Grilled Lamb and Halloumi Skewers, Broiled Plums with Mango Sorbet, Zucchini Carpaccio

My latest round of delicious summer recipes, tried by me in the time period from Aug. 15 to 25, includes a kabob and some must-try cooling summer salads. Click on the links to get the recipes.

Grilled Lamb, Tomato, and Halloumi Skewers with Orzo Salad: These easy-to-make kabobs, with their simple and delicious side of orzo salad, are good for a weeknight or an outdoor party. They reminded my husband and I about the awesomeness of halloumi cheese, which gets perfectly-but-not-too-gooey when grilled. Its salty tang is to die for.

Broiled Plums with Mango Sorbet: So easy and so delicious. Plums sprinkled with cinnamon, sugar and vanilla are broiled in the oven and go on top of store-bought mango sorbet. We couldn’t find mango sorbet but did find mango ice cream, which was just as delicious.

Chai Blossom: A simple combination of chilled chai tea, lime juice and club soda is absolutely delicious. The creator of this recipe is very smart to have thought of chilling chai tea.

Zucchini Carpaccio: This ingenious recipe is so easy and quick to make, but is an elegant crowd pleaser. It will work on weeknights with the family and at dinner parties. And with tons of zucchini around these days, this recipe is ideal for using it up.

            The recipe I linked to is a little fancier than the one I used from an Epicurious specialty publication. The recipe I used, for example, didn’t call for pine nuts or zucchini blossoms (the zucchini blossoms are strictly optional, in my opinion!) My recipe also said you could grate the cheese onto the zucchini rather than using a vegetable peeler.

Vodka-Grape Sparkler, Herb Green Beans with Feta, Summer Twang, Raspberry Pops

I tried four successful on the weekend of Aug. 10 and 11, 2013. Click on the links to get the recipes:

Vodka-Grape Sparkler: This recipe from Bobby Flay is a grown-up grape soda. I made half of the recipe, and it produced three very decent-sized cocktails.

Herb Green Beans with Feta: If you’ve been plagued by the problem of mushy, overcooked and unappetizing beans, take this recipe for a whirl. It produces crisp beans with delicious overtones of mint and dill.

Summer Twang: This non-alcoholic drink is a definite refresher. The base is a combination of pureed cantaloupe, honey and apple cider vinegar, and it’s finished off with club soda. The recipe makes two large or four small servings.

Raspberry Pops: I substituted an equal amount of Splenda for sugar in this simple recipe that produces refreshing, delicious ice pops. I used my handy-dandy Zoku instant ice-pop maker to freeze them.

More terrific summer recipes - pastas, salads, appetizers, cake!

My promised update of recipes I tried so far this summer that worked continues. In this blog entry are summer pastas, salads, appetizers, sandwiches, cake and more. All of them were awesome – try all of the recipes below without fear! 

Summer pastas

Here are three pastas that are perfect for summertime: They use fresh tomatoes and basil.

One-Pan Pasta: This amazing recipe really does require just one pan. The pasta is cooked right along with tomatoes, garlic and basil. It’s ideal for weeknights: It took my husband just 25 minutes to make it, from prep to serving, without rushing.

Pasta with Tomatoes and Mozzarella: This pasta has a no-cook sauce. Kids will love it!

Spaghetti with Sun Gold Tomato Sauce: The sauce has some unusual ingredients, a star anise pod and whole clove among them. But what results is an amazing, warming sauce that makes lovely use of tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes can be substituted.

Strawberry delight

Here are a couple of fantastic recipes using fresh strawberries:

Herb-Crusted Chicken with Fresh Strawberry Relish: This dish is so good, it’s a little breathtaking. Make sure to use a roasting pan as directed to get a slight crisp on the chicken.

Strawberry & Blue Cheese Bruschetta: Serve this with champagne and you’ve got a gorgeous start to a summertime dinner party.

Something’s fishy

Shrimp and fish fillets are featured in these lovely recipes:

Striped Bass Poached in Herb Butter: Caught some fish you’d like to cook and enjoy? Here’s a wonderful recipe in which fish fillets are poached, rather than fried, in butter, resulting in tender, flavourful fish.  Any type of white fish can be used. Since we couldn’t find striped bass, we used cod with great results. You don’t even need to use fish with skin on one side, as the recipe calls for. We used cod fillets without skin and they worked fine.

Summer baking

Lemon Bundt Cake: Although this recipe is from a December issue of Food & Wine magazine, I thought it looked much more suited to spring and summer. The recipe is a little involved but the end product is definitely worth it.

A whack of great summer recipes

It’s been a looooonnnng time since I’ve posted on Recipes That Worked.

  That’s because things have been so hectic at my day job that I’ve had no time for any outside writing projects.

   I’ve come to the realization that I’m going to have to change the way I update Recipes That Worked.

   I will likely not have much time any more to write full blog entries about the recipes.

   I’m going to have to start making weekly updates, telling you about new recipes I tried in the week before (the ones that worked, anyway!) with a short note describing them and any changes or substitutions I made in the recipes (which is quite rare).

   Already this summer I’ve tried a whack of new recipes that I haven’t written about. I’m going to tell you about them this week in a series of large blog entries. Here’s the first, updating on you on some drinks and frosty treats I’ve made that worked terrifically. Click on the links to get the recipes.

Drinks

Vodka Lavender Thyme Lemonade (alcoholic): Don’t let the lavender freak you out – it simply gives a slightly unusual, but incredibly delicious, edge to the drink. Have fun getting people to guess what the secret ingredient is. Dried lavender can be found at health-food stores.

Frozen Limeade Margarita (alcoholic): This killer recipe is officially my new go-to margarita recipe. You will be stunned, and so will your guests, at how good these are. The secret? Canned frozen limeade concentrate!

Blackberry Blast (alcoholic): This recipe uses rhum agricole, a type of rum made directly from sugarcane, rather than sugarcane by-product such as molasses as is the case with many other types of rums. It actually tastes more like whiskey than rum, which contributes a slightly unsual but very welcome taste to this cooling cocktail.

Berry Rose Sangria (alcoholic): This is the easiest and least time-consuming sangria recipe I’ve ever seen. Forget all the chopping of fruit and letting it sit for hours to blend the flavours – this delicious sangria is ready almost instantly by comparison to other recipes. And it’s delicious!

Salted Meyer Lemon and Sage Presse (non-alcoholic): Got a guest in a crowd who prefers a non-alcoholic drink? This is going to be a big treat for them. It’s got a the appeal of a well-made cocktail without any booze. I used regular lemons instead of Meyer lemons.

Ice pops and sorbet

Last fall, my mother-in-law bought me a Zoku instant ice pop maker for a birthday gift. It's an adorable little contraption that makes ice pops in seven to nine minutes. I cracked the thing open in the middle of July and have been making delicious ice pops since. Here are the successful recipes I’ve tried:

-          Honeydew-Lime Pops

-          Gingery Watermelon Paletas

-          Blueberry-Lime Ice Pops

-          Cherry Paletas

I wouldn’t feel that my summer was complete without making a sorbet or ice cream, and I finally got around to making one recently. It was Cucumber, Celery and Gin Sorbet, an absolute frosty winner.