Friends Food Family | Quick and Easy Recipes

More Great Recipes for Your Next Cook-Out

 

We'll make this brief. Summer is almost here and cook-out season is about to begin. It's hard to find recipes that are recommended as "good to bring to a cook-out". We have over 300 recipes available for you to try which we have made for our friends and family. This is the second of two recipes lists which will give you some suggestion on dishes to bring or serve at your next gathering. If you don't like this selection, please check out our first Checklist for a Great Cook-Out.

Like we said - we'll make it brief...have a wonderful holiday, be safe and bring some great food to your next cook-out!

We'd love to hear what you think. Tell us which recipes you like. 

Let's start with drinks

Pineapple Sangria - Beat the heat with this refreshing drink.

Limon Mojito - A traditional mojito using limon rum and a homemade simple syrup.

Then we will serve appetizers

Asparagus and Procuitto - Asparagus wrapped in proscuitto and grilled...absolutely delicious!

Killer Guacamole - You have to start a cook-out with a spicy dip...and you can put it on burgers.

 

Gather around the table for dinner

Minnesota Baked Beans - Delicious - with 5 different types of beans, brown sugar, ketchup and bacon.

Red-Skinned Potato Salad - Scallions, red wine vinegar and just a touch of mayonnaise.

Charcoal Grilled Lemon Chicken - Made with chicken thighs, they are moist and lemony.

Quinoa, Mango and Black Bean Salad - Mango, Red Peppers, black beans and healthy, too!

Modern Succotash Salad - An alternative to baked beans, a cool bean salad.

Mini Yukon Potatoes with Dill - Boil your potatoes ahead of time and saute them with dill to finish.

Salmon with and Orange Ginger Glaze - Adapt this recipe to the grill, it will be delicious.

Quiet Man's Steak Tips - Read the comment at the bottom for the real story!

 

And last but not least...DESSERT...my favorite!

Chocolate-Stout Brownies - Fudgy and delicious. Try them with ice cream!

Pineapple Fruit Dip - Cut up some fresh fruit and dip away. It also includes the Orange Fruit Dip.

Chocolate Chip Cookie List - If you like chocolate chip cookies, you'll love these favorites.

Chocolate Root Beer Cupcakes - Who doesn't like the taste of root beer on a hot day?

Lemon Cake with Lemon Buttercream Frosting - Add fresh blueberries or strawberries. Perfect!

Chocolate Chunk Peanut Butter Swirl Fudge Cookies

I laugh about my choice of peanut butter in foods. Most times they occur with a dessert but it always seems to be enhanced with some form of chocolate. From Peanut Butter Blossoms and Chocolate Peanut Butterscotch Crispies to Giant Peanut Butter Cookies with Dark and Milk Chocolate Chips, peanut butter always seems to be in my chocolate. As I was searching the Friends Food Family blog, I did find a Grilled Peanut Butter Sandwich, so I do have something that isn't a dessert. This is hardly something to brag about. 

I can't take credit for finding these amazing chocolate chunk peanut butter swirl fudge cookies. Jeff's daughter, Kate, found the recipe on a Pinterest board from CD Kitchen. I wasn't paying attention to the recipe when Kate was asking me about freezing the peanut butter. I had to pick up the directions and read them. I had not heard of freezing peanut butter and swirling it into a batter. Neat concept!

Once Kate mixed the batter, she added the frozen peanut butter and swirled. The batter was delicious...chunky chocolate with peanut butter mixed in. After they were baked it was twice as incredible. Imagine eating hot gooey, fudgy cookies with warm melted peanut butter mixed in...say after me...TO DIE FOR!

We made these cookies a few weeks ago and I am making a double batch tomorrow for three good reasons -

1. They are the BEST chocolate and peanut butter cookies I have ever eaten.

2. It's Memorial Day Weekend and we are having a cook-out. I'm thinking of making some chocolate chunk peanut butter swirl fudge cookie ice cream sandwiches. (That was a mouthful.) Any suggestions for an ice cream flavor? I was thinking Browned Butter Ice Cream.

3. Lastly, my two sons are home for a week before they had back to Missouri and Philadelphia. They both love Peanut Butter Blossoms and I bet I can convince them that these are better...and I can pack a few bags for their travels.

Have a happy and safe holiday weekend. Enjoy the people you are with and serve them the BEST Chocolate Chunk Peanut Butter Swirl Fudge Cookies (they will ever eat)!

Ingredients:

1 cup of chunky style peanut butter
1 cup of butter. softened
1 cup of granulated sugar
3/4 cup of light brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup of flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt
2 cups of bittersweet chocolate chunks (we use Ghiradelli 60% Cacao bittersweet)
1 cup of cocoa powder

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the peanut butter in teaspoonful dollops on a small cookie sheet lined with alumnium foil. Place in freezer for 30 minutes, until firm.

In a stand or electric mixer, beat butter and sugars until well combined. Add eggs and vanilla, beating until well combined.

Place flour, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. Add to wet ingredients along with cocoa powder, and chocolate chunks, slowly mixing until just combined.

Drop dollops of frozen peanut butter into dough and turn mixer on for just a few turns of the mixer to get swirls of peanut butter through the dough.

Scoop dough by the tablespoonful onto prepared baking sheet, about 1 inch apart from each other. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until cooked through.

Let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

 

Lemon Cake with a Creamy Lemon Buttercream Frosting

Everybody loves cake...and our Lemon Cake with the Creamy Lemon Frosting was definitely the dessert everyone enjoyed.

Since January, we have been baking cakes on a regular basis. Jeff's daughter, Kate, has become the "Cake Queen" as she has been making birthday cakes for some of her co-workers. What started as a fun gesture has turned into a "mini" cake business. People will now request flavors for their birthday. We have made our Peanut Butter Cup Cake - chocolate cake, peanut butter frosting and bittersweet chocolate ganache, our Almond Joy Cake with coconut frosting, Visitandine with Strawberries and Sarabeth's Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.

When Jeff's birthday arrived at the end of April, we weren't sure what we would make. I am a chocoholic, so a jar of bittersweet chocolate ganache would have suited me fine. Jeff loves fruit. Yes, healthy...but not as much fun as chocolate, unless you dip the fruit in it. I had a yellow boxed cake mix and limited time so this is what I did.

Recipe for Lemon Cake -

1 box of yellow cake mix

Prepare according to directions, but add

2 tablespoons of lemon juice to the water to equal the directed amount

Rind of one lemon

...to mix and bake according to instructions.

Once I had the cake made, I was trying to figure out how I would frost it. I didn't want to add a glaze because I felt like we would have a coffee cake VS a birthday cake. I looked at a few different recipes and came up with this

Creamy Lemon Buttercream Frosting - which I dubbed Lemonade Frosting.

1 cup of butter, at room temperature

3-4 cups of confectioner's sugar

Rind of 2 lemons

Juice of 2 lemons - should yield about 1/2 cup.

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla

A pinch of salt

In a mixing bowl, cream butter with beaters, on medium high, until smooth and creamy 1-2 minutes. Add 1 cup of confectioner's sugar. Beat until well blended, add the vanilla, pinch of salt, and 1/4 cup of lemon juice. Beat again until blended. Add another cup of confectioner's sugar and beat until creamy 1-2 minutes. Add lemon rind and another cup of confectioner's sugar. Add lemon juice by the tablespoon to get to the smooth spreadable consistency you like. Taste the frosting and adjust to your taste. We like our lemon frosting a bit buttery VS sugary. We use about 3 1/2 cups of confectioner's sugar. When it tastes like lemonade...you are there!

Frost cooled cake.

We served Jeff's birthday cake with fresh strawberries...

1 pint of sliced strawberries with 1 tablespoon of sugar - Mix together.

Place in refrigerator for about one hour. Spoon over cake slices.

This truly became the new "favorite" cake at our house. The cake had a hint of lemon and the frosting was extra lemony which gave it a perfect balance. Sweet and sour, yet melt in your mouth. The photo you see was taken on the cake plate. This was a tiny corner of the cake which was left on the plate a day later. Feeling bad, I snapped the picture and ate the last piece. DEE-licious!

 

Friends Food Family | Quick and Easy Recipes | Delicious Lemon Desserts

Portobello Mushroom and Sausage Ragu with Creamy Polenta

We are big fans of the local newspaper. We have been having the Boston Globe delivered to our (most recent) home for the past 7 years...and prior to that in other residences. As much as I am a techno-geek with my iPad and iPhone, I do love opening the paper and reading the latest news with a big cup of french vanilla coffee. I especially love the Wednesday edition as it showcases recipes that can be used and re-used. Basically, it's a one dish, two different meal recipe.

This week was the Portobello and Sausage Ragu with Polenta. It was a nice comfort food recipe which had sausage as well as some of our favorite vegetables of mushrooms, tomatoes and spinach. We love these types of dishes especially when the results end up in extras for another meal. The second meal to this was a quesadilla recipe using the sausage mixture. That would have been our second meal but too many people enjoyed it for lunch the following day. 

As we were enjoying the sausage and portobello ragu, I was saying that I love recipes that use sausage removed from the casings. We had grilled sausages on the grill the week before and I pushed them around my plate during dinner. I love using sausage as a flavor enhancer to dishes. When mixed with tomatoes, mushrooms and spinach it is delicious.

The other part to this recipe, that made it so good, was the polenta. It wasn't the recipe from the back of the box. It was very creamy and worked perfectly with the dish. We have made polenta numerous times and haven't been able to get the right texture. I'm holding on to this polenta recipe for future dishes. The recipe was easy and the ingredients blended perfectly.

We may be heading into full spring season in New England, but this dish was perfect. Cool spring night, warm (extremely flavorful) ragu over creamy polenta...absolutely wonderful.

Ingredients for Ragu:

12 ounces of baby spinach, stemmed and rinsed
3 tablespoons of olive oil
6 sweet Italian pork sausages (about 1¼ pounds), removed from casings
1 large yellow onion, chopped into 1 inch pieces
1½ pounds of portobello mushroom caps, halved and thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon of chopped fresh rosemary
1 can (28 ounces) of whole tomatoes, break up with your hand before putting them in the pan
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
Salt and pepper, to taste

Preparation:
1. In a large skillet over medium heat, cook the spinach with just the water that clings to it, turning often, for 3 minutes; drain in a colander.
2. Wipe out the pan. Add 1 tablespoon of the oil and when it is hot, cook the sausage, breaking it up, for 10 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer to a plate.
3. In the same skillet, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Cook the onion, stirring often, for 6 minutes.
4, Add the mushrooms and cook for 8 minutes or until most of the water evaporates. Stir in the garlic, rosemary, tomatoes, tomato paste, salt, and pepper.
5. Lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
6. Return the sausage to the skillet and cook 8 minutes.

Ingredients for Polenta:
4½ cups of water
1½ teaspoons of kosher salt
1⅓ cups of quick-cooking polenta
½ cup of freshly grated Parmesan, plus a little extra for sprinkling

Preparation:
1. In a large, heavy saucepan, bring the water and salt to a boil. Gradually whisk in the polenta in a thin stream.
2. Lower the heat and simmer, stirring often, for 2 minutes or until the polenta is creamy.
3. Add Parmesan cheese.

Place polenta in a bowl and spoon the ragu on top. Add additional Parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!

Blueberry Oatmeal Quick Bread - It's Easy, too!

Home Economics, better known as Home Ec.

There were two sides to home economics back when I was in school. You either had cooking or sewing. Half the year you spent working on a "McCall's" pattern and trying to figure out how to sew it together. The other half of the year was spent in the kitchen creating, what our teacher called, Recipe of the Week. 

Near the end of the term, our teacher always let us bring our own ingredients to the class so that we could make our own recipe. I'm not sure why I remember this, but I brought in the ingredients for a blueberry oatmeal bread. I remember baking it and how good it was, and that was the last time I made it. 

Last week, I noticed we had some frozen blueberries and I have been wanting to make some quick breads. I decided to go in search of a blueberry oatmeal quick bread recipe. I checked out a few different sites and arrived at The Kitchn. They had a great recipe for Blueberry-Oat Quick Bread. I looked at the ingredients and it was perfect. It called for buttermilk and I had a bottle in the refrigerator and knew if I didn't use it, it would be part of my next food funeral. It had cinnamon and nutmeg which are perfect when oatmeal and blueberries are involved. Grab the bowls, it's time for a trip down memory lane.

Two cups of blueberries and four cups of buttermilk were waiting for me, so I decided to double the recipe. Two bowls and 10 minutes later, I had blueberry oatmeal bread in the oven. Half way through, the house smelled amazing. I couldn't wait to get them out of the oven.

While they were cooling, my son, Stephen, said, "How about a lemon icing on top?" I said, "How about an orange icing instead?" We agreed to an orange icing which we had together in minutes. Amazing what you can do with some confectioner's sugar and a fresh orange.

The bread was still warm when we sliced it and it was delicious, very moist and chock full of blueberries. As you can tell, even with the flour, my blueberries sank to the bottom. But, mine were frozen, fresh blueberries may do better. Stephen had two pieces and cut a third as he was heading out to his dad's house. I enjoyed mine with the remainder of my morning coffee and two slices went next door to Jeff's mom. 

Not a bad morning for Home Ec 101. If you are heading to the supermarket later today, grab some buttermilk, blueberries and aluminum foil bread pans. I'm sure you have the rest of the ingredients on hand. You can make some quick bread loaves to enjoy now, and then you can freeze the rest for later...that's what I'm doing. It's nice to end the week with some homemade treats as a breakfast or mid-afternoon snack. Kick back, enjoy the afternoon and cut yourself a piece of blueberry oatmeal quick bread.

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees - 

Wash and dry -
2 cups of blueberries (fresh or frozen)
Then toss with 1/2 cup of flour so they won't sink in the bread.

In a large bowl, mix together the following dry ingredients -
3 cups of all-purpose flour
1 cup of rolled oats, old fashioned, not quick cooking
4 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of kosher salt
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg

In a second medium bowl - mix together until well blended -
2 cups of sugar
4 eggs
2 cups of buttermilk
2 teaspoons of vanilla

Pour the sugar mixture into the dry ingredients and blend until
there is no dry flour present.
Add the blueberries (with the flour).
Mix until incorporated.

Place in 3 aluminum foil bread pans (or two large bread pans). I find the foil pans much easier for getting them out of the pan as well as freezing.

Bake for 50-60 minutes until golden and a toothpick comes out clean.

We frosted ours with -

1 cup of confectioner's sugar with 2+ tablespoons of orange juice and a 1/2 teaspoon of orange rind.