This new free ebook is about to turn your summer grilling and entertaining up to 11.
(Yep, that's a Spinal Tap reference, I'm dating myself.)
Introducing The Not Ketchup Burger Book. This book has 10 of the most delicious burger recipes you've ever tasted. My sweet and tangy Not Ketchup sauces make every burger something truly special.
The recipes:
Cherry Chipotle Breakfast Burger
Citrus Crab Cakes with Tangerine Dressing
Blueberry Bison Burger
Cherry Chipotle Southwestern Turkey Burger Bowl
Smoky Date Banh Mi Pork Burger
Spiced Fig Lamb Sliders
Spicy Salmon Burger
Smoky Date Veggie Burger
Classic Cherry Chipotle Burger
Tangerine Shrimp Cilantro Burger
I was lucky to have my friend Laura Bashar, who writes the gorgeous blog Family Spice and is co-author of Cooking Techniques with Olive Oil, do all the styling, photography and graphic design. I'm telling you, these are some of the most beautiful burger photos I've ever seen. (If you're looking for an ebook for your business, I highly, highly recommend her and would be happy to put you in touch.)
Need ideas for easy holiday entertaining? I hope you'll enjoy watching this video, in which I share two quick and simple recipes using Green Giant frozen vegetables.
Green Giant's recipe for Cheesy Broccoli Puffs With Sriracha Sauce is a great appetizer to bring to a holiday potluck or to pass around while your guests are sipping on wine or champagne. You can make the puffs with crumbled bacon as the recipe suggests, or leave the bacon out for vegetarians.
My Cheesy Broccoli Potato Soup is another tasty starter for a holiday party. I love giving my guests something warm to sip as they walk in the door, especially at this time of year.
The video also contains some great advice and easy entertaining tips from my friends (and one from my mother), all experienced hosts and hostesses.
Enjoy the video! (But ignore the weird expression on my face in YouTube's screen capture above. I don't really look like that, do I?)
Note: Green Giant compensated me to produce the Hangout video above and share my Cheesy Broccoli Potato Soup recipe. Definitely one of the most fun projects I've done lately.
Last year I was lucky to work with wellness coach Rachael Pontillo of Holistically Haute Wellness. In our sessions we talked about everything from nutrition to stress relief to feeding our families.
I wasn't a perfect student, but I realized yesterday that my work with Rachael had one lasting impact: When I open the refrigerator in the morning, my first thought is "How am I going to get my leafy greens in today?" Baby steps are better than no steps at all.
I'm pretty sure this swiss chard and bacon galette wouldn't be Rachael's first choice for a greens delivery system, but it sure was delicious. Greens with bacon are better than no greens at all.
I used a prepared refrigerated pie crust because I was short on time, but feel free to use your favorite homemade pie crust recipe.
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Swiss chard and bacon galette
by Erika Penzer Kerekes January-26-2013
This free-form pie is a great way to get your greens - it uses an entire bunch of chard, including the stems.
Ingredients
1/4 pound bacon, diced
1/2 large or 1 small onion, diced
1 large bunch Swiss chard, any color, leaves and stems, roughly chopped
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (substitute Monterey jack, gruyere or your favorite cheese)
1/4 cup grated parmesan or Romano cheese
1/8 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper
dough for 9-inch pie crust
1 egg, lightly beaten
Instructions
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 375 degrees.In a large skillet, cook the bacon until crisp. Remove the bacon from the pan and drain it on a plate lined with paper towel. Spill out all but 1 teaspoon of the bacon fat.Add the onion to the pan and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the chopped Swiss chard and cook until stems are tender and leaves are wilted, another 6-8 minutes. Pour the Swiss chard mixture into a large bowl and let cool 10 minutes. Add both cheeses, salt and pepper and mix well.Roll the pie crust dough out into a large circle - don't worry, it doesn't have to be pretty. Transfer the dough onto the parchment-lined baking sheet by rolling it around the rolling pin, picking it up, and then unrolling it on the parchment. Mound the Swiss chard mixture in the middle of the dough, leaving a generous border of two to three inches. Lift up the edges gently and fold them onto the filling, leaving most of the filling showing in the middle, pleating the border as you go. The edge of the galette (pie) should look very rustic and imperfect.Brush the exposed pie crust with the beaten egg and slip the galette into the oven. Bake about 45 minutes, until the filling is bubbling and the crust is golden. Cool on the pan. Serve at room temperature.
Details
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: 8-10 servings
Have you ever woken up in the morning with a powerful urge to make one very specific thing for breakfast?
That's how I ended up making these hash brown muffins.
I woke up last weekend and all I could think about were crispy hash browns mixed with eggs, gooey melted cheese and crisp bits of smoky bacon.
Why? No idea.
Most of the recipes I found for hash brown muffins call for frozen hash browns, which, as my friend Don Odiorne at the Idaho Potato Commission informed me, are par-cooked and therefore drier than grated fresh potatoes. I only had fresh potatoes in the house. Don advised me to grate them and then squeeze the moisture out by wringing them in a clean towel.
Sound advice, I'm sure. Which I ignored. Because it was Sunday morning and I was just plain lazy. Guess what? Didn't matter. They turned out just right.
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Hash brown muffins with bacon
by Erika Kerekes January-14-2013
Crispy shredded potatoes, gooey melted cheese and crispy bits of bacon, all bound together with beaten eggs - that's my idea of a good breakfast.
Ingredients
2 large large Russet potatoes, skin on, scrubbed and grated
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.In a large bowl, mix the potatoes, eggs, 1 cup of the cheese, bacon and green onions. Add salt and a healthy dose of ground pepper.Divide the potato mixture evenly among the 12 muffins cups. Bake 25 minutes, then remove the pan from the oven and divide the remaining 1/2 cup cheese over the tops of the muffins. Return the pan to the oven and bake another 10 minutes.Cool the hash brown muffins in the pan 5 minutes. To unmold, use an offset spatula or butter knife to loosen each muffin and gently lift it out of the pan.Serve hot or warm. Can be reheated in the oven or microwave (although the muffins will get a little soggy in the microwave - don't overdo it).
Details
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: 12 muffins
Mashed potatoes are one of my favorite things on earth.
I love mashed potatoes more than candy. I love mashed potatoes more than puppies. I love mashed potatoes more than my new leopard-print high heeled boots. I love mashed potatoes more than sex.
(Wait, I take that last one back.)
We rarely have leftover mashed potatoes in our house, but when we do I mix them with other delicious ingredients and fry them into pancakes. In this case, I mixed leftover mashed potatoes with caramelized onions, pumpkin puree and crumbled cooked bacon. They didn't last long.
For the record, these are not latkes. I took these pumpkin mashed potato pancakes to a recent meeting of Food Bloggers Los Angeles and my fellow food bloggers kept calling them latkes. Latkes start with shredded raw potatoes. These start with cooked mashed potatoes. Not latkes. But those are good too.
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Pumpkin mashed potato pancakes
by Erika Kerekes November-5-2012
Turn leftover mashed potatoes into a stellar side dish by adding caramelized onions, bacon and pumpkin puree.
Ingredients
4 Tablespoons grapeseed or canola oil, divided
1 medium onion, diced
2 cups leftover mashed potatoes
4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 cup pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
1 egg
1/8 teaspoon salt (if your mashed potatoes are heavily salted, you may not need this)
freshly ground black pepper
1 cup all-purpose flour
Instructions
Heat 1 Tablespoon oil in a large nonstick or cast iron skillet. Add the onion and saute about 10 minutes, until the onion is soft and golden brown.In a large bowl, mix together the cooked onions (don't bother washing the skillet), mashed potatoes, bacon, pumpkin puree, egg, salt and pepper. Stir until thoroughly combined. Put the flour into a shallow bowl or on a plate - you'll use this to coat the pancakes before you fry them. Heat another 1 Tablespoon of oil in the skillet. Using your hands, form patties about 4 inches around and 1/2-inch thick. Dip both sides of each patty in the flour - the mixture will be loose, so do this carefully. Lay the pancakes in the frying pan and cook until golden brown on each side. Drain on a plate or platter lined with paper towels. Repeat with remaining batter. You can keep the finished pancakes warm in a 250 degree oven while you cook the rest. Serve hot. These make an excellent side dish for Thanksgiving.
Details
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: about 12 4-inch pancakes
I know some of you may find this hard to believe, but I made my first spaghetti carbonara last night.
It would have been a classic carbonara, except that I forgot to buy pancetta, and even if I had bought it I might have had to throw it out, because our main refrigerator was on the blink for more than a week, and we ended up losing a lot of food.
So instead I used some precooked chopped bacon (the kind that comes in a bag at Costco) and the meat from a smoked turkey leg I picked up on sale last week and remembered to move to the downstairs refrigerator before it spoiled. I cut the smoked turkey meat into chunks and sauteed it with the bacon while the pasta boiled.
Guess what?
It was really, really good. So good that if it weren't completely outrageous I might go buy some pancetta today and make it the authentic way tonight.
Pretty sure I can't justify that though. I should wait at least another day, right? Must eat at least one vegetable tonight at dinner.
[Evening update: I should have made the carbonara. Instead I tried to be healthy and was shredding brussels sprouts on a mandoline and cut off a good chunk of my left thumb. If I'd stuck with carbonara, we'd be up a few pounds but my thumb would be intact. Can't win for losing.]
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Classic spaghetti carbonara with smoked turkey
by Erika Kerekes October-24-2012
Classic spaghetti carbonara will never be light, but subbing smoked turkey leg meat for some of the pork gets you part of the way there without sacrificing much in the way of flavor.
Ingredients
1 pound dry spaghetti
2 teaspoons sea salt
1 smoked turkey leg, meat removed from bones, cut into 1-inch chunks
4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 cloves garlic, chopped
4 eggs
2/3 cup grated parmesan, romano or Grana Padano cheese, plus more for serving
freshly grated black pepper
Instructions
Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil. Add the spaghetti and the salt and cook until al dente according to package instructions. Drain, reserving about 1/2 cup of the pasta water.While the pasta is cooking, heat a skillet and add the smoked turkey and cooked bacon. Saute the meat about 4 minutes, until the turkey chunks are browned and crisp on the outside. Add the garlic, stir, and turn off the heat until the pasta is ready. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and the grated cheese.When the pasta is al dente, turn the heat back on under the skillet and add the pasta and reserved pasta water to the skillet with the meat. Toss about 1 minute, until the pasta is coated with the juices (okay, the fat) from the pan. Turn the hot spaghetti mixture into the mixing bowl with the eggs and cheese. Using tongs or two large spoons, toss the pasta vigorously to coat it with the egg mixture. Don't skimp on this step - the hot pasta will cook the egg on contact, but if you let it sit too long in one position it will end up more like scrambled eggs and less like the silky result you want. Grind on a lot of black pepper, toss again, and serve immediately, passing more grated cheese at the table.
Details
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: 4 generous servings
Every summer I spend a few days in Vermont while my older son is at music camp. Sometimes I stay with friends, but this year I stayed at the very historic Rowell's Inn in the very tiny town of Simonsville.
Rowell's was a safe house on the Underground Railroad in the 19th century, and one of the third-floor guest rooms opens onto the attic where the owners hid runaway slaves. The inn was also featured on the Ideal Tour, a three-week trip around scenic New England, early in the 20th century. Hanging in each room are century-old pages from the inn's guest books, complete with the number of horses and servants guests brought with them.
Inns like Rowell's take you back in time. You can't mind a little dust - there's just no way to get a historic, relic-filled place like Rowell's really clean. But the overwhelming presence of the past makes up for the dust bunnies and cobwebs.
Sadly, Mike, the owner of Rowell's, told me he's just about ready to hang it up. The recession slowed Vermont tourism for a few years, and then Hurricane Irene took it out completely in 2011. I hope whoever ends up with Rowell's finds a way to keep its history alive.
Mike hails from San Francisco and turns out solid Cal-Mex food, an uncommon treat in the Green Mountains. He served me a breakfast quesadilla like this in the Rowell's Inn dining room, the same room where elegant ladies in bustles and big hats no doubt took their tea and crumpets a century ago.
About smoked salt: Buy some and put it on everything.
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Breakfast quesadilla with smoked salt guacamole
by Erika Kerekes October-8-2012
A thin omelet studded with cooked bacon and sandwiched between flour tortillas with melted cheese. The smoked salt adds an unusual note to simple guacamole.
Ingredients
1 ripe avocado
1 lime
a large pinch of smoked salt
3 eggs
4 slices bacon, chopped and cooked
4 medium flour tortillas (soft taco size)
1/2 cup grated cheddar or Monterey jack cheese, or a mixture
Instructions
Make the smoked salt guacamole: Cut the avocado in half, remove the pit, and scoop the flesh into a small bowl. Cut the lime in half and squeeze the juice from both halves over the avocado. Mash with the tines of a fork until you get the consistency you want. Season with the smoked salt. Set aside.Make the omelettes: Heat a 10-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Crack the eggs into a bowl and whip them with a fork. Spray the skillet with cooking spray and pour in half the beaten eggs, then sprinkle over half the bacon (you're making very thin omelets, which will go inside the quesadillas). When the eggs are set, flip the omelet with a spatula. Slide it onto a plate when it's cooked, then repeat with the other half of the beaten eggs and bacon. Keep the skillet on the heat.Assemble the quesadillas: Lay two tortillas on the counter or a cutting board. Sprinkle each with 1/8 cup grated cheese, then lay an omelet on top. Sprinkle each with the rest of the grated cheese, then put the remaining tortillas on top. Lift one quesadilla into the skillet and grill it until both sides are golden brown and the cheese inside is melted and gooey. Repeat with the second quesadilla. Cut the quesadillas into quarters and serve with the smoked salt guacamole.
Details
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: 2 quesadillas
