A Life in Food
Tomatoes are plentiful in most gardens this time of year and if you are fortunate enough to have them; odds are, you are looking for ways to use them up. Try stuffing them with a mixture of flavorful herbs and breadcrumb mixed with crab meat. For a Greek twist, try them stuffed with orzo, feta and Kalamata olives. Whichever recipe you try, they are the perfect side dish or light summer meal.
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The Divas are back, friends! It’s Friday and that means a week’s worth of dinner recipes along with 2 extras. From pizza to pasta, we have it all this week, including a fresh tomato tart and a gorgeous salad for lighter meals.
How it works: Every Friday morning, a new meal plan will show up in your email. It will consist of 5 dinner options, plus 2 extras. Those two extras could be side dishes, dessert, drinks, etc. The Dinner Divas weekly menu plans will feature (mostly) healthy, seasonal foods that don’t take all day to prepare. Getting the weekly menu delivered to your inbox on Friday morning gives you the chance to make your shopping list and get organized for the week ahead. We’ve got so much good stuff this week! I’d love to hear from you & see your creations! Post a pic using #DinnerDivas and tag @pookspantry! I hope this weekly menu plan provides inspiration and makes life a little easier… one meal at a time.
I am over the moon for this Pork Banh Mi Burger from Girl in the Little Red Kitchen, It has everything I love in a burger. Tons of flavor!
Next is this One Pot Pasta with Fresh Tomatoes and Spinach from The Chef Next Door. I don’t know about you, but Tuesdays are always harder for me than Mondays. This is the perfect low effort meal for me.
One of my favorite (and most popular) recipes. This Heirloom Tomato and Goat Cheese Tart is a serious stunner. Although it looks quite fussy, it’s not as difficult to make as you might imagine. It’s a beautiful way to use up those luscious summer tomatoes!
This beautiful Strawberry Mango Salad with Strawberry Poppyseed Dressing from Comfortable Domestic is a great option for a light Summer dinner when it’s just too hot to cook.
Friday means PIZZA and Pastry Chef Online does not disappoint with her Sausage Gravy Pizza with Peppers and Onions.
It wouldn’t be summer without an awesome recipe for potato salad. Girl in the Little Red Kitchen brings Potato Salad with Bacon, Corn and Peppers as an extra treat this week. I would be first in line for this!
Finally, we close out the week with The Best Strawberry Shortcake from Comfortably Domestic. I can’t imagine a backyard gathering without it. What a perfect way to wrap up!
Thank you all so much for being here! Next week, our theme will be RED, WHITE & BLUE! Just in time to plan your 4th of July menu.
Remember, if you make any of these recipes, use the hashtag #DinnerDivas so we can see your creations! See you next week!
It’s the unofficial start to summer and you know what that means: dining alfresco! Whether it be picnics, backyard BBQ’s or lunch hours outside on a bench while soaking up a little sunshine, this grain salad with it’s rainbow of colors has you covered.
It’s the perfect time of year to enjoy nature’s bounty of fresh vegetables. If you are trying to eat a little cleaner and healthier, grain salads are for you! The satisfying chewiness of whole grains, the crunch of fresh veggies, the freshness of herbs and the zing of red wine vinegar make this salad a home run.
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You know when you get a craving for something & you just have to make it? Well, I had wanted to make a tomato tart for a little while and finally got around to doing it. This post started out something like “with summer produce in full swing and a variety of perfect tomatoes available, blah, blah, blah…”
Don’t get me wrong, I could yammer on about produce with the best of them. I am a big fan of it, in case you didn’t know and let’s be honest… tomatoes are pretty amazing right now. Especially if you can get your hands on some of the gorgeous heirloom varieties. This post was supposed to be light-hearted and fun. But, life isn’t always light-heart and fun, is it? I know that some people probably just let out an audible groan… and that’s ok. If reading about things that aren’t happy and fun isn’t in your plan today, I understand. You are excused. This is about something a little deeper than a tomato tart. Thank you, wonderful farmers for providing the gorgeous tomatoes for this tart, but we are on to a more pressing issue…
I have a couple of friends that are vegetarians and had wanted to have them over for dinner so I thought “Well, this is perfect timing!” I will make the tart, have them over, open some wine and we will have a perfectly delightful evening. Only, it didn’t happen that way. Life rarely happens the way we think it will, does it?
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Grilled bread rubbed with cloves and garlic and juicy, ripe summer tomatoes is drilled with grassy olive oil and dusted with flaked sea salt. Best enjoyed outside with a glass of Spanish rioja. A super simple dinner, or appetizer, this bread is bursting with flavor.
I had been dreaming about travelling to Spain for nearly a decade, so when I finally landed there back in April of 2000, I cried. The moment my feet touched Spanish soil, I was almost in disbelief. I was so overwhelmed that I could not contain my pure joy. It felt as if the entire universe lined up and planted me exactly where I was supposed to be for that one perfect moment. I wanted for nothing.
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I was home visiting my family and was freshly out of culinary school. I mean
green. I hadn’t really worked in kitchens yet other than as a stagiaire or
“stage”, which is an intern (read: free labor).
I’m not really sure where the brilliant idea came from, but I had it in my head to make fried green tomatoes. Keep in mind, I’d never eaten them nor made them but off I went to
gather green tomatoes and make them. I had no reference point, so I didn’t know
how thick or thin to cut the slices.
So, I took to the kitchen with my tomatoes in hand and proceeded to make what one could only technically classify as fried green tomatoes.
They were tomatoes. They were green. And they had been fried.
Looking back at the first attempt to reach beyond my comfort zone, so full of enthusiasm, as all
new culinary grads are, I wince at what I made. Thankfully, I’ve gotten a handle on it now.
I still struggle with failure as I’m sure we all do. I don’t want to look stupid or fail at something.
But, isn’t that how we learn and grow? Our failures tend to teach us more than our successes in my experience. I’m learning to let go of that a little, although I’ll be the first to admit that my competitive spirit will never disappear and the fear of embarrassing myself in front of people is still quite real.
With that, I give you the following recipe… southerners need not correct me. I’m sure you
make it better.
As many of you are fully aware, I have an exploding tomato population. I went a bit “Little House on the Prairie” thinking I needed to sow all my seeds to get me through the long, hard winter on the farm apparently. Well, now… I am reaping what I have sown. PUN. FULLY. INTENDED.
It’s mass chaos back there. I think the tomatoes get together in some sort of secret society at night while I’m sleeping, plotting to overthrow me. One day I may wake up to them all crouched down waiting to pounce (think: Lord of the Flies). OK, clearly I’ve gone off on a tangent……
If you are a tomato person, you will want to check back here from time to time and here’s why: I have an exploding tomato population. As someone said to me a few days ago, this is not a bad problem to have!
So let me just tell you now that for the next few months, there will likely be a number of recipes here using tomatoes… Salsas, tomato tarts, tomato jam, tomato soup, etc.
Sometimes I am hesitant to put recipes here that I think will be too simple or maybe you just won’t find that interesting. Recently, there was a discussion amongst a few of my foodie friends regarding the subject of “overdoing” food.
Example: a cookie inside of a brownie inside of a cupcake inside of a pie, then deep fried and topped with caramel and chocolate sauces, whipped cream and sprinkles.
Obviously this is a gross exaggeration, but you catch my drift….
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This is about the time of year when people who are lucky enough to have prolific gardens start to feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of gorgeous bright red tomatoes and beautiful zucchini that their loving care has yielded. A problem I’d like to have, quite honestly…
Growing up, my grandparents next door neighbors had a garden behind their house. By the end of July, it was practically bursting at the seams. Every summer we were the grateful recipients of brown paper grocery bags filled with tomatoes and cucumbers from his garden. The trade off was the newspaper. One of us was sent next door to give them the paper every day after my grandparents had read it and in turn, every few days he left a bag of fresh from the ground veggies on the back porch. Not a bad arrangement.
If you find yourself overrun with tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, etc… this recipe is perfect! It utilizes all of the wonderful produce of summer in a healthy vegetarian dish that is… well, super yummy.
Ratatouille can be eaten warm, at room temperature or even cold. It is substantial enough to stand on its own or it can be served alongside roast chicken or tossed through your favorite pasta.
I have sandwiched it in a crusty ciabatta roll for lunch or served it on sliced, toasted baguettes as an hors d’oeuvre with a glass of wine. This recipe is the epitome of summer, there really is no wrong way to enjoy it.
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