbage together in a large bowl.  Whisk together the rest of the ingredients and then pour over cabbage mixture.  Toss to coat thoroughly and refridgerate until ready to eat.  Makes about 10 servings.

I recently came up with this recipe after making a Honey Baked ham. After a few days of eating the ham leftovers, finally I got around to making soup from the ham bone (to freeze because we were sick of ham!).  I read a few recipes and got the idea to puree the soup which added a fancy twist.  It was so good, it never made it to the freezer! 

You'll Need:
1 Tbs olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, whole
3 sizable celery stalks chopped (with leaves if they have them)
3 large carrots, peeled and chopped
1-2 lb ham bone (not sure what mine weighed but it was what was left over from a Honey Baked ham, and it still had some meat on it)
1 bay leaf
About 10 cups of water
3 15 1/2 oz cans of light colored beans (I used "pinto", "white" & "navy" beans)

To Make:
In a large soup pot, cook veggies (onion, garlic, celery & carrots) in olive oil on medium for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add 10 cups of water, ham bone with all the meat on it, beans and bay leaf.  The meat will fall off the ham bone after cooking for a while so don't do any trimming yet.

Bring to a boil, then simmer with a lid on for 2 hrs.

Remove ham bone and set aside on a plate to cool.

Meanwhile, let the soup cool a little, then puree in batches using a blender or food processor.  This gets a little messy but it's worth it.  Return pureed soup to the pot.

Remove meat from the ham bone now that it's slightly cooled enough to handle, chop and return the meat to the pot of soup.  Discard the bone and any fatty pieces.

Season to taste with sea salt and fresh ground black pepper.  Serve with warm rolls, crusty french bread, or you can garnish with homemade croutons*.

*To make homemade croutons, chop french bread up into small cubes (about 1/2-1" diameter) and toss with olive oil, sea salt and fresh ground pepper.  Spread all out on a cookie sheet and broil on high for about 5 minutes until they start to brown and toast.  Toss the croutons halfway thru broiling so the other sides get a little brown too.  Remove and let them cool on a paper towel. 

I've been into making my own salad dressings lately.  We had a random few summery days here in NH in March so we made grilled chicken Caesar salads! 

You will need:
Scant 1/3 cup mayo
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp cider vinegar
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 garlic clove
1 cup shredded parmesean cheese *
pepper+ salt to taste

*I shred my own parm, so 1 cup might be different than if you use pre-grated instead.

Blend all ingredients in a blender or food processor.  Makes about 1/2 cup. 

I have been wanting to make my owns buns...hamburger buns that is...for some time now but I am usually pretty intimidated by breads.  However, after making a successful pizza dough I thought I would give it a try and they turned out great!  

This recipe is adapted from Smitten Kitchen.  Instead of all white I used some whole wheat flour and I used less sugar because my super talented brother in law said that's what he did - and I pretty much listen to anything he says when it comes to cooking!

For 8 good sized buns, you will need:

Form a tight ball and place in a bowl covered with plastic wrap.  Let the dough rise in a warm spot for about 2 hours.  

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and divide dough into 8 equal cuts.  Role each piece into a ball and arrange on the baking sheet. Spray a piece of plastic wrap with oil and lightly cover and let the dough rise for 2 more hours.

Fill a baking pan with water and place on the bottom rack in the oven.  Pre-heat the oven to 400F.  Beat that other egg and brush on the buns then sprinkle with sesame seeds.  

Bake for about 15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.  Depending on your oven you may need to rotate the pan of halfway during baking so they all cook evenly.

Transfer the buns to a wire rack to cool and enjoy with your favorite burger or sandwich!