Pesto Turkey Burgers

As I mentioned in my container gardening post, I have a plethora of basil.  Pesto is always a great way to use some, but it's what to do with the pesto that can pose the problem.  Obviously tossing with pasta is an easy way to use it, but I like to shake things up, so I mixed some pesto into ground turkey and made pesto turkey burgers!  Topped with a thick slice of tomato, some grilled onions, melted provolone cheese, and a smear of pesto on a toasted bun, you have a mighty fine burger.

Turkey burgers have the reputation of being dry, crumbly, and tasteless, but the pesto certainly solves those problems.  The olive oil in the pesto keeps the burgers moist, and of course they taste bright and fresh thanks to the basil and fresh garlic.

If you're looking to mix up your summer grilling, give these a try.  Any number of sides - especially grilled vegetables - would go well with this - I went with grilled asparagus caprese salad, and it was a stellar choice.  Happy grilling!

Pesto Turkey Burgers
adapted from Oishii Food


Pesto
adapted from Cook's Illustrated

• 1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
• 5 medium garlic cloves, unpeeled
• 2 cups packed fresh basil leaves
• 2 Tablespoons Italian parsley
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• salt
• 1/4 cup grated Pamesan cheese

Toast nuts in a small skillet over medium heat, stirring frequently, until golden brown. Add to the food processor. Add the garlic cloves to the skillet and toast, tossing frequently, until the skins are toasted and garlic is fragrant. Peel and add to food processor as well.

Process until finely chopped, and add remaining ingredients except cheese. Process until finely chopped.  Transfer to a small bowl, add the cheese, and adjust seasonings if necessary.


Burgers

• 1/4 cup pesto, plus more for serving
• 1 1/4 lbs ground turkey
• 1 tsp dijon mustard
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• salt and pepper
• 4 slices provolone cheese
• 4 buns, split open and brushed with olive oil
• 1/2 sweet onion, sliced into thick rings
• 4 tomato slices
• lettuce

Prepare grill.  

In a medium bowl, combine the pesto, ground turkey, Dijon mustard, garlic, and salt and pepper.  Lightly but thoroughly mix to combine.  Form into 4 equal-sized patties.

Brush the grates of the grill with olive oil, and grill the burgers 4-6 minutes per side, or until cooked through.  When the burgers are almost done, top each patty with a slice of cheese, close the grill cover, and cook until the cheese has melted.  As the burgers cook, also grill the onions, turning once.  Toast the buns on the grill about 1 minute, or until golden-brown.

Top the burgers with lettuce, tomato, and grilled onions.  Spread a small amount of pesto on one of the buns and serve.

Baked Tomatoes with Quinoa, Corn, and Green Chiles

Quinoa has been the grain* du jour for quite some time now, and what with it's health benefits, great taste, and versatility, I don't see that changing anytime soon.  My usual way of eating quinoa is like pasta salad - cooked, mixed with a dressing of some sort, and loaded with veggies.  This dish however, is something a little different.  Quinoa is mixed with roasted poblano peppers, corn, onions, and a host of herbs and spices, stuffed into hollowed out tomatoes, topped with Colby Jack cheese, and baked.  The tomato turns soft and sweet, the quinoa mixture has tons of great flavor and textures, and who doesn't like their dinner, smothered in melted cheese?

While this somewhat involved, especially for a summer meal, you could do portions of it ahead of time - or fully assemble it and then just bake the tomatoes off when you're ready to eat.   The recipe moves pretty quickly though, and its streamlined to make the most of your time.  I suppose you could serve these on the side with grilled chicken, pork, or steak, but I loved them as our entree.  I served a salad with avocado, black beans, and mango on the side.

While this is cooked in the oven, I would be willing to bet that it could be done on the grill as well.  Rather than broiling the poblanos, corn, and onions, you could definitely grill them.  And then instead of baking the assembled tomatoes, throw them on the grill for a few minutes to heat them through and melt the cheese.  If anyone tries this method, definitely let me know!

*I know that quinoa is not actually a grain, but I kind of consider it to be one for all intents and purposes, since that it typically how it is served.  

Baked Tomatoes with Quinoa, Corn, and Green Chiles
adapted from Cooking Light, June 2012
makes 6 tomatoes

• 2 poblano chiles
• 4 ears corn
• 1 cup chopped red onion
• 6 large ripe tomatoes
• 1 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 Tbs chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced
• 1 Tbs olive oil
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 tsp kosher salt, divided
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)
• 1/2 tsp chile powder
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper 
• 6 oz Colby Jack cheese, shredded (about 1 1/2 cups)

Preheat the broiler to high.  

Cut the poblano chiles in half lengthwise and discard the seeds and membranes.  Place the chiles, skin-side-up, on a foil-lined baking sheet, and flatten with your hand.  Broil about 8 minutes, or until the skin is blistered and blackened.  Remove the chile to a medium bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to steam for about 10 minutes.  Peel and rinse the chiles, then coarsely chop.

Meanwhile, add the corn and onion to the pan.  Broil, tossing once or twice, about 10 minutes, or until charred and blackened in spots.  Add the corn and onion to the bowl with the chiles.  

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cut the tops off the tomatoes.  Carefully scoop out the tomato pulp, leaving the shells intact.  Drain the pulp through a sieve set over a bowl, pressing with the back of a spoon to extract as much liquid as possible.  Reserve 1 1/4 cups of the tomato juices, and discard the pulp and seeds.  Sprinkle the inside of the tomatoes with 1/2 teaspoon of salt (total, not each).  Invert the tomatoes onto a lint-free kitchen towel and stand 30 minutes.  Blot the insides of the tomatoes dry with a paper towel or kitchen towel.

As the tomatoes drain, cook the quinoa.  Place the quinoa in a strainer and rinse well under cold water, stirring as you rinse.  Drain well.  Combine the quinoa, reserved tomato liquid, 1/4 cup water, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a medium saucepan.  Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to a simmer, and cook 15 minutes, or until the liquid is absorbed.  Remove from heat and fluff the quinoa with a fork.

Add the quinoa to the bowl with the corn, chiles, and onion, and stir in the cilantro, scallions, olive oil, lime juice, 1/4 teaspoon salt, cumin, cayenne, chile powder, pepper, and 1/2 cup cheese.  

Spoon about 3/4 cup of the quinoa filling into each of the tomatoes.  Divide the remaining cheese evenly over the tops and bake about 15 minutes, or until the cheese has melted.   Remove from the oven and serve.

Blackberry Lemonade

Behind margaritas, lemonade is the quintessential summer drink.  Over the past year or so I've been experimenting with different variations - sparkling strawberry lemonade, basil-infused lemonade, sparkling lemonade, roasted peach lemonade, limeade, and now this blackberry lemonade.

To be honest, I made this out of necessity, but I'm so very glad that I did.  We were getting ready to head to the beach for the week, and I wanted to rid our house of any and all produce that could spoil.  I had some blackberries and lemons in the fridge, so the blackberry limeade recipe that I saved a year ago became sparkling blackberry lemonade!

This comes together in minutes, is a perfect balance of sweet and sour, and most importantly - look how pretty it is!  I am totally addicted to sparkling water, so I of course love it in this lemonade.  The little bubbles are so refreshing, and it makes the drink seem fancy and special.  This would make a wonderful addition to a cookout this weekend, and if you're looking for an adult beverage, I think vodka, gin, or even sparkling wine would be great.   

Note:  I like my lemonade on the tart side, so feel free to use less lemon juice and/or increase the sugar for a sweeter drink.  Also, if you don't want sparkling lemonade, just omit the sparkling water and replace with 2 cups of still water.

Sparkling Blackberry Lemonade

adapted from Cooking Light, via Cook Like a Champion

• 4 cups cold water, divided
• 3 cups blackberries
• 3/4 cup sugar (can increase to 1 cup if your blackberries are especially tart)
• 1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 cups sparkling water

In a blender or food processor, combine the blackberries and 1 cup of the water.  Puree until smooth, then press the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer to remove the seeds.  In a pitcher, combine the blackberry puree, sugar, lemon juice, and the remaining water.  Stir well to dissolve the sugar.

Chill until ready to serve, and top with the sparkling water just before serving.

Galvanized Tub Container Herb Garden

My dad is an amazing gardener.  Growing up, he grew pretty much all the veggies that we ate.  If I had to guess, probably 2 acres of our land was a giant garden.  In retrospect, I wish I had appreciated it a bit more.  But at the time, all I knew was I hated shucking corn and shelling beans.  And that it really smelled up the house when my mom made and canned pickles.

These days, however, I'm grateful for his expertise.  When I wanted to plant my own garden a few years ago, I immediately sought his advice.  And his advice was to start with tomatoes and herbs.  So I've been doing the container garden thing on our back deck for the past few years, with moderate success.  My tomatoes never get very big, but my herbs usually do alright.  This year, I decided to skip the tomatoes, since I can get plenty at the farmer's market.  And I wanted to do something cute with my herbs.  As an aside, my dad would probably be mortified to know that I said that.  He doesn't like "cute."

Thanks to the wonder of pinterest, I came across an idea to do a tiered herb garden using galvanized tubs. I drilled several holes into the bottom of each tub to allow the water to drain, and then filled them with potting soil, planted my herbs, and stacked them up.

I bought everything I needed from Lowe's, but I'm sure you could also find the supplies at Home Depot or any other hardware store.  I bought three tubs - the largest one is about 2 feet across, the middle one is about 1 foot, and the smallest is 7 inches.  At first I looked in the gardening section, but I eventually found the tubs in the paint section.

As far as what to plant where, I thought it would be best to plant the herbs that tend to grow the most in the largest tub.  But I'm no expert, so I could have totally botched that.  So here's what I planted:

2 basils
1 mint
1 parsley
1 rosemary
1 sage
1 thyme
1 lavender

I already have chives and oregano in other pots, otherwise I would have planted those as well (or in place of something else).

Amazingly, everything is totally flourishing, and at this point, I have more herbs than I will know what to do with.  I think I may actually need to move the basil to its own pot?

With Memorial Day weekend coming up, it's a great time to plant some herbs if you haven't already.  This project took me less than an hour, and that was with Caroline "helping" me.  I absolutely love cooking with fresh herbs, and now I have pretty much anything I'd want at my disposal.

Are you planting a garden this year, and if so, what are you planting?  I may give in and plant a few tomato plants after all, or perhaps some jalapeños or zucchini.

source:  inspired by The Vintage Wren

Salted Caramel Cheesecake Cupcakes

My husband is obsessed with salted caramel in desserts.  He was first exposed to it with these sweet and salty brownies, and then with these salted caramel chocolate chip cookie bars.  And now these cheesecakes.

If there is anything better than cheesecake, then it'd be cheesecake cupcakes.  A perfectly sized, individual portion of cheesecake.  And if there is anything better than cheesecake cupcakes, it's salted caramel cheesecake cupcakes.  I kind of feel like I should just stop talking right now and share the recipe, because I don't know what else to say about these.  They have effectively usurped any previous favorite dessert and are basically the best thing ever.

You start with a graham cracker crust.  Then you mix up a standard cheesecake batter, mixing in salted caramel sauce so the entire cheesecake is permeated with that wonderful flavor.  And just before baking, swirl in more salted caramel sauce.


If you don't want to make your own salted caramel sauce, the one from Trader Joe's is actually pretty good, so you can save time by buying that.  Also, when swirling the caramel into the cheesecake batter, it's easier when the caramel is warm - I just heated it in the microwave for about 15-20 seconds, and it was much easier to swirl.  

Salted Caramel Cheesecake Cupcakes
basic cheesecake adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes
makes 16 cupcakes

For the crust:

• 3/4 cups finely ground graham crackers (about 6 graham crackers)
• 1 1/2 Tbs unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1/2 Tbs sugar
• pinch of salt

For the Cheesecakes:

• 16 oz cream cheese, softened to room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 3 Tbs salted caramel sauce, plus more for swirling (just under 1/4 cup)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and line 2 muffin tins with liners.

Stir together the graham cracker crumbs, butter, sugar, and salt.  Press 1 tablespoon of the mixture into the bottom of each lined cup (a shot glass works really well for pressing the mixture down).  Bake about 5 minutes and set muffin pans aside while you mix the cheesecake batter.

With an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese until fluffy.  With the mixer on low speed, add the sugar in a slow steady stream.  Scrape down the bowl as needed.  Add the salt, vanilla, and then add the eggs one at a time, mixing well between each addition.  Stir in the 3 tablespoons of salted caramel sauce.

Spoon 3 tablespoons of filling into each lined muffin cup.  Then dollop about 1/2 teaspoon (total) of salted caramel sauce in a few spots (this works best if the sauce is warm).  Use a toothpick or skewer to swirl the caramel into the batter.

Bake 22-25 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through, until the filling is set.  Remove from the oven to cool completely, then chill in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours before serving.

Portabello & Spinach Pesto Panini

Not that we encourage Caroline to mispronounce words, but Joey and I catch ourselves saying certain words the same way she does, even if it's not the right way.  Like we call Smith "Baby Sniff" more often than not.  Her cousin Georgia is "Joorjha."  She eats "yodirt" every morning.  And "grill the cheese" sandwiches for lunch.  She is also very particular.  She did not appreciate being served this sandwich for dinner.  Because grill the cheese is for lunch.  Everyone should know this.  Joey and I, however, were more than happy to eat these for dinner.  And for the record, I ate one for lunch the next day, so Caroline can rest easy.

You start by oven-roasting portabello mushrooms and onion slices, then layer them onto thick and hearty sandwich bread with fresh mozzarella, spinach pesto, and a splash of balsamic vinegar.  Grill it or cook in a panini press, and you have one heck of a sandwich.  This is a very quick and easy dinner, but you could shave even more time off by mixing up your pesto and roasting the veggies earlier in the day or the night before.

I'm pretty sure most combinations of roasted veggies grilled on bread with pesto and cheese would make a wonderful sandwich, but this particular variation is really great. It makes a nice light dinner when served with a seasonal salad.  Or a great lunch.  For the record, Caroline eventually ate her sandwich, and of course she loved it.  Because not matter the time of day - who doesn't like a fancy-pants grilled cheese?

Portabello & Spinach Pesto Panini
adapted from Yes, I Want Cake

• 2 cups packed fresh spinach, arugula, or basil (or a combo of any of these)
• 2 Tbs chopped fresh parsley
• 1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
• 1/3 c pine nuts, lightly toasted
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1/4 c olive oil
• 1/3 cup parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper

• 4 slices of thick sandwich bread
• 1 Portobello mushroom
• 1 Tbs olive oil, plus more for the bread
• 1 Tbs soy sauce
• 1 Tbs balsamic vinegar, plus more for drizzling
• 1/2 small onion, sliced into rings
• 4 slices of fresh mozzarella
• 1/4 C prepared pesto

Combine the spinach, parsley, garlic, pine nuts, and lemon juice in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade.  Puree until everything is chopped very small, scrape down the bowl, and then with the processor running, stream in the olive oil.  Remove the pesto a small bowl, stir in the Parmesan cheese, and season to taste with salt and pepper.


Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  Toss the mushroom caps and onions with the olive oil, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste.  Cook on a rimmed baking sheet, with the mushrooms cap side-down, about 10-15 minutes.  Cool slightly, then slice the mushrooms.


Brush one side of each piece of bread with olive oil, then spread 1 tablespoon of pesto on the other side of each slice.  Layer the mushrooms, onions, and 2 slices of mozzarella on each sandwich, drizzle with balsamic vinegar, then top with the other slice of bread, olive oil-side up.


Heat a nonstick skillet over medim-high heat and cook the sandwiches, flipping when golden-brown, a few minutes per side.

Grilled Rosemary Chicken Kabobs with Sweet & Sour Apricot Sauce

It seems like there should only be a finite number of ways to prepare grilled chicken.  Yet I feel like every time we have grilled chicken, it's different than the last time.  There are so many cuisines and flavors to draw from, it's easy to keep things interesting.

While I already have a recipe for grilled rosemary chicken posted, and yes, this is also grilled rosemary chicken, believe me when I say that they are totally different recipes.  Aside from the obvious fact that these are kabobs, they just have different flavor profiles.

This recipe has a bit of a kick due to the crushed red pepper flakes, but it is easily tamed by the sweet and sour apricot dipping sauce.  If you don't feel like going through the trouble of chopping and threading the chicken onto the skewers, then just grill the thighs by themselves.

I went ahead and made this a 100% grilled dinner by grilling some potatoes and asparagus, and we all thoroughly enjoyed it.  It's low-maintenace, healthy, easy, and fast.  Exactly what you want in a summer meal.

Grilled Rosemary Chicken Kabobs with Sweet & Sour Apricot Dipping Sauce
adapted from Fine Cooking, via Tracey's Culinary Adventures

• 3 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary, divided
• 1 teaspoon dark brown sugar 
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt 
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 
• 1/4-1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes 
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 
• 1 1/4 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of excess fat and cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1/2 cup apricot preserves 
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar 

Combine 2 teaspoons of the rosemary, the brown sugar, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes in a small bowl. Place the chicken in a medium bowl, and drizzle the oil over it, tossing to coat. Sprinkle the spice mixture over the chicken and toss to coat well.

Preheat your grill to medium-high heat (400-450 F), and oil the grates lightly .  While the grill is heating, thread the chicken cubes onto skewers.

Meanwhile, make the dipping sauce: Combine the remaining teaspoon of rosemary, the apricot preserves, a pinch of salt, and the rice vinegar in a small saucepan. Set over low heat and stir just until the mixture is heated through. Remove from heat and cover to keep warm.
Arrange the kebabs on the grill and cook, turning every 3 minutes or so, until they are slightly charred on all sides and cooked through, about 12-15 minutes total. Transfer the kebabs to a platter to rest for about 5 minutes.  Serve with the warm dipping sauce.