Archives for June 2011

black bean salad recipe
by on June 29, 2011   •   44 Comments Dinner

What to Eat on Hot Summer Nights (Recipe: Versatile Black Bean Salad)

Written by Katie of GoodLife Eats.

With temperatures hovering just under 100 degrees F since we returned from our vacation I have decided one thing about meal time: It is simply way too hot to cook right now. But that doesn’t mean I can’t prepare dinner for our family. We still have to eat something.

Grilling is a great option during these hot months. It keeps the heat where it should be: outside. I was so inspired by all of the great grilling recipes shared here on Simple Bites over the past week and can’t wait to try some of them.

I have never grilled with a cedar plank before. And after a recent trip to Greece, I’m dying to get my hands on some Haloumi so I can make Danny’s Grilled Peach and Haloumi Salad.

But what do you do when it’s too hot to even go outside? Many times I’ve felt to the point of near heat exhaustion as I stood over a grill flipping meat and vegetables.

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by on June 27, 2011   •   21 Comments Uncategorized

Peko Peko: A Cookbook to Support Japan’s Recovery

The Fed-Ex fellow dropped off a highly anticipated package last week – my Peko Peko cookbook, hot off the presses.

Wait, Peko-what?

Peko Peko: Family Friendly Japanese Recipes is a collection of nearly 60 Japanese and Japanese-inspired recipes published by Blurb, 100% of the profits of which will be donated to charity relief in Japan. I was fortunate to be one of the food bloggers who contributed a recipe to the cookbook.

I hesitated a minute before opening the box. What if I didn’t like it? What if it was just okay? I continued, and a few seconds later, as the wrappings slid to the floor, I held in my hands the work of three talented curators and fifty bloggers.

It usually takes me about five second to assess if I’m going to like a cookbook or not. I can’t put my finger on exactly how all the right elements have to fall into line, but usually after a quick flip from cover to cover I’m either sold or – meh.

It was love at first sight for Peko Peko and me.
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by on June 26, 2011   •   9 Comments Link Love

Weekend Links: The Eat Well, Spend Less Edition

Thank you for joining along in our grilling series last week! I hope you were inspired to change things up a bit – or even start grilling for the first time.

I was so touched when a reader commented on the Simple Bites Facebook page that she had her husband teach her how to start the grill just so she could make my Grilled Caesar Salad and Megan’s Balsamic Glazed Grilled Carrots. Allison, I wanted to ‘like’ your comment about ten times. You definitely embraced this series and got out of your cooking comfort zone!

Rather than a huge round-up of grilling recipes (let’s face it, they’re everywhere), for today’s link love I want to share what the other bloggers in our little Eat Well, Spend Less series have been working on.

Our theme for the month is summer menu planning, at home and while traveling and it is content you need for the summer ahead. Ready?

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by on June 24, 2011   •   28 Comments Dinner

Grilling Salmon {Recipe: Grilled Cedar Plank Salmon}

Written by Kristen of Dine and Dish.

It’s been a full week of grilling here on Simple Bites and what a delicious week it has been! There is nothing better than heading outside to cook dinner when the weather turns warm.

Our family loves traditional grilled fare like hamburgers and hotdogs, but what we really enjoy cooking on our grill during the summer is seafood. There is something about the lightly enhanced smokey flavor of grilled seafood that makes it seem like the ideal summer meal.

We love all kinds of seafood on the grill – shrimp, tilapia, tuna steaks – but the one fish that we can’t get enough of is grilled salmon. Salmon has the perfect amount of natural fat to leave it flaky and moist when prepared on the grill.

Salmon is also an extremely versatile fish making it a great addition to your weekly menu. The ingredients can easily be changed to suit the flavors you are craving the most. [Read more…]

by on June 23, 2011   •   26 Comments Dinner

Grilling Fruit (Recipe: Grilled Peach and Haloumi Salad)

When Aimee mentioned that my next post would coincide with “grilling week”, I have to say that I was pretty darn excited.

After all, I’m a man, and men are supposed to be “King of the grill” – if you buy in to all of that jazz.  And so to be quirky and different, my initial thought was to go off on a tangent and write about how to make a grill over a real fire or grilling something in a really hot backyard pizza oven (two more of my projects now that the chicken coop is made).

But sometimes, meat on any kind of grill, whether it be steaks or sausages or chicken, fish, etc…. is just, well, meh.  Especially later in the grilling season.  Most of the BBQ or grilling events we go to all summer long are remembered for the people, not the meat. I can probably remember only a handful of grilled steaks that were memorable for their flavor.

However, the first time I had grilled peach and haloumi salad will be memorable for a long, long time.  I can’t even remember  if we had guests or not that night, but I can remember almost every single bite that I had.

Yes, it was that good.

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