Usually when I think of barbecued food I think of the standard: hamburgers and hot dogs. So this year Daniel and I thought it would be fun to think outside the bun (hehehe…you like that?) and open this awesome book (that sadly enough was given to us probably 5 years ago and has remained untouched until now) to see what other fun dishes we could do via the grill.

I would say it has been a lot of fun and a huge success!  I have loved keeping my kitchen cool and my taste buds happy.  We have tried all sorts of veggies (a perfect time to try grilled veggies as all the best ones are in season…just add olive oil and salt and… viola!), meats& marinades (through a lot of trial and error, I have found the secret to a good meat on the grill is the marinade), and even a bit of dessert (not a big fan of this one) …but of all the attempts, this recipe below (as well as this one) made it into my “favorites”.

Today’s Feature: Grilled Coconut Cilantro Shrimp

(on a bed of rice and with a side of grilled vegetables)

With Dayla I craved fruit, while with this baby it is all about the veggies.  So needless to say, this veggie sandwich was simply di-vine.  Easy too.  If you are veggie lover, just grill up any old thing, slap it on a roll (I personally recommend the “Herbed Focaccia” rolls from Fresh and Easy….hearty enough to hold the sandwich together while still soft and delicious)  and top it off with a bit of cheese.  I am telling you, you can’t go wrong.

Today’s Feature: Grilled Vegetable Sandwich with Sun dried Tomato Aioli and Goat Cheese

This is the salad that will open my restaurant.

Today’s Feature: Summer Berry Extravaganza Salad
Of course every menu has a description to go with their great salad.

My salad description would read:

A refreshing salad with a bit of crunch: green leaf lettuce, raspberries, strawberries, celery, avocado, and creamy goat cheese.  Topped with your choice of raspberry vinaigrette or ranch dressing.

Like many things in life, when I find something I love to do, I am drawn to people who love the same things. My friend Julie is a baker, and OH.MY.IS.SHE.A.BAKER. She makes my baking look rudimentary and the best part is she always says things like “it was so easy…just do…” and proceeds to list a bunch of things that sound terribly difficult to me. But hey, I love having someone to look up to and being around baking that inspires me.

So today’s Food Friday is not featuring my skills at all, but is introducing you to the mad skillzzzz of Julie. I am not sure if she is taking friend applications but after you see this, I am sure you will want me to ask her.

Today’s Feature:

Left: White Chocolate and Raspberry Trifle
Right: Chocolate Mousse in Handmade Chocolate Muffin Cups Topped with Homemade Whipped Cream

There are so many reasons that I love appetizers, I can’t even begin to list them all. I think if it was healthier I might make more dinners at our house “appetizer dinner”; just like people who do breakfast for dinner, why not appetizer dinner? YES. I recently had the opportunity to make some new appetizers and I have to say… I was really REALLY excited about both of them. OH YUM.

Today’s Feature:

Left: Crab, Chili, & Mint Crostini (light and refreshing in taste, not too creamy, not too spicy)

Right: Quiche in Prosciutto Cups (all the yummy of a quiche in a delightful and slightly salty prosciutto cup)

Yeah, me neither.

I have decided that if this salad were at a restaurant, it would have a fancy name.  I would call it “fruit salad” but that would just be misleading.  So name it whatever you like. Maybe if you leave your name for my salad in the comments and I like yours the best I will send you a Starbucks gift card. That sounds like a fun game…let’s do that! On your mark, get set, GO!

** updated to add:  Now voting is closed.  The winning name is thanks to Julie, I love the name “The Great Green Sweet Crunchy Salad” because it describes it perfectly!  Thanks for all of you who voted!!***

Today’s Feature:  Green Salad with a Fancy Name

(green leaf lettuce, red grapes, fuji apples, celery and feta cheese with your choice of dressing)

It is inspired by California Pizza Kitchen’s BBQ Chop Chicken Salad, and I think it is the perfect salad to ring in summer with.  OH YUM. Who says that a salad at home has to be boring with just a little lettuce and carrots? NAH. So that is my goal this summer. I am craving salads and I am in the mood to make them extravagant.

Food Friday:  BBQ Chop Chicken Salad

For some reason my favorite part about our new house and growing vegetables is not just that we have vegetables in our backyard, but it is that our neighbors have vegetables in their back (and front) yards.  Often I get a knock on my door in the afternoon from a generous neighbor sharing their bounty of berries or fruit or herbs or lettuce, and I can’t help but fall in love again with our neighborhood.  It reminds me of what grandmas tell us neighborhoods used to be like.  Everyone helps everyone; everyone shares their bounty.

This week’s Food Friday is because of our awesome neighbor’s John and Genie who shared their bounty of sage.  I had never cooked with sage before and I am not sure that this was the right venue for it, but it tasted better than it would have if I bought that sage from the store cause it was shared with a spirit of generosity and love.

Food Friday: Pan Roasted Chicken and Potatoes with Fresh Sage

Even if you don’t have a yard, bake some cookies, share with a neighbor. It just makes the world feel like it has less thorns in it.

I can’t remember exactly how it came up; I think I was watching Kitchen Nightmares on Hulu  and it happened to be about a sushi restaurant.  All I remember is turning to my husband, giving him my best puppy dog eyes as quietly remarked, “I really want sushi”.

I believe my Daniel to be an amazing sushi chef now, and not only have we found the best sushi fish supplier (go to Catalina Offshore and I promise you: best fish ever),we as a family all love it (yes, even Dayla can down sashimi better than any adult I have ever met), so it is a treat we indulge in every other month or so.  But with pregnancy the sushi dinners and the bottles of wine have been scaled back in our house tremendously.

Mother’s Day came just a couple days after my puppy dog eyes and Daniel remembered my little heart’s desire: a whole dinner of pregnant friendly (non-raw fish) sushi. Yes. Just  another reason why I love this man.

Today’s Feature: Homemade Sushi

Above: shrimp tempura roll with eel sauce.

Below: Spicy California Roll

If you are buying, you can come to our house for sushi dinner or sushi making lessons anytime.

Right in front of my neighbors house I go down face first onto the concrete, my hands just barely saving my face from having gravel implanted in my forehead.  Of course I first look around to see who saw me before I look to see if I am bleeding.  Yeah, I have priorities.  Minutes later my neighbor comes out of her house and I start to blush, thinking of how she must have seen me go face first into her driveway.  She gracefully doesn’t elude to my mishap and I breathe a sigh of relief.  Instead she comes to tell me her mulberries are ready to pick.

“Mulberries?” I am sure my face showed my doubt and skepticism.  She is pulling my leg, I think to myself. “Have you ever had a mulberry?” she asks politely,  ”Would you like to?”

So we tromp through her house and into her yard, my blushed face slowly fading and my excitement to see her mulberry bush rising.  It is no bush, it is a giant tree 5 feet taller than her house.  It is beautiful.  And it is weighed down with more berries than I have ever seen in my life.  Dayla and I leave her house with a hop in our step as we clutch a ziploc bag full of mulberries.

They are a bit like a blackberry, but not as sweet.   Dayla ate them by the fist full. She has the black mulberry stained face to prove it.

Today’s Feature: Mulberries.  They really do exist.