At my niece’s bridal shower the other day, the hostess served this delicious corn souffle. I went online and found what I thought was the recipe. or at least close to it and made this tonight.

I didn’t have Jiffy Corn Mix so used this copycat recipe instead.

Then I used this recipe for the corn souffle, but halved the butter. Next time, I might halve it again and/or cut down on the oil as well.

It tasted great as I made it and was a hit with the 4 teenagers eating here tonight.

Meatballs ready to bake

Meatballs are very flexible and easy to make if you have some ground meat. I’ve used  ground pork and ground beef, only ground beef, or ground turkey.  My favorite is to use half ground pork and half ground beef but ground pork isn’t always easy to find.  The last time I made them with ground turkey at my youngest’s request.  I usually bake them in the oven, then add them to heated marinara sauce.

• 1 pound ground beef or turkey or pork or combo
• 1/2 to  3/4 cup crushed plain crackers or bread crumbs
• 1 egg
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley if you have some
• salt and pepper to taste

Mix all this up and then form into small balls with your hands.  The meat mix will stick less if you wet your hands with cold water before starting to form the meat balls.

Bake at 350 until done, probably 25 to 30 minutes.  You can also fry them in a skillet if you’d rather.  Cut one open to make sure they’re done.

You can often find decent jars of sauce on sale or make your own. Follow this recipe for marinara sauce but leave out the meat or try this spaghetti sauce.  These also make excellent meatball sandwiches, of course.

You can easily double or triple this recipe and freeze these meatballs after cooking.  If you do, flash freeze them so you can pull out just what you need. (Line them up on a cookie sheet and freeze, then put them in your freezer container or bag or vacuum sealer so they won’t be all stuck together.

In addition to the traditional marinara sauce, you can serve meatballs with all kinds of sauces and gravies.  Here are some ideas for what to do with meatballs.

I just posted an article on how to grill vegetables.  In the summer especially, side dishes at dinner are apt to consist of grilled vegetables, either from the Farmers’ Market or my own backyard.  Sometimes with meat on skewers, sometimes by themselves on skewers and sometimes just sliced and laid right on the grill.

What are your favorite vegetables to grill and how do you cook them? 

I just bought this book, Raising the Salad Bar, and am loving it! The book covers regular green leafy salads, some grain salads, meat and seafood main dish kind of salads, chicken salad, pasta salad… I had some friends over for a 4th of July barbecue tonight and the book was laying out, as I’d gotten it yesterday. She picked it up and was enthralled. It has the kind of salads I eat, but with some neat sounding additions and versions. Nothing too fancy and hard to find, but great sounding combos.

I’ve got the spinach and strawberry salad bookmarked to try tomorrow, as well as several others marked to try as the week goes on, including a quinoa salad.

I made this lemon rice to go with the Persian Chicken I made the other day.  I made this in my rice cooker but you could easily adapt to the stove. However, if you like rice, a rice cooker is a great appliance!   And a great resource for rice cooker recipes is The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook : 250 No-Fail Recipes for Pilafs, Risottos, Polenta, Chilis, Soups, Porridges, Puddings and More, from Start to Finish in Your Rice Cooker. Do any of you have other rice cooker cookbooks to recommend? I’m eager to learn more.

• 1 cup basmati or other long grain white rice
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 1 clove garlic, peeled
• 2 Tbs lemon zest
• 2 Tbs butter
• 2 Tbs chopped fresh parsley

Rinse the rice once or twice, then put in the bowl withe chicken broth and stir gently.  Add the garlic clove on top. (You’ll remove it before eating.)  Turn your rice cooker on or cook your rice on the stove.  When the rice is done, stir in the lemon zest, butter, and parsley, and let steam another 10 minutes.

When I bought my new grill last summer I picked up this Weber’s Real Grilling: Over 200 Original Recipes book while I was waiting for them to roll out the pre-assembled grill (because I hate putting stuff together). I was taken with the recipes, which sounded good and there are pictures for most if not all recipes. None of the recipes have disappointed so far. I lifted this marinade tonight from it.  It was on a Rib Eye Steak page but a good marinade never disappoints.

• 1/2 cup bourbon
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 1 Tbs soy sauce
• 1 Tbs lemon juice (recipe called for white wine vinegar but I grow lemons!)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp Tabasco sauce
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Mix this together and marinate your beef for up to 2 hours. I did about 45 minutes at room temperature.  When you’re ready to grill, drain the marinade from the steak and wipe dry. Then sprinkle with salt, paprika and pepper says the recipe. However… I had some salt I’d mixed up as per The Breakaway Cook: Recipes That Break Away from the Ordinary with sea salt and smoked paprika which I’ve been enjoying on various things. (Use your coffee grinder to mix together 1/4 cup sea salt and 1 tsp smoked paprika.)  So I used that and some seasoned pepper.  (By the way, go read Eric’s blog at The Breakaway Cook. Great stuff.)

Grill over a medium hot grill 7-8 minutes per side, depending on how thick your London Broil is, then let rest at least 5 minutes on the cutting board, covered with foil.  Slice the steak against the grain. That is, put the steak long ways in front of you and slice thinly at about a 45 degree angle against the grain (short side).  This yields a tender thin slice of well flavored beef. If you just slice it into thick pieces, it will likely be a bit chewy and tough.  Learn the cross-grain thing. Well worth it.   First, it just tastes better. And second, I think people actually eat less meat because each bite is thinner.  I had a 2 pound London Broil tonight I think and about half was eaten by 6 of us, 5 teenage girls and me.

Menu:

• Bourbon marinated London Broil
• Grilled veggie kabobs
• Baked potatoes
• Fruit salad

The veggie kabobs were chunks of zucchini, red onion, mushrooms, and red and green peppers that I marinated in some leftover Italian salad dressing (vinaigrette) while the steak was marinating, then threaded on skewers and grilled starting from when I turned the steak over.   Turn the kabobs once or twice. They are so simple and so good. I serve them all mixed together in a bowl, removing them from the skewers so everyone can pick out the veggies they like.

This was the last day of school here for most schools, although my youngest got out on Wednesday.  She met her friends after their last final and they came over here in the afternoon, so it was fun to have them all stay for dinner.  We used to always do a bit end of school barbecue here with lots of neighbors when they were younger so it was  nice to resurrect the idea for a smaller group.

When my book club read Rooftops of Tehran: A Novel, a wonderful book by the way, the hostess made this Persian chicken. She baked it and served it with a delicious green salad and some bolani from the Afghan stall at our farmers’ market. It was a wonderful dinner and a wonderful book. I asked her to send me the recipe for the chicken but I opted to grill it, over a medium hot grill so it would still be very moist. I ended up marinating this about a day and a half. I mixed up the marinade at lunch one day and we had it for dinner the next. It was so good and moist!  I’ve done other yogurt marinades before and none has disappointed.

• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• juice from half a lemon (2 Tbs or so if you’re using bottled)
• 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 1/2 a pound of boneless skinless chicken breasts

Mash the garlic clove up withe salt, then stir in the yogurt, lemon and pepper.  Marinate the chicken in this at least 6 hours, preferably overnight and up to a day and a half.

Grill over medium heat until done, 6-8 minutes per side. Check the doneness by cutting one breast open and make sure it’s not pink.  Don’t have the heat too high. You want it cooked but not charred.

I served this with a lemon rice I made in the rice cooker, a yogurt sauce I had leftover from the lamb chops I made the other night, and a simple salad of chopped tomatoes, chopped cucumbers, chopped fresh parsley, olive oil, lemon juice and salt.

I had some of the leftovers for lunch today and it was very good. My daughter came home with a gaggle of high school girls at lunch on their last day of school and one of them ate the rest with compliments.

Any local Tyler Florence fans? He’ll be at Macy’s doing a free cooking demonstration on June 17 at 6pm.  You have to sign up, which you can do here.  Let me know if you decide to go!  I’m going.

Make this summer potluck standard ahead and let it chill, even overnight. (It’s also called Overnight Layered Salad).   The basis for this one came from The Comfort Table by Katie Lee Joel. You can find a variety of different vegetables used for some of the layers. I used lettuce, celery, red pepper, scallions, peas, then the mayo dressing, followed by the bacon and cheddar cheese. Hmm, that’s 8  layers. Oh well.  I’ve also seen recipes with cucumber, mushrooms, green pepper, black olives, and water chestnuts.

• 1 head head lettuce, chopped or shredded as you please
• 1 stalk  chopped celery
• 1/2 cup red pepper, chopped
• 3 green onions, chopped (whites and greens)
• 10 ounces frozen peas
• 1 cup mayonnaise (or 1/2 sour cream and 1/2 mayonnaise)
• 1 Tbs sugar
• 1 Tbs minced fresh parsley
• 8 slices bacon, fried and crumbled
• 1/2 cup grated Cheddar cheese

In a glass bowl, layer the lettuce, celery, red pepper, green onions, and peas.

In a small bowl mix the mayonnaise, sugar and parsley together, then spread over the peas.  Sprinkle the bacon and cheese over the top. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least a few hours or as long as overnight.

I saw a variety of dressings used too. Some had grated Parmesan instead of the Cheddar. Others added sliced hardboiled eggs and/or tomatoes just before serving.

How do you make your layered salad?

Made this last night for dinner with some chicken legs: http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/recipes/r-penzeysGrilledGreekChicken.html because Penzey’s had sent me a sample of their Greek seasoning.

The flavor was great!  I, unfortunately, had the grill a bit too hot so the legs got a bit overdone.   Next time, I’ll marinate the chicken longer too. I only had about an hour.