There’s just something so refreshing about salads in the summer! In the winter I’m more drawn to warm and comforting food, and then once spring rolls around all I want to eat is fresh fruits and salads! Maybe that has to do with it also being swimsuit season haha!
As we move into the warm weather season, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite salad recipes with you! These are all really easy to put together, and can be served as a main course or as a side. We sometimes make them all and have a summer salad medley for dinner!
Kale Caesar Salad
Ingredients:
3/4 cups olive oil
1/2 cup grated parmesan
3 garlic cloves
1 egg
4 Tbs lemon juice
1/2 tsp Worcestershire
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp ground mustard
1 bunch kale
5-6 slices of cooked bacon, crumbled
1/2 cup shelled pistachios
1/2 cup shaved parmesan cheese
Directions:
Combine the first nine ingredients, olive oil through ground mustard in a food processor to make the caesar dressing. Blend until fully emulsified.
Remove the spine from the kale leaves, and tear leaves into bite size pieces. Pour the caesar dressing over the kale. Top with bacon, pistachios and parmesan cheese. Serve!
Apple Ginger Tuna Salad
I love the crunch of the celery in this recipe, and the fresh pops of flavor from the ginger and apple. I prefer to mince the celery, apple and ginger really finely, because I don’t like to get huge chunks of it in my salad. You can use this to make tuna salad sandwiches, or just eat it plain!
Ingredients:
Two cans tuna (6 oz each), drained
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 celery stalk, finely minced
3/4 apple, cored, skinned and finely minced
2 inches fresh ginger root, skinned and finely minced
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and serve. Now that’s my kind of recipe!
Greek Salad Skewers
These are one of my favorite things to eat during the summer, and they’re a great summer appetizer for barbecues. You can top these with your favorite Greek style dressing, or serve them plain! They’re honestly good either way. My preference lately is to thinly drizzle a little olive oil over them, along with a dusting of salt and pepper. These are perfect served on cocktail picks.
Ingredients:
1 block of full fat feta, cut into 1/2 – 3/4 inch cubes
Grape tomatoes, halved
Kalamata olives
Cucumber, sliced to size
Directions:
Assemble the skewers in any order you like. Be careful when adding the feta, as it has a tendency to crumble if handled too roughly. This is one reason to use full-fat feta, because along with tasting better it also holds up better. Top with your dressing of choice if you like, and serve!
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1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 ½ cup milk
*note: I made this cobbler using my nice ceramic baking dish, and the cobbler didn’t turn out so well because the ceramic is such a good conductor of heat that the edges browned too quickly. I have the best luck using my plain jane glass baking dish for this recipe.
Big thank you to Cathleen B, who shared this recipe with my mom years ago!
You may have noticed by now if you’re following me on Instagram that I really enjoy wine! Despite how much I love baking, I would choose a glass of wine over dessert any day. My interest in wine is actually a relatively recent one, and I’ve been having so much fun learning about it for the past few years. I’m really excited because next month (cue panic mode as my to-do list flashes before my eyes) we’re going to leave for our vacation in Britain and France. On that trip we’ll be visiting Bordeaux, and doing soooo much wine tasting! I can’t wait to learn as much as I can about Bordeaux wines!
I was trying to brainstorm fun sorbet recipes the other day, and opened my fridge for inspiration. Voila! Rosé sitting right in front of me! So I poured a glass (naturally) and got to work! I love that this sorbet has a hint of fruit and citrus, but the flavors only compliment the rosé flavor – they don’t overwhelm it. This recipe includes kiwi, which was actually the suggestion of our friend Patrick who is the winemaker at Merry Cellars Winery in Pullman. I would never have thought to add that flavor, and I love it! This is perfect for enjoying on a hot summer day!
Ingredients:
1/2 lb strawberries, hulled and sliced
1 kiwi, peeled and sliced
1 cup water
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 cups of your favorite rosé wine (I used Merry Cellars)
2 oz fresh grapefruit juice
Directions:
Rinse, hull and slice strawberries and kiwi into smallish slices. Place the fruit into a medium saucepan, and cover with water. Bring the fruit water to a boil, and them reduce to medium and simmer for about 15-20 minutes. You will know it’s ready when the berries have lost their color, and the water is dark pink. Strain the fruit out using a fine mesh strainer, being careful not to squish the berries or kiwi. Discard the fruit once the liquid is strained out.
Pour the liquid back into the saucepan, and add the sugar. Bring to a boil again, and then simmer for about five minutes, stirring as the sugar dissolves. Once all the sugar is incorporated, take the syrup off the burner and allow to cool completely.
Pour the rosé into a medium bowl, and whisk in the grapefruit juice. Add the strawberry kiwi syrup a little at a time, tasting as you go. Sweetness is a personal preference, so it’s nice that you can so easily control it in this recipe. Once the ingredients are combined, transfer the frosé to a shallow baking dish, cover carefully with plastic wrap, and freeze overnight. I know, that’s the hardest part!! The first time I made this I tried to freeze it in my ice cream machine, but because of the alcohol I found it didn’t really work.
The next day you will be able to enjoy your cold, refreshing frosé and instantly become the most popular person on the block!
Do you like wine as much as I do? Then you will also love my Merlot Chocolate Truffles!
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Funnily enough, these savory scones were actually the first recipe I experimented with for my blog. I probably made four different attempts and then put the recipe on the back burner (ha), because it was annoying me so much! I’m glad I finally came back to it, because this scone recipe is sooooo good!
It seems like most scones found in the US are sickly sweet. When I studied abroad in Scotland a few years ago I was introduced to the British style scone, and boy what a difference! Their scones are almost more of what Americans would call a biscuit – yes, even the “sweet” ones! They’re buttery, flakey and just utter perfection! That’s why this recipe took me so long; I had a very clear idea in my head of what these scones needed to taste like.
These savory scones are really quick and easy – you don’t even need to knead them. From start to finish they take me about 40 minutes to make. Yum!
As usual, a few notes. This recipe is very versatile (my favorite kind of recipe), and the flavors can be mixed and matched as you please. I made these with Parmesan and fresh rosemary, and they were divine. So feel free to experiment!
The other thing: I completely despise cutting butter in by hand. I know, I know. It’s not like it’s a complicated process, I’ve just always hated it. I also seem to remember my sister always disappearing when my mom asked for a volunteer to cut butter in, and I’m thinking that wasn’t a coincidence. It’s just annoying. So, I use my food processor instead. Voila, problem solved!
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 Tbs granulated sugar
1 tsp cayenne
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold salted butter, cut into small pieces
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup finely diced ham
1/4 cup finely chopped green onion
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Lightly flour a cutting board and set aside.
Whisk together the dry ingredients, flour through salt. Sift the ingredients through a fine mesh sieve to ensure your scones cook evenly.
Gently mix together the cheese, ham and green onion. Set aside.
Add the butter and dry ingredients to the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles course crumbs. Alternatively the butter can be cut into the flour mixture using a pastry cutter.
Transfer the mixture into a large bowl, and stir in the buttermilk. Gently fold in the cheese mixture until just evenly combined.
Working on your floured cutting board, shape the dough into an 8″ circle that’s approximately 1″ high. Using a large, sharp knife, cut the dough into 8 equally sized triangles.
Carefully move the scones to the lined baking sheet and bake for 18-20 minutes or until the tops are lightly browned.
Allow to cool for five minutes and then dive right in! Serve plain or buttered.
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My brother’s favorite dessert is key lime pie, which means that at least once a year on his birthday we all get to enjoy it! I decided to try my hand at key lime, but opted to make bars instead of a pie because the serving size can be made smaller. Then I won’t feel guilty for having a second piece! Totally legitimate reasoning, right?
I love how easy these key lime bars are to make! If you want to try your hand at a pie but find that daunting for whatever reason, give these bars a go. You won’t be disappointed!
This recipe uses condensed milk which obviously contains sugar, but no added sugar otherwise. In my opinion it really doesn’t need it! I love the combination of ginger and lime, and the chopped ginger adds nice pops of flavor to these bars. If you’re not a fan of ginger, it’s totally optional and you can leave it out. The other unique flavor added is cinnamon in the crust. I love how it complements the lime and ginger but is incredibly subtle.
If you need or want to make this recipe dairy free or just like the taste of coconut, you can replace the butter with melted coconut oil, and substitute full fat canned coconut milk for the condensed milk at a 1:1 ratio. It will definitely give the bars a coconut taste, but I like coconut and lime together! The eggs are crucial for a custard though, so if you also need to avoid eggs this recipe is probably not the one for you.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 tsp cinnamon
5 Tbs melted butter
4 egg yolks
1 Tbs key lime zest
2/3 cups key lime juice
1 (14 oz) can condensed milk
2 Tbs finely chopped crystalized/candied ginger (optional)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 and grease an 8×8 pan.
Stir together graham cracker crumbs and cinnamon. Mix in the melted butter until combined, and evenly press the mixture into the bottom of the greased pan.
Bake for about 10 minutes or until the crust is lightly browned and solid. Set aside but keep the oven on.
Fit the bowl of a stand mixture fitted with the whisk attachment. Add the egg yolks and beat on high speed until thick – about 3-5 minutes. Add the lime zest and continue to beat until combined. Lower the speed to low and slowly add the condensed milk with the machine running. Once all the milk is added, raise the speed back to high until all combined and continue beating for a few minutes. Reduce the speed to low again and add the lime juice and ginger.
Once all the ingredients are combined, pour the mixture over the baked crust. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the filling is just set. You’ll know because when you move the pan the filling won’t jiggle anymore.
Let cool until the pan is room temperature, and then put in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours, but preferably overnight.
Cut into squares and serve with whipped cream if desired.
Enjoy!
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