Creamy Goat Cheese, Pesto and Burst Tomato Dip

Perfect Pairing:  Crackers

Summer!  It truly is the most wonderful time of the year.  I am soaking up every minute because I am already panicking that it is almost July.  Wait!! I was going to do so much more in June!  

I am lucky enough to live at the lake this summer until we close on our new home at the end of July.  I’m not going to lie, it doesn’t suck living and working here.  I pinch myself daily looking at the beautiful views. 

A TGIF cruise is a favorite summer tradition.  We load up the pontoon with friends, food and drinks.  We set sail (motor) into the sunset with some chill music and enjoy the appetizer buffet in front of us.  Heavenly.

This appetizer is perfect for a TGIF cruise or any appetizer night.  A layer of whipped goat cheese is topped with prepared pesto and finished with burst cherry tomatoes.  Drag a cracker through all of it and you have an incredibly flavorful summer app. 

One year ago on Perfecting the Pairing: Spaghetti Squash Frittata

Two years ago on Perfecting the Pairing:  Spring Roll Salad

Three years ago on Perfecting the Pairing: Raisin Bran Muffins (these are ALWAYS in the fridge in the summer)

Four years ago on Perfecting the Pairing: Corn and Avocado Salsa

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Roasted Caprese Salad

Perfect Pairing:  Off-season tomatoes

While I love cold-weather comfort food sometimes I crave something fresh that reminds me of warmer days. Especially with the negative temperatures and dreary, dirty snow outside.

The perfect summer dish is a caprese salad made with garden-grown tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and sweet basil.  Now we are stuck with hothouse tomatoes that barely resemble the summer varieties that you could eat like an apple.   Roasting mediocre tomatoes brings out their natural sweetness and concentrates all of the good tomato flavor. 

I used a variety of grape and Campari tomatoes, but use whatever you have on hand or what is on sale.  

After roasting they are topped with shards of fresh mozzarella, julienned basil, and a drizzle of good balsamic vinegar.  

Park yourself under a heat lamp, pour a glass of sauvignon blanc, turn on some Bob Marley and it is practically summer.

One year ago on Perfecting the Pairing: Limoncello Cheesecake Squares

Two years ago on Perfecting the Pairing: Arugula and Parmesan Stuffed Potatoes

Three years ago on Perfecting the Pairing: Cucumber Sandwiches

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Sausage Caprese Bites

Perfect Pairing:  Marinated mini bocconcini

I am a big fan of pre cooked chicken sausage.  I use them all the time. 

Sometimes just as a quick appetizer.

Or as the protein in a healthy soup.

They come in a ton of flavors like apple and cheddar, cognac and cranberry, or you can keep it simple with spicy or Italian flavored.  They are all pretty healthy.  I like to get the natural varieties.  I am using them here in a quick appetizer.  Even though they are fully cooked I sauté them a bit to give them some caramelization.  Spell-check is telling me that caramelization is not a word.  I do not agree with this.

I drizzled some pesto on top, but you could certainly skip that step.  You could also add a little basil leaf to the skewer.  I used marinated mini bocconcini which were perfect in this recipe.  No need to slice up fresh mozzarella, and they just look really cute.  They are marinated in a seasoned olive oil.  I removed some of the oil by resting them on paper towels before threading them on the toothpicks.

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Pesto Turkey Burgers with Goat Cheese

Perfect Pairing:  Store bought pesto

Last year I talked about my garden woes.  This year was not exactly better, different maybe.  I continued to be my overly optimistic self and planted window boxes and herbs.  I bought most of the goods at Gethsemane Nursery again.  That place is incredible. 

I tried some new things in the window box this year.  The shade loving ferns and the mini hosta worked well.  Er, maybe not WELL.  They ended up being a little confused with one side growing twice as fast as the other side, and doing the complete opposite thing from the other window box.  Whatever, there was green stuff growing so I had to be ok with that.  

I tried impatiens AGAIN and they all died AGAIN.  I actually replanted them twice.  One batch died within two days.  That was a new record.  Then I found out that there is a rampant impatiens disease in Chicago.  I am not even kidding, google it. 

I came up with a new method for my herbs.  Instead of having them on my front patio (where there was very little sun) I moved them to the other side of my garage after getting the OK from my nice neighbor to use his plot of land.  Everything was going along swimmingly until I came home one day and found one of the pots missing and part of my basil dug up from the other pot.  I fumed on Facebook for a moment, and then went about my day.  Long story short, another neighbor thought they were being thrown out and rescued them.  Um, that probably does not say much about the state of my herbs, huh?  I got them back and continued giving them TLC.  They still died.  I am going to get a complex over this.

I think I made about two dishes from my herbs before they all went kaput.  These turkey burgers did not make the cut.  There was no chance I was getting an entire batch of pesto out of my sad basil plant…. Not from the first or the second planting (no one can say I didn’t give it a valiant effort).  Store bought pesto was perfect in this recipe.  I mixed some in with the ground turkey and added a dollop on top instead of the traditional condiments.  Add a healthy dose of goat cheese and you have a pretty fantastic burger. 

One year ago on Perfecting the Pairing - Strawberry Pie

Two years ago on Perfecting the Pairing - Chicken Yakitori

Click "Read more" for the recipe....

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Quinoa Produce Salad

Perfect Pairing:  Summer meal

I don’t think you can have too many good quinoa salad recipes.  This Quinoa Produce Salad is perfect for summer. 

It finally feels like summer around here!  I had a wonderful weekend celebrating Father's Day and all things summer.  My dad came home from his week of fishing in Manada (more appropriate than Canada).  Apparently he caught so many fish his hands hurt from reeling and cleaning the fish.  We did all of our favorite warm-weather activities like boating, swimming (more like bobbing on floats), sunset cruises, grilling, and doing everything we can outside.  It was a perfect weekend.

Quinoa Produce Salad is filled with fresh ingredients like multi-colored grape tomatoes, corn, green onions, and basil.  It is simply dressed with a little olive oil, lemon juice, and salt and pepper.

You wouldn’t think that something so simple could be so tasty.  I love the slight sweetness from the corn and nuttiness of the quinoa.  You could easily adapt this recipe by adding other favorite produce like roasted asparagus, edamame, roasted peppers, or other fresh herbs like tarragon or thyme.

This healthy and delicious salad is going to be a regular on my summer menu!

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Creamy Spaghetti Squash with Fresh Tomato Sauce

Perfect Pairing:  Pasta Craving… on a diet

Sometimes diet food just tastes so…. diet-y.  I remember years ago a friend of mine was on the Atkins Diet, and was raving about the dessert she had just made.  I think it was a combination of ricotta cheese, artificial sweetener, and cocoa powder.  I have to say, I was not impressed.   It tasted like ricotta cheese, artificial sweetener, and cocoa powder.  I love my friend, but I think her taste buds were a bit warped by that point.

Trust me when I say that this meal does not taste diet-y at all!  It is truly scrumptious.  What puts it over the top is that it is so good for you, and low in fat and calories.  One serving (1/3 of the recipe, which is a big serving) is under 225 calories and 8 grams of fat, and also includes lots of fiber. 

This is the perfect dish for a pasta or Italian food craving when you are watching the waistline.  Another great substitute is this pizza recipe.  It is hard to find many Italian meals with those kinds of stats.

If you have never used spaghetti squash before it might be a little intimidating, but it really is simple to prepare.  The hardest part is cutting it open.  If you are really struggling with cutting it you can poke it a few times, microwave for a couple of minutes, and then try cutting it.  You can roast, boil, or steam spaghetti squash.  I always choose to steam it in the microwave in a shallow dish with a little water.  When it is cooked through it is super simple (and oddly satisfying) to shred with a fork.  It is really hot when it comes out of the microwave so I usually hold on to it with a clean towel and shred it into a bowl. 

 

 

To the squash I added freshly grated parmesan cheese and a dollop of reduced fat spreadable garlic and herb cheese (like Boursin, Rondele, or Aloutte).  If you want to cut the stats on this meal even further you can leave out the cheese, but I think it really adds a lot of flavor and texture to the squash without adding too much fat and calories. 

 

 

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Basil Slice and Bake Crackers

Perfect Pairing:  www.WTSO.com

I don’t know about you, but all of the Cyber Monday/Week commercials/e-mails/banner ads last week made me feel like a chump for not taking advantage of the deals.   Ack!  YES!  I DO want to save gobs of money and take advantage of free shipping! 

It is just barely December and I have major guilt about not having my Christmas shopping done.  Amazon.com, stop pressuring me.  

Early December also means full swing party planning mode.  I have a few get-togethers scheduled this month and I have a running list of possible appetizers to make.  These Basil Slice and Bake Crackers are perfect for holiday parties.  They can be made way in advance and frozen until party day.  Slice and bake what you need right before the party.  They smell crazy good while they are baking.

These savory homemade crackers are packed with good stuff like parmesan cheese, pesto, fresh basil, and nuts. 

After making the dough you divide it in half and roll each half in plastic wrap and freeze until you are ready to bake the crackers.

 Basil Slice and Bake Crackers are the perfect pairing for a glass of wine!  

A couple of years ago I heard about www.WTSO.com, a discount wine website.  They only sell one wine at a time at a discount of 30% - 70%.  They always offer free shipping when you buy the minimum amount, which is usually about four bottles. 

My dad is a tough guy to shop for, but my brothers and I have had great success with WTSO gift certificates for his birthday and Father’s Day.  He enjoys looking at the different deals and has ordered some amazing wines.  I happen to know a few of the orders went through on his smart phone while out on the combine. 

WTSO.com gift certificates could be the perfect gift or stocking stuffer for your loved ones this holiday season.  Fortunately, there is no need to worry about cyber Monday deals, they are always discounted!

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Summer Corn Salad

Perfect Pairing: Slotted spoon

Oh friends, I have a treat for you. 

I am having a hard time coming up with the words to tell you how delicious this salad is. 

I am the daughter of a farmer and during late summer we have many meals that consist of just sweet corn.  It does not get much better than good sweet corn right out of the field. 

It is hard to improve on straight up sweet corn, butter, salt, and pepper, but I think this salad is up to the task.  Adding crispy bacon, grape tomatoes, basil, and avocado definitely does not hurt!

The Perfect Pairing for this salad is a slotted spoon.  There is nothing fancy about a slotted spoon but it is a great tool for this recipe.  You will need to remove the bacon from the grease to drain, and the easiest way to do that is with a slotted spoon.  Same thing with the onions that have been cooked in the bacon grease.  Yep, they are cooked in the bacon grease.  They don’t suck.

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Roasted Pepper and Tomato Salad

Perfect Pairing:  Fresh mozzarella pearls

Recently I wanted to make a salad for a get together that was different than your typical green salad.  I settled on a base of roasted peppers, tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese.  It turned out great!  It was fresh and light but still very satisfying.

I know you can buy jarred peppers that are already roasted and peeled but I think they have a bitter taste so I like to roast my own.  I rest the peppers on a cookie sheet lined with foil and place the cookie sheet under the broiler.  Be sure to watch them closely!  I turn the peppers until all sides are blackened.  Remove the peppers from the oven and place in a bowl.  Cover the bowl with a plate so that the peppers can steam.  Once they have cooled you can easily peel off the blackened skin and remove the stem and seeds.

The Perfect Pairing for this salad is fresh mozzarella pearls.  The fresh mozzarella pearls are great because they are the perfect size for the salad.  You can definitely use regular fresh mozzarella and cut it to size, but why not go the easy route?

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Jalapeno Basil Cornbread

Perfect Pairing:  Chicken Chili

Everyone loves cornbread!  It's hard to go wrong.  Even the boxed versions are pretty decent!  If you have some extra time, and are not feeling like the boxed variety is going to cut it, you may enjoy this homemade version.  This recipe has a slightly sweet flavor but it also has some great ingredients like buttermilk (to keep it really moist), fresh basil, frozen corn, and jalapeno peppers.  This version is a bit denser than the standard variety but is really tasty.

I have made a few different versions of jalapeno cornbread but this is the first time I have added basil.  I really liked the flavor combination and will definitely be doing that again.  I love having a basil plant on my patio where I can snip fresh basil for recipes.  Unfortunately, I don’t get a lot of sun on my patio and my plants do not exactly thrive.  I am going to go ahead and blame it on the lack of sun.  At this point in the season people are usually making pesto because their basil plants are full and it would take a hundred caprese salads to use up all of the leaves.  Me, not so much.  This recipe pretty much depleted my basil.  Look at this sad little guy….

The Perfect Pairing for this cornbread is the Chicken Chili recipe I posted here.  The slightly sweet flavor of the cornbread was a great compliment to the spicy soup. 

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Parmesan Basil Orzo

Perfect Pairing:  Summer Tomato Sauce and Grilled Fish

I am always looking for new side dish recipes.  This one is great because it is easy to throw together and only uses a few ingredients but it is still full of flavor.  I like to boil the orzo in chicken broth because I think it adds some depth of flavor.

The Perfect Pairing for this recipe is to serve it alongside the Summer Tomato Sauce that was featured a few days ago and some lightly grilled fish.  This time I used tilapia, seasoned it with salt and pepper and threw it on the grill.  It does not take very long to cook so watch it closely.  I have also used halibut which is incredibly tasty but also incredibly pricey compared to tilapia.  If I could catch halibut in the Chicago River, I would learn to fish.  I love that stuff.

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Tomato Pie

Perfect Pairing:  Pressed pie crust

How can it be September 6^th?  Where did the summer go?  I had a lot of summer activities I still wanted to accomplish.  It is so funny how everyone’s attitudes switch after Labor Day.  Even the weather automatically has a crisp feel to it and I swear I saw the leaves change just a little bit overnight.  The clothes are warmer and everyone is in the mood to watch football, even if they don’t usually care about football.

This tomato pie is great recipe for the transition between seasons.  It has the summer flavors of tomatoes and basil but also feels like autumn comfort food.  I have made this recipe twice and both times it got rave reviews.  It is a savory pie filled with tomato, basil, onions and cheese.  I originally made it as an appetizer but decided it would be great for a breakfast or brunch item.   It is even better the day after you make it.  This recipe is really versatile and can be adapted to use what you have on hand.  You can substitute caramelized onions for the raw red onions and use any kind of cheese that you like.  I have used a combination of mozzarella and cheddar and gruyere and cheddar.  I like the look of using two different colors of cheese.

 

The Perfect Pairing for this recipe is actually a recipe for a pie crust.  I am sure you could use a store-bought crust, but why would you do that when you can make one so easily and inexpensively?  Plus, it tastes so much better than the store-bought version.  My mom and I use this recipe all the time for any kind of pie and it always comes out perfectly.  You do it all in the pie plate so there is no rolling pin or mess involved!  Here is how it happens.

Measure your flour, sugar and salt into a pie plate and mix with a fork.

Make an emulsion of vegetable oil and milk in a separate dish using a fork or whisk to combine.

Pour the liquid over the dry ingredients and stir it up with the fork until there are no dry areas.

Press out the crust to even thickness around the plate and crimp the edges.

Pre-bake or use raw.   You will love this recipe for pie crust!

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Summer Tomato Sauce

Perfect Pairing:  Anything You Want – Jason Mraz (click to listen)

I love summer.  I love the weather, the produce, the sounds, the events, the entire attitude of summer.  Living in Chicago means you take full advantage of those few precious months.  That is why there are always multiple street fests going on every weekend. 

This recipe just tastes like summer to me.  It is so simple to make but full of flavors like sweet tomatoes, fresh basil and roasted garlic.  It is the perfect topping for grilled fish or chicken or even on some crusty bread.  Anything you want!  Which leads me into my Perfect Pairing…..

The Perfect Pairing for this recipe is the song, Anything You Want by Jason Mraz.  If this sauce tastes like summer, this song sounds like summer.  I have been a Jason Mraz fan for a long time.  He is so talented and his music is always fun.  He is a great performer so I try to go to his concerts whenever he is in town.  The last concert was out of this world.  He performed at Northerly Island on a gorgeous night in August.  Northerly Island is an awesome venue in Chicago with great views of the skyline.  The picture below is from that concert.  How gorgeous??

If you know me, you know I am a huge reggae fan.  It makes perfect sense since I grew up on a farm in the Midwest, right?   Anyway, at the concert Jason (we’re on a first name basis) sang this song.  At the time I had never heard it and was immediately obsessed since it had that reggae feel.  I looked it up as soon as I got home but it was nowhere to be found!!   Apparently it was unreleased.  It was my good fortune that he made a live album from that concert I attended and now I can listen to it whenever I want.  You might also like his version of Lionel Richie’s,  All Night Long that is on the same album.  Lots of fun.

I’m telling you, make the sauce, throw it on top of anything you want, listen to the song and you will feel the warm breezes of summer!  They sure are fleeting.

Summer Tomato Sauce

Lindsay at Perfecting the Pairing

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

·         2 Tb. Olive oil

·         4 to 6 garlic cloves, smashed

·         2 pints of grape tomatoes, halved

·         Salt and pepper to taste

·         Fresh basil, torn

Directions:

Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Add the smashed garlic cloves and cook in the oil until soft and lightly browned.  Add the sliced tomatoes and cook over medium-low heat until the tomatoes have broken down and reached a sauce consistency.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Remove from heat and stir in the fresh basil.  Serve over grilled fish, chicken or crostini.

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Tomato Salad with Crunchy Crushed Croutons

Perfect Pairing: Plastic containers in various sizes

What says summer picnic more than tomatoes and basil?  This salad recipe will be the final post on recipes from my Ravinia picnic.  I found this recipe on the great Smitten Kitchen blog and adapted it just a bit.  It is a combination of tomatoes, garlicky croutons, fresh basil and tart vinegar.  Yummy. 

The salad is really simple but makes the most of good ingredients.  A new Mariano’s grocery store just opened up by me and I might be a little obsessed.  They have a great produce and bread section which I took full advantage of for this recipe.  I used multi-colored grape tomatoes which added a lot of fun color.  For the bread I used an Irish onion potato loaf and threw the leftover bread in the freezer.

I am pretty sure this Perfect Pairing of plastic containers is not going to knock your socks off because we probably all have that cabinet full of unruly containers with missing lids.  What makes them the Perfect Pairing for this recipe is because I brought this salad to a picnic and the containers kept everything in its place and it was fresh and crunchy for the meal.  I packed up my picnic about 10 hours before we were going to eat so I wanted to keep the dressing off of the tomatoes and croutons and also not have it leak on the rest of the picnic items.  I put the sliced tomatoes in a medium sized container and the dressing in a small, ½ cup sized container and nestled that in with the tomatoes.  If a little dressing leaked out, no big deal, at least it was not all over everything else.  I put the croutons in a flat plastic container and tossed that in with the dry goods in the picnic basket.  I kept the basil leaves whole in a plastic bag and tore them up right before we ate to keep them from browning.  At the picnic I shook up the dressing, tossed it over the tomatoes and topped the whole thing with the crunchy croutons and torn basil.  An al fresco prep station!

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