Oh my. When I die and go to Heaven, shut-up you in the back, this is going to be served everyday.

Back in the days before I had to go gluten and dairy free this was one of my most favorite summer meals. I think out of all the foods I have had to give up, it is the only dish I truly miss.
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Nataly emailed me last week asking if I had any no cook recipes in my repertoire and could I pretty please share them.

My first thought was, “Well, I can pour a mean bowl of cereal!” Because who among us doesn’t try to convince our children that it was THEIR idea to have a bowl of cereal for dinner every now and then.

But I got thinking about summer schedules and the heat and how most of us want to be out enjoying the weather, not tied to our hot stoves once we get home from work. So I thought I would offer up some tips to making summer cooking easier.
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This  past week at BlogHer I had the pleasure of meeting Stephanie who writes the blog, A Year of Crockpotting.  January of this year she made a resolution for the new year to use her crockpot every day for the entire year.  She recently was a guest on the Rachel Ray show talking about her blog.

One of my favorite things about her blog is that she does not hold herself out as a cooking expert. She is just a person who decided to stretch her cooking wings this year. To force herself to cook better meals for her family. (She also has a celiac daughter, so her recipes are gluten free. Don’t let that scare you, you can substitute in your glutinous products should you desire.) And since she is experimenting daily, she also writes about her failures, meals that did not taste good. Things that she will not make again…. Swiss Chard soup anyone?

Today she had a Blueberry Buckle recipe based on one of Oprah’s favorite things. Stephanie was able to adapt the recipe for crockpot cooking and bake individual sized ramekins inside her crockpot.

One of  her recent recipes, Crockpot Peach Compote with Brandy, reminded me of Delicious Peach Cobbler that I make sometimes.  Yes, Delicious is part of the name.  I love to make this for dessert, especially now that we are dealing with overlapping baseball and football seasons. We eat dinner really early, but then the kids are ready to eat something again before bed. This peach cobbler on top of some vanilla ice cream is a nice treat.

You will need:

1/3 cup buttermilk baking mix (I use a GF baking mix)
2/3 cup dry quick oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
4 cups sliced peaches (fresh is best, but you can use canned just not the kind in the syrup)
1/2 cup water

Grease your slow cooker. Really well. And then when you think you have it greased well enough, grease it some more.

Mix together all the dry ingredients, dump in crockpot.
Stir in the peaches and water, mix with the dry ingredients.
Cook on low for at least 5 hours.
Serve over vanilla ice cream.

So, go on over and check out Stephanie’s blog. I promise there is a recipe there for everyone.

What was it I said earlier this week about the best chicken marinade? This is the steak version.

For a long time I was very into using Montreal Seasoning.  I used it on every kind of steak-like meat that I made.  I think my family rejoiced when I decided to move on to something new.

You will need:

1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
juice of one lemon
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons Dijon-style prepared mustard
1 onion, sliced *
2 cloves garlic, minced *

*I was in a rush today and so I used dried minced onion and garlic powder. It came out just as delicious.

Dump all the ingredients into a large ziploc bag. Squeeze the bag to mix the ingredients thoroughly.

I did use fresh squeezed lemons though, my children wouldn’t have it any other way.

Put the steak into the bag with the marinade mixture. Put it in the fridge and allow to marinate all day. The acidic ingredients tenderize the meat. The longer you allow it to set, the more tender it will become.

Put on a hot grill and cook about 5 minutes on each side.

I served it with some crusty rolls and a side salad.  The photo is blurry because I had to take it quick before someone stole the food  right off of my plate.

I love fajitas.  I have a friend that I go shopping with every year for Christmas presents and we always go out for fajitas.

This recipe is quite possibly THE best chicken marinade, EVER. In the history of marinades. I have to force myself to only make it occasionally, so that I don’t get sick of it. That is how good it is. It is also a versatile marinade. I use it for making chicken fajitas. For grilling chicken and putting it on a salad. Or for grilling and making it into a sandwich on some nice crusty bread.

Tonight when I was putting away the leftover food I asked my son to wrap up the rest of the chicken and he said, “Can’t I just eat it?” So you know it must be good, because Lord knows teenage boys just don’t eat anything. Oh wait, nevermind. It is delicious though. I promise.

These are the cast of characters, minus the soy sauce which I inexplicably forgot to put in the photo.

I usually double this recipe and use it for a huge family pack of chicken breasts. You can do that and then freeze half of the chicken with the marinade in a ziploc bag. Or you can use the recipe as is and make a “normal” sized package.

I fillet my chicken breasts in half to make them less thick so that they will cook evenly on the grill.  Really you should do this too so that your chicken doesn’t get all burnt on the outside.

You need:

2/3 cup water
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 1/2 T Worstershire sauce
1 cup honey
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp garlic powder

crushed red pepper, optional and to taste

Mix in a bowl or ziploc bag.  Add the chicken.  Let marinate overnight.

The next day slice up an onion and a couple of peppers.  Saute them until they are tender.

There is my chicken marinating in my IKEA bowl that I love.

My son took over doing the peppers and onions.  Maybe because he was tired if me taking photos already and wanted to just eat dinner.

After the chicken is cooked, I slice it into strips.  Served with sour cream, salsa, grated mexican cheese, and whatever other fixin’s strike your fancy.  Don’t you love my paper plates?  We are so  class-ay.   Honestly, without a working kitchen I can’t tolerate all the dishes for every single meal.  Al Gore would forgive me, I know he would.

Heat your tortillas and wrap ‘em up.

Insert a photo of wild children eating their fajitas.  This recipe received 18 enthusiastic thumbs up.

Here I am cooking on my grill, roughing it like a regular frontier woman. My life is soooo HARD.

No really, it is so HARD.

Who doesn’t love corn-on-the-cob?

My favorite thing to do with corn on the cob is to grill it.

Step One: Peel off the first few layers of husk.

Step Two: Soak the corn on the cob in water for at least 15 minutes while you warm up the grill

Step Three: After soaking gently pull back the layers of the husk and remove the corn silk as much as possible.

Step Four: Brush a little oil on the corn, then wrap the husk back around the corn, and wrap the entire corn on the cob in tin foil

Step Five: Put the corn on the grill over medium heat. Turn every couple minutes. Then move the corn to a more indirect source of heat like the upper rack of the grill.

Step Six: After about 15 minutes remove the corn from the heat.

Step Seven: Keep the corn wrapped in the tin foil to keep it warm on your buffet table.

Now, you can melt some butter and serve the corn with that. But how about making a spicy butter to give the corn on the cob an extra little zip? Your guests will love it.

In a small sauce pan mix together (enough for about 10-12 ears):

1 cup butter
2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or to taste)
1/4 tsp garlic powder to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Heat long enough for butter to melt. Put a pastry brush out with small saucepan so your guests can brush the spicy butter onto their corn.

Once you have your corn cooked this way, you will be hard pressed to go back to regular plain, boiled corn.

(I will add photos later. I am still cooking my food for this weekend, but wanted to get the recipes up since I have had so many requests for the Fourth of July recipes. I am also cooking entirely on my outdoor grill. Have I mentioned here that we are in the middle of a kitchen remodel? We are at the point right now where we have no appliances. Woooo hooooo. Or something like that.)

Along with the potato salad it is a law that you must have pasta salad. Yes, really. I generally make more than one but this one is an old favorite stand-by that everyone loves.

It conforms to the trifecta of a good recipe:

1) Easy.
2) Can be made in advance, actually it is preferable to make it the day before so that the flavors can meld together.
3) Loved by everyone.

1 (16 ounce) package of pasta, I like to use the tri-color ones

can black olives, chopped
1 small yellow onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
16 ounces mozzarella cheese, cubed*
cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 pound Genoa salami, cut into bite sized pieces
1/4 pound pepperoni, pizza style, cut into bite sized pieces

3/4 cup olive oil**
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar**
ground black pepper to taste**

(fresh mozzarella is delicious, but you can use the regular kind too)

(*you can substitute your favorite Italian dressing instead. Buy an extra bottle to leave on the buffet table for people who want to add a little more zing to their pasta salad.)

Cook the pasta.

Drain the pasta and run under cool water.

Toss all the ingredients together in a bowl.

Refrigerate until your guests arrive.

Summer entertaining is my favorite. Probably because it is easy to prepare most of the dishes before hand so that you can relax and enjoy your company. Also, because men always seem to want to work the grill so if you plan your food wisely the menfolk will do the actual cooking on the day of the party. Men always look better standing at the grill in 100 degree weather, holding their bottles of beer. I just look hot and sweaty and borderline alcoholic.

This week I thought I would share some recipes for those of you entertaining this weekend. Everything can be made in advance.

First up today, the ubiquitous potato salad. It is a summer barbeque staple. Honestly, I think it is written in the Constitution that you must serve this at any and all Fourth of July functions, or else be deported.

My husband is currently eating his second helping of it and said, “You have to give me this recipe!” I guess in case I meet an untimely death he wants to ensure that he can still eat this potato salad.
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