Team Burke Beach Barbecue

The greatest reward for me as an up and coming ( ?! maybe!?) chef is seeing people not only enjoying my food, but also appreciating each other's company just as much if not more than the actual meal. Despite both of these joys, there exists an even more exciting gusto, a treat that comes from cooking WITH other people, especially with my sensational cousins.

The extended Burke Family just returned from our annual two weeks in Avalon, New Jersey. I was blessed with fifteen first cousins all of whom are more like siblings to me than cousins, and we get along swimmingly. Last Tuesday we held the first annual "Kids Cook Dinner" night (maybe someday the adults will realize that the "kids" average an age of 23).

I am totally one for quick and easy, (yet interesting) meal preps. However, when working with several cooks, it's important to create a moderately tedious and task oriented meal to prepare. This is one of the reasons why we chose a meal that would require several small tasks, such as chopping, skewering, and marinating, so that everyone could like play a part in the preparation.

The girls volunteered the better part of our beach morning and decided ventured to the food store to buy all the ingredients: chicken, skewers, veggies, marinade, and salad mixings.

For dinner, we really wanted to choose a meal that could accomodate most, if not all of our family's taste buds. The Burke family are pretty simple eaters. Although this does not make me adore them any less, it does drive me a little nuts to endure a few weeks without any kitchen creativity. I usually start craving something weird like seaweed salad. Just kidding. . . or am I?


We spent the morning skewering the chicken and the vegetables, which really takes patience, despite the simplicity of the task. As far as how much meat and veggies to buy, I like to average about 1/4 lb. of meat per person. Just multiply that by how many people you plan to feed. We calculated 7 lbs of chicken for about 26 people (we were missing a few team members that night).


In keeping with the summer theme, we decided to choose multicolored vegetables. We picked colorful peppers (green, yellow, red, orange), mushrooms, squash, and onions, although you can really pick any vegetable. You can expect that each person will eat one or two skewers. We skewered the vegetables alternating kind and color. One pepper can spread out along at least 8 skewers, or 4 if you put 2 peppers on each skewer. You can do all preparation early in the day and let it sit during the afternoon. Another reason why this is the perfect beach meal!

Later on, when the boys saw that some grilling needed to be done, and some beers needed to be opened, they just had to lend a hand. Cousin Patrick, the lean mean grilling machine, manned the grill. We all kept him company as we listened to music provided by my brother, Joe. However, the grill started to flame. Luckily it became a team effort and my dad came to the rescue.


Neither the barbacue and teriayki chicken skewers, nor the fresh grilled vegetables came from my Kitchen Whimsy- mind. However, this meal needed a blog-post because recipe sharing is not the only thread to link cooks. Rather, there exists a universal truth that governs all cooking laws. That truth is the reality that no meal can ever be totally rewarding and inspiring for a cook unless it brings together smiling faces, and warm conversation. That was what we all felt on that Tuesday night.

Taste of Greece in . . . Scranton?

One thing my college roommates and I never disagreed on was whether or not to crack open a new bottle of wine, always white wine, never red. However, once I graduated and moved home for the summer, I retured to life in the household of a Mamabear who loves her glass of wine, always red, never white.

So I got to thinking about a small dish I could make to help me really enjoy a glass of red wine. Frankly, I would turn into a addict if I started buying bottles of white wine for myself becuase no one at home drinks it but me.

A few nights ago, I was eating some green olives out of the jar, per usual, and I noticed that the slight bitterness of the olive didn't go so well with my glass of white wine. I poured a little sip of red wine and became instantly captivated with the perfect compliment that the merlot gave to the aftertaste of the olive.

I fished through my cabinet to see what kinds of ingredients I had lying around. I found a can of kidney beans, which I thought I might beable to use, I found some black olives, and I found a small can of capers. I began to place myself back a few summers to when I studied in Greece, back to where stores smelled of specialty wine and balsamic, and the natives loved olives ALMOST as much as me. I attempted to bring those memories into this kitchen and try to create something fantastic.

So, I started to open the cans I placed on the kitchen counter, drained them, and dumped them into a big bowl. I drizzled EVOO and a few dashes of balsamic.

And then I discovered a can of chickpeas.

Thanks to my good friend, and fellow food blogging junkie Molly Porth, , who brought the fried chickpea to life, I recalled how wrapped up I became in the chickpea after she shared her fried creation with our Food Writing Class.

So, after mixing in that can of chickpeas, I hit jackpot.

What I love about this dish is that the beans make it filling enough to eat as a meal, or serve as just a small appetizer, AND it's cheap and quick to make. It would have cost a total of 9 dollars to buy all of the ingredients, and takes under 5 minutes to toss together.

My dad put a few scoops on his plate with his london broil and ate it by itself. My mom and I opened a new bottle of Merlot, and paired the "dip" with Garlic Panetini Pita Chips. http://www.newyorkstyle.com/newyorkstylepanetini.php


Here's the recipe:
1 cup of chickpeas
1/4 cup of kidney beans
1/2 cup of sliced blackolives
1/2 cup of sliced green olives
1/4 cup of tinly sliced red onion
1/4 cup of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
few dashes of balsamic
tablespoon of capers (drizzle in some of the caper juice as well).

I'm convinced that the special ingredient in this dish is the caper juice. It's a little salty, but really REALLY superb.

enjoy!

Grilled Shrimp Stuffed Portobello Mushroom

This dish really is idiot proof. As you know I am still an amateur griller, but I'm convinced I'm on my way to becoming a grilling machine.

This grilled shrimp stuffed mushroom takes under 20 minutes to make - which makes me wonder if I could make a career out of TWENTY minute meals - TOPPING Rachel Ray's thirty minute recipes.

I bought a few large portobello mushrooms that looked like giant mushroom caps. Turn each over, cut out the stem, and slightly carve out the inside of the cap, making a little cup out of the mushroom. Turn the mushrooms over, so the top of the mushroom is facing upward. Lay however many you like on tinfoil, drizzle with EVOO, basil, salt and pepper. Place the tinfoil on the grill on medium and cook for about 7 minutes.

Then take a bunch of defrosted shrimp - again the amount depends on how many stuffed mushrooms you plan on serving. If you intend on just making the one, you really only need about 5 pieces of regular or large shrimp. Chop up that shrimp, drizzle some balsamic dressing for a slight marinade, and place it in a bowl with a few diced vadalia onions, along with a little garlic.



Place them in tinfoil with a little EVOO and throw it on the grill, allowing it to cook on medium to high heat for about 6 minutes.

After grilling, turn over the mushrooms, and place a cupped spoonful of the diced shrimp inside the little cup that you carved out of the mushroom. I drizzled some sweet balsamic dressing that I had in my refrigerator over the mushroom and threw it all on a bed of baby spinach to give the dish some color.


One of my favorite small dishes is a stuffed mushroom, whether it's stuffed with crab meat or vegetables or whatever. I've wanted to try it myself, but this type of "stuffed" mushroom doesn't take nearly as long, and looks remarkably similar to a restaurant's stuffed mushroom. It tastes incredibly sweet when you get a bite of the mushroom and the shrimp together. Grilled shrimp generally has a natural juciness to it, so pairing it with the marinade and the slight spices makes its flavor mind bogglingly wonderful.

You can also put it over pasta if you want to make a main meal instead of an appetizer or small dish out of it. If you're going to serve it to guests you have to serve it over something bright, because the shrimp and the dark mushroom will look drab, and who wants to eat something that doesn't look pretty.

Serve this hot or cold, either way it tastes incredible. If I can't mess this up, then no one can. Try it- it's easy I swear!

Parmesan Grilled Asparagus

One of my favorite sparks of summer is eating outside. With gorgeous outdoor evenings come an excuse to indulge in many of my favorite foods: salads, fish, veggies, and some chicken on the grill, just a few typical meals that we all usually like to enjoy outdoors.

This recipe for Parmesan Grilled Asparagus came to me for a few reasons. First, I love veggies- duh. Second, I had a few bundles of asparagus stalks in my refrigerator that looked entirely too enticing for me to allow to go bad.

I am some what of a rookie to the grill. This is partly because I am impatient and I tend to become antsy trying to learn something new. It's also partly because I'm scared of lighting our backyard on fire. Okay, it's MOSTLY because I'm scared of lighting our entire house on fire. I don't doubt my own intelligence, but I do sometimes question my common sense. (I read somewhere that lacking common sense is a sign of genius. True or not- I will always tell myself that it's the truth). My dad says that the grill is pretty basic, almost entirely self explanatory.

Can you see why I'd be scared.

This past Sunday, I faced my grilling phobias and produced some grilled asparagus that I can't seem to write about without my mouth watering for more.

Heres the gist: Take as many asparagus stalks as you like - 5, 15, 50 - whatever.
Spray some Pam on a large piece of tin foil, and then toss the asparagus a top the foil.
Slightly wrap the sides of the tin foil around the asparagus, leaving enough space so you can see the entire stalk.
Drizzle EVOO (extra virgin olive oil), garlic powder, sea salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese. (All to taste)
Place on the grill, in the tin foil, on medium heat. Cook for about 7 to 8 minutes. There is really no need to turn the asparagus while on the grill.




After about 7 minutes, the cheese will have crusted over the asparagus. You want to cook them so that when you bite into the spear, the raw crunch is gone, but not lost. It's an instant jolt of cheese and summer freshness. This is a fantastic, quick, and EASY, side to anything from grilled salmon, to grilled chicken, or even steak.

As for my time with the grill, my dad only had to rush out of the house once to remind me of the dangers of playing with a gas grill. I guess the flames got a little too high for his liking?

To my biggest blogging fan

This post it dedicated to my Aunt Gina, my god mother, my second mother, and the person that gives me the most promising and exciting encouragement to keep on writing! My Aunt Gina, "G" has lived in Philadelphia for her entire life, and moved to the North Wales area a few years after she married my Uncle Dan.

On May 1, 2004, my Uncle Dan passed from a sudden heart attack while on a business trip in Florida. He left behind my Aunt Gina, and their three children: Monica, Dana, and Evan, then 6, 4 and 2. My Aunt Gina and I have always had a uniquely special relationship. When struck with homesickness during my first year or so of college, I began to wonder just why I picked Saint Joseph's in the first place. But then, I see how much time I have been fortunate enough to spend at her house, sometimes weekends or weeks at a time. It's great really, I mean, she does my laundry, cooks me dinner, makes a bed for me, and places a hershey kiss on pillow. Ok, she doesn't really put a hershey kiss on my pillow, but it's wishful thinking, right G?! (hint hint!)

Once every week or so I receive a text message from Aunt Gina that says "Just bought some salmon, grilling some veggies, heating couscous and I have the wine, are you in!?"
Obviously I am ALWAYS in. We love this meal. We sit in her living room, plates on our lap, wine in hand, TV tuned into Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice, and we gab until one of us falls asleep.
Just recently, while gushing over my infatuation with sun-dried tomatoes, my Aunt Gina mentioned that my Uncle Dan used to love sun-dried tomatoes, as well as salmon. So, I thought why not try one more recipe with my little sun dried wonders, and see if I can pair them with salmon as a remembrance of my Uncle Dan, as well as a dedication to the best date night partner, my Aunt Gina.
TA-DA! I present Sun-Dried Tomato Salmon!
I bought a Wild Alaskan Salmon patty from Trader Joe's and marinated it overnight in a small jar's worth of Sun-Dried Tomatoes in Olive Oil. Then, I threw it on a frying pan and cooked it on low for about 4 minutes on each side. I found some great bright peppers at the local farmers market, as well as some portobello mushrooms, onions and zucchini. I sauteed them in a skillet with olive oil, capers, and a dash of fresh garlic.
Since Aunt Gina and I both love a great salad, I tore up a head of romaine lettuce, sliced some fresh mozzarella, and added a few capers in their natural oil, whose flavor actually replaced any necessity for additional salad dressing.
Luckily, my roommates were around the house, and in need of some finals fuel. Before, I could even taste it myself, two of my veggie loving roomies, Megan and Katie, had forks in hard and were rapidly stabbing their forks into the salmon and the pile of veggies.


"Can we be quoted in your blog?!" they both yelled excitedly.
Meg : This is delicious beth
Katie: It's the perfect amount. a little late night touch for some finals energy!
Meg: I love the veggies. I'm not used to having the salmon with a salty topping, I normally put a honey dijon. But, I really liked the sun-dried tomatoes, they give it an extra punch.
Katie: I actually always eat around the sun-dried tomatoes. But, I like them in this.
Meg: I think it balances the salmon really well
Katie: The capers make a great, fun base for the salad. You don't even need additional dressing.
Meg: This you would not pair this with a bitter wine, but maybe with a sweeter wine, a Sauvignon Blanc.

Aunt Gina, I'm sure Uncle Dan would have loved this dinner. We'll make this together sometime. Actually, both Grey's Anatomy, and Private Practice are new episodes this week, and I will be finished finals by then. I smell a date night . . .

I Smell Summer . . .

And with summer inevitably comes bathing suit, shorts, and sundress season. Despite this anxiousness some of us begin to feel around this point in the year (if we haven't felt it already), we nevertheless cannot wait to plant ourselves outdoors.
My mom and I spend everyday smothering each other with love via text message. Just around this time of the year our texts turn to messages like this:
Mom: "How much longer until we can sit outside for breakfast, lunch and dinner?
Me: "I can't wait."
Every text following this typical exchange involves some meal we'd like to cook on the grill, or enjoy with a fresh brewed iced tea while sitting by the pool. Although we love to eat during the summer, we especially love to eat light and healthy. My mom and I like to get creative and inventive with our meals, and the sunny weather can make us all a little adventurous. For my mom, that sometimes means trying something totally new. Exhibit A - Last summer I successfully convinced my mom to try sushi for the first time. I don't know if it was the beach weather, too much sun, or her gin and tonic, but she liked it.

What's most important about our meals is that we try to make them light and healthy, usually by involving summery foods like fruit, veggies, fish, or even a lean piece of meat. I hate the combination of feeling uncomfortably warm from the sun, while feeling too heavy or too full.


I threw this salad together one night purely because I had leftovers toppings from a few other recipes, has become my mom and my salad of choice for this upcoming summer. Don't judge me, but there IS blue cheese in it. (go figure i know) I had a package of it left over from the first time I made the turkey burger sliders and since it's rather expensive to buy, I tried to put it to good use. There are also sun-dried tomatoes. I swear that after this salad I'll cool it on those little sun dried jewels for a little while.
I like to use baby spinach because I think it gives it some elegance. Throw in some pine nuts, sun dried tomatoes, and blue cheese. To make it even lighter I just used EVOO and a touch of garlic salt. Actually, if you don't want to use salt and pepper, buy a container of capers and toss a few in. That will give it a tasteful saltiness that won't be too overpowering, just smooth. This salad will make for a fantastic lunch or even a light dinner with an iced tea or lemonade. If you want to make it more of a heartier meal, I suggest grilling some chicken or shrimp in a balsamic marinate! Happy Summer!

Just Cheese'n

I am in the midst of an exciting, thrilling, captivatingly ecstatic love affair- with blue cheese. I can't seem to get enough of it! I don't remember much about the first time I tried it, but what I do remember is that blue cheese dressing was a quick and satisfying bribe to convince me to order a salad at a young age. Fox Hill, my family's country club, was always a favorite dinner spot amongst the Burke cousins from a very young age. Our parents would drag us for dinner at least once a week, and sometimes more often if during the summer months. The cousin clan ordered pretty much the same thing every time we went.
"Can I have . . . "
"--May I have."
"May I have a grilled cheese with bacon ( which Fox Hill actually put on their menu due to popular demand), and a hearts of lettuce salad with blue cheese dressing and NOTHING else." I liked the dressing, but what I loved was finding the big chunks of blue cheese amidst the creamy base.

Once I discovered how much I enjoyed oil and vinegar, I seemed to drift from the blue cheese dressing. It wasn't until recently, when I became infatuated with the Waldorf Chicken Salad at California Pizza Kitchen, (apples, grapes, pecans, and dried blue cheese) that I rekindled every ounce of my past blue cheese delight.

Flash forward to assignment number two for my Food Writing Class: Pick an ingredient. Research it, cook it, serve it, write about it. I chose to work with the sun dried tomato, which led me to find a recipe for sun-dried tomato feta turkey burger sliders. They definitely caused a thrilling stir in the Burke household as well as during our class's Monday taste testing session.

Then I got to thinking (nod to Carrie Bradshaw for the contemplation phrase) . . . what if I substituted blue cheese for feta cheese. For any of you who have visited or spent a lengthy period of time on any of the Greek islands like I have, you'll understand when I say that "I AM SO SICK OF FETA CHEESE."

This past Saturday, my brother Michael cut his night out early when he found out that I would be creating these sliders for an encore presentation. I bought two pounds of 99% fat free Ground Turkey from my local Wegmans, I mashed the ground turkey in a huge bowl and combined it with four tablespoons of EVOO, a cup of crumbled blue cheese, a cup of Julienne cut sun dried tomatoes packed in italian herbs, a cup of chopped baby spinach leaves, and some ground pepper.

Next, I heated a large skillet on the stove on high heat because I am annoyingly impatient and did not want to wait for it to heat on medium. Take a tablespoon and make cupped sliders. Once on the skillet, be sure sure to keep watch because each side of the slider takes about three to four minutes to prepare, which is really not long at all.


The recipe called for a Sun-Dried Tomato Mayonnaise, but I was dying to throw some pesto sauce into the mix so I created my own Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Mayo to smooth over the top of the bun. While the burgers finished cooking on the burner I created the spread by improvising and hoped for the best. For this I used:

Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Mayonnaise

1 Cup of Fat Free Hellemens Mayonnaise
3/4 cup of chopped sun-dried tomatoes
½ cup of any pesto sauce
a few pinches of minced garlic and basil
a pinch of ground pepper, minced onion, and sea salt

I found some great whole wheat slider buns and coated the top with the special pesto sauce before sliding the burgers into the center.

I think blue cheese itself has a slight whisky taste too it. So, initially, I tasted that whisky whiff that made you step back for a second like "woah thats strong." But, immediately following that you think, "wait, no, thats good!" It's almost as if you think you're overwhelmed with flavor, but instead, you're just captivated.

I loved the sauce, but I really wanted to see what my best taste tester- my brother Mike, thought about it.

Me: Now Mike, be honest. Tell me about the sauce.

Michael: oh! The mayo- it was so good! It tasted like that special sauce that you want on everything and you can’t put your finger on just what is in it. I think the sliders would be too plain without it! At football camp they had this awesome combination, and then we learned it was ketchup and mayo. But, this is so much better!

Then I asked my Mom and Dad for their reaction to these little burger gems.
My dad said, "“Slimy yet satisfying” – quoting the lion king. No, really. I thought they were very tasty. They were a touch tangy and a touch sweet. A nice texture and had a little bite but definitely not too much. They were a little chewy- but good chewy. They smelled incredibly savory while on that skillet."
My mom said, "They're like a healthy burger. I feel light, not stuffed. Don't be too afraid to throw some extra sauce on the burger. The blue cheese should have been in the original recipe, not feta."

WIth May 1st just days away, I am becoming more and more excited about trying these on the grill. I suggest throwing together any side salad that you're in the mood for, and pairing the meal with a light beer.



Blue Cheese Sun-Dried Tomato Turkey Burger Sliders

4 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 lb ground turkey
1 Cup crumbled blue cheese
1 Cup sun-dried tomatoes, jarred in olive oil
1/2 Cup fresh baby spinach leaves, chopped
makes about 12!