Now that school has started up again, I’m back to meal planning and weeknight prep. It’s sometimes a drag, but I found that I actually try new recipes during this phase so that works out! I had totally forgotten about these kabobs and they are delicious! I’m also a huge fan of couscous on the weeknight. It cooks in just minutes and then is done just in time for the meat to come off the grill. I’m legit making these tonight.

Oh, and don’t skip the sauce! I’ve discovered recently that having a sauce on the side of every meal makes it totally shine.

Spicy Beef Kabobs

with fresh couscous salad

Serves 4

2 lb sirloin steak, sliced thin

½ onion, grated

¼ cup parsley

¼ cup cilantro

½ tsp allspice

½ tsp coriander

¼ tsp red pepper flakes

½ tsp salt

2 cups chicken stock

1 ½ cups couscous

1 cucumber

1 cup sliced tomato

½ cup chopped parsley

½ sliced red onion

juice of one lemon

zest of one lemon

¼ cup olive oil

2 tbs red wine vinegar

4 oz feta cheese

1 cup plain greek yogurt

¼ cup grated cucumber

1 clove grated garlic

salt

STEP 1

Preheat oven broiler or the grill on high heat.  Soak skewers in water if using wooden skewers.  Combine herbs, spices, and grated onion in a Ziploc bag.

STEP 2

Bring chicken stock to a boil.  Remove from heat and add couscous.  Stir gently then cover and let rest for 5 minutes.

STEP 3

Place thinly sliced meat into the prepared marinade and let rest while the couscous cooks.

STEP 4

Thread meat onto skewers.  Place on a foil lined baking sheet and pop into the oven.  Bake 10-15 minutes until cooked through.

STEP 5

Loosen cooked couscous with a fork.  Toss with chopped cucumber, tomato, remaining parsley, red onion, and dress with lemon, olive oil and red wine vinegar.  Add feta cheese.

STEP 6

Mix together yogurt, grated cucumber, and grated garlic.  Serve couscous and top with kabobs straight from the oven with dipping sauce.

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The original James Bond drink

The perfect Friday night clink-clink

It’s a little lillet and vodka and gin

Pour it in a pitcher - add ice - and begin

Not shaken, but stirred

More than one and your vision is definitely blurred.

Vesper Cocktail

1 ounce vodka

2 ounces gin

1/2 ounce lillet blanc

lemon peel

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail pitcher. Add ice and stir gently. Strain into two cocktail glasses and garnish with a lemon peel.

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These are a HIT in my house. This is a regular on the weekday menu for breakfast - especially if I cook the sausage patties ahead of time and have them in the fridge and ready to go.

If we’re doing breakfast for dinner, then I’ll make a salad to go with it - the one in the pictures is arugula and watermelon tossed with balsamic and olive oil. But if I’m serving at breakfast, then the kids will get some sliced strawberries or whatever fruit is in season on the side.

They would definitely not eat a salad. Especially at breakfast.

Breakfast Cheeseburger

Serves 4

4 english muffins

4 eggs

Breakfast sausage

Beecher’s cheese

Hot sauce + ketchup + Worcestershire

STEP 1

Form the sausage into 4 patties.  Cook on medium heat.

STEP 2

Toast the English muffins and butter each side.

STEP 3

Mix together hot sauce + ketchup + Worcestershire

STEP 4

Place the cooked sausage on the muffin and top with a slice of cheese.

STEP 5

Fry each egg in 1 tbs remaining sausage grease and pop on top of the melted cheese.  Add special sauce to taste and eat hot.

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Clam Chowder is literally my favorite soup ever. We took a roadtrip several years ago down highway 101 which goes down the coast of Washington, Oregon and California (at some point it turns to Highway 1 but I can never remember where that happens). Every restaurant that we stepped into, I got clam chowder. Some were great. Some were gloopy. Some had too much dill. Some had too many potatoes. One was even red which is the most dreadful thing you can do to chowder.

Clam Chowder

Serves 4

4 strips bacon, chopped

1 small onion, finely chopped

4 stalks celery, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic

¼ lb potatoes, finely chopped

1 can clams

8 oz clam nectar/ clam juice

4 cups seafood stock

1 bay leaf

1 cup half and half

¼ cup flour

2 tbs parsley, chopped

1 bag oyster crackers

STEP 1

In a large pot, cook bacon until browned.

STEP 2

Add onion, celery, potatoes, and garlic. Cook until onions and celery are softened. Stir regularly.

STEP 3

Pour in stock and clams. Don’t drain the clams before – pour the liquid into the pot. Add the bay leaf. Cover and cook 20 minutes.

STEP 4

Whisk together half and half with the flour. Very slowly whisk in 1 cup of the hot soup broth.

STEP 5

Pour flour mixture into the soup pot and stir until incorporated.

STEP 6

Serve with fresh parsley and oyster crackers on top.

Every summer my mom makes her signature crab cakes. My cousins will happily sit and pick crab for hours if it means we get crab cakes for dinner. We all adore them. The secret is that it’s barely held together with anything - so it’s basically all crab. By letting them rest for a bit in the fridge - you can even leave them all day - they hold together a little better and cook a lot better.

Gwen’s Crab Cakes

serves 4-6

1 pound fresh cracked Dungeness crab

1/4 cup mayonaisse

1 egg, beaten

1 cup panko breadcrumbs

1 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning

1/4 teaspoon dry mustard

1 teaspoon baking soda

juice of 1/2 lemon

salt and pepper

butter

STEP 1

Mix all ingredients together – except for the butter – add salt and pepper to taste.  From the crab mixture into patties.  Let them rest about 1/2 hour in the refrigerator.

STEP 2

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a skillet over medium heat. Working in batches, place patties in the preheated pan and cook 3-5 minutes on each side until cakes are golden on each side and warmed throughout.  Add a tablespoon of butter to the pan between each batch.

STEP 3

To keep the crab cakes warm before serving, keep them on a cookie sheet in a 200 degree oven.

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Happy Fourth of July! We spend the holiday at our family beach compound at whidbey island. We eat an excessive amount of food, drink too many cocktails, and blow things up. This crab dip is on steady rotation. I cannot encourage you enough to make this dip! If you don’t have crab, you can sub in artichoke hearts and no one cares. It’s still delish.

Hot Dungeoness Crab Dip

8 oz cream cheese

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup sour cream

2 tablespoons chopped chives

1/2 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning

1 teaspoon worchestershire

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/2 - 2 teaspoons hot sauce (to taste!)

1 pound dungeoness crab

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

STEP 1

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a stand mixer, or with a hand held blender, combine all of the ingredients except the crab and cheese.

STEP 2

Carefully stir in the crab to the cream cheese mix. Spread in an oven proof dish and top with parmesan cheese. I like to use a pie tin or an 8” pan for the dip so it’s one thin layer with the crispy cheese on top.

STEP 3

Pop into the oven and bake about 15-20 minutes until bubbly and the cheese turns golden brown.

It’s Fourth of July weekend! My favorite weekend of the year. Clearly it calls for a special beverage. I made this one booze free because it’s the perfect drink for a shot of vodka, if you so choose, but also then my kids will stop bugging me that I make all these fancy drinks that they can’t drink. Annoying.

Watermelon Lemonade

4 cups watermelon, cubed

2 cups lemonade

The zest of one lemon

Put everything in a blender together and blend until smooth! Serve over ice. Vodka or rum is optional.

Summer burgers are the best burgers. And summer burgers loaded with grilled onions and homemade barbecue sauce is literally the BEST. I cannot wait for our grill to be replaced so I can get back to grilling on a full size grill again!

I don’t think I’ve mentioned that our grill died. It literally died. It just quit. It did have a good life and it worked hard. But then one day it just wouldn’t anymore. We’ve been using our tiny tailgate grill while we decide what we want to replace our old one with. It does the job. I did put it in the garage when family came over last week because it looks super lame! Ha!

Until then, this burger is going on the tailgate grill - which means it can be done anywhere! Let me know what you think of it.

Cowboy Burger

Serves 4

1.5 lb ground beef

onion shred things

1 sweet onion, thinly sliced

1 jalapeno, thinly sliced

1 c ketchup

1 tbs yellow mustard

1 tbs worchestershire

2 tbs brown sugar

2 tbs bourbon

4 slices Havarti cheese

4 Brioche buns

1/3 cup Mayo

STEP 1

Mix ketchup, mustard, worchestershire, brown sugar, and bourbon together in small sauce pan. Let simmer on low at least 5 minutes or up to 30 minutes. 

STEP 2

Form ground beef into 4 patties.

1.5 lb ground beef

STEP 3

Place burgers in a skillet (or on the grill) and surround them with onions and jalapenos.  Flip the burgers twice to cook through.  Cook onions and jalapenos until they are soft.

1 sweet onion, thinly sliced

1 jalapeno, thinly sliced

STEP 4

When burgers are nearly done, brush each side with sauce. 

STEP 5

Spread mayo on one side of the bun.  Top with burger patty, cooked onions, onion shreds, lettuce, and extra sauce. 

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I made this punch for a bridal shower I hosted for my cousin. It’s light and refreshing and just the tiniest bit boozy. It’s also great because you can make a big batch and sit back while guests serve themselves. I served it with tiny little melon balls on top. You could also slice the melon, use a cucumber slice, or just skip it all together!

Honeydew Punch

2 tablespoons sugar

1 honeydew, sliced

1 cucumber, sliced

750 mL white wine

1/2 cup vodka

1/2 cup cointreau

1/2 cup mint

2 cups club soda

STEP 1

Blend together the sugar, honeydew, cucumber until smooth. Strain through cheese cloth.

STEP 2

Add vodka, wine, cointreau, and mint to the honeydew ‘juice’. Let rest overnight.

STEP 3

To serve, remove the mint leaves and add the club soda. Garnish with melon balls!

This is the ultimate mash up of everything good coming into farmer’s markets about now. Have you also seen the easiest way to make quinoa ever?? It’s microwaveable, won’t scorch, and is done in about five minutes.

I love putting almonds in this salad, but I am allergic. So when I pop them in, it’s for other people and not me. For myself, I put in sliced cashews, pecans, or walnuts. Pecans are my favorite, so they usually win out.

Farmer’s Market Quinoa Salad

Serves 4

1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed and drained

2 tbs chopped dill

¼ cup chopped basil

2 tbs chopped parsley

2 ears corn

½ pound green beans

½ pound snap peas

1 cup almonds, sliced

2 cups blackberries

½ cup plain yogurt

2 tablespoons champagne vinegar

4 ounces crumbled blue cheese

1 tablespoon chopped chives

1 tbs. milk

salt and pepper

STEP 1

Combine 2 cups water, quinoa, chopped herbs, and one teaspoon each salt and pepper in a microwaveable glass bowl that holds at least four cups.  Cover with tight fitting plastic wrap.  Pop into the microwave and cook for four minutes.

STEP 2

Remove plastic, stir, return to microwave for another four minutes – assuming all liquid has not been absorbed.  Depending on the strength of your microwave, this may take anywhere from four to twelve minutes.  Continue microwaving until most of the liquid has been absorbed.  Let rest ten minutes covered.

STEP 3

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Drop corn into water and cook 5 minutes.  Remove from water and add beans.  Cook 2-3 minutes until bright green and still crisp.  Drop the green beans into a bowl of ice water immediately.  Add the snap peas to the water and cook 2 minutes.  Remove from the water and drop them into the ice water as well.    

STEP 4

Drain beans and peas.  Cut the corn off the cob.  Toss all vegetables with quinoa, berries, and almonds. 

STEP 5

In a small bowl, whisk together yogurt, vinegar, blue cheese, chives, and milk.  Top the salad with dressing and toss again.