Wine of the Week

I picked this up last week when I found it on sale at the wine store.

This was a great, economic, wine that will work well with seafood or lighter appetizers. It would also be great just to sip on in the summer. Citrus was predominate in this wine, and it had a great crispness to it. It was just slightly on the dry side, but would undoubtedly appeal to many palates. All in all, a great wine for the money!

Herb and Shallot Grilled Turkey Burgers

This burger was simply a combination of things I had on hand. It turned out to be very flavorful and was overall just a great turkey burger. The combination of the different herbs worked very well together and it was very easy to make... definitely a good one to give to your husband to grill! In addition, I added sharp cheddar to the top of the burgers for added flavor and because I just like cheese! Overall, this is a great weeknight burger!
Ingredients
1 lb. ground turkey breast
4-6 large leaves of fresh sage
1/2 - 1 tsp. dried or fresh rosemary
1/2 - 1 tsp. Herbs de Provence
1/2 large shallot, finely minced
1 -2 cloves garlic, minced
4 slices sharp cheddar (optional)
salt
pepper
Directions
Mix all ingredients (except cheese) together in a large bowl until thoroughly combined. Form into patties, and grill until completely cooked in the center, about 20 minutes. Add cheese and cook until melted and serve on fresh hamburger buns.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumb Bars

At the farmer's market, I picked up some great looking Rhubarb to try for the first time. Yup, you heard me. I've never had rhubarb until last weekend! But I have always been really curious to try it, so I thought what better time than now! I've seen a lot of pie recipes, but I really wanted to make something that I could easily pass out at work. So I found these bars on the Land O'Lakes website and it looked like the perfect recipe!!!

These were SO good. I was very pleasantly surprised with how it tasted combined with the strawberries. I tried rhubarb raw at first, and was very much hoping it would taste much different when it was cooked, and thankfully it did!!! Additionally, the crumb crust and topping is fantastic. These went like hot-cakes at my office, and even people who said that the "didn't like rhubarb" were totally impressed with them. This was a great, easy dessert to make with rhubarb.

Ingredients
Source: Land O'Lakes

Filling

1 1/2		cups fresh or frozen unsweetened rhubarb, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 1/2		cups sliced fresh strawberries
1		tablespoon lemon juice
1/2		cup sugar
2		tablespoons cornstarch

Crust

1 1/2		cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2		cups uncooked quick-cooking oats
1		cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4		cup LAND O LAKES® Butter, softened
1/2		teaspoon baking soda
1/4		teaspoon salt

Drizzle

3/4		cup powdered sugar
1 to 2		tablespoons milk

Directions
Combine rhubarb, strawberries and lemon juice in 2-quart saucepan. Cover; cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until fruit is tender (8 to 12 minutes).

Combine 1/2 cup sugar and cornstarch in small bowl. Stir into fruit mixture. Continue cooking, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil (about 1 minute). Continue boiling until thickened (1 minute). Remove from heat. Set aside.

Heat oven to 350°F. Combine all crust ingredients in large bowl. Beat at low speed, scraping bowl often, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Reserve 1 1/2 cups crumb mixture. Press remaining crumb mixture onto bottom of greased 13x9-inch baking pan. Spread filling over crust. Sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely.

Combine all drizzle ingredients in small bowl. Drizzle over cooled bars. Cut into bars.

The Farmer's Market

My best friend and I decided to take a trip to the farmer's market over the weekend. I can't even begin to tell you how much fun I had! It was the first time I've ever been, and now I'm totally hooked! You really can't beat the freshness of the produce or the prices! This is definitely going to be a once a week thing for me now!

Here are the things I got:

Rhubarb
Fresh local eggs
Asparagus
A sage plant
red potatoes
red onions
strawberries
leeks
Green onions
Whole nutmeg
3 tubs of other spices
Tomatoes

I got all of this for less than $30 and it's local and fresh!!! So if you have a local farmer's market, definitely check it out! I wish I started going to this years ago!!!

And you can definitely look forward to new recipes involving all of these great, fresh ingredients!

(And yes, that's a sofa chair in my kitchen. We were re-doing the floors in our living room!)

Wine of the Week

This weeks wine is undoubtedly one of my favorites. In fact, after I discovered it I found myself wanting to buy it each week instead of trying something new! Sooo I've been getting this and a "new" bottle, which isn't great for my wallet but I'm managing!

This wine really reminded me of one of my all time favorites; Kendall Jackson Chardonnay. It's a perfect wine to drink when you just want to sit outside on the porch and relax. It's flavors are rich but there is a great smoothness about it.

"87 RATING WINE ENTHUSIAST!- Tropical fruit with subtle scents of coconut and spice on the nose are followed by generous fruit flavors, a smooth texture, and a bright, balanced acidity. Enjoy as an apertif or serve with shellfish, grilled salmon with mango salsa, and mildly spiced cuisines. 3 GOLD MEDALS!" (Lamoreau Landing website)

This is a great chardonnay and so far, my favorite New York State wine.

Mini Lemon and Lime Tartlets

I can't take credit for finding this recipe. I can't even take credit for making it. But I can take credit for eating it!

Last week my mom had my husband and I over to celebrate my birthday and she made these to go along side our cake. Of course, she sent me home a few of my own along with the recipe!

These were really great and totally refreshing. This would be the perfect dessert to have at a barbecue over the summer! At first I thought I liked the lime ones best...but then changed to lemon after having one of each! Either way, the lemon or lime is delicious!
Ingredients
Source: Nestle

1 pkg. (16.5 oz.) refrigerated sugar cookie dough (I would make my own dough)
1 can (14 oz.) Sweetened condensed milk
1 pkg. (8 oz.) 1/3 less fat cream cheese (Neufchâtel) or regular cream cheese, at room temperature
2 cups thawed fat free, reduced fat or regular frozen whipped topping
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1/4 cup lime juice
2 teaspoons grated lime peel
Additional lemon and lime quarter slices, peel curls or grated peel (optional)

Directions

PREHEAT oven to 325º F. Paper-line 24 muffin cups.

CUT dough along pre-scored lines; place one piece of cookie dough in each muffin cup.

BAKE for 13 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Cookies will be puffy. Cool completely in pan on wire rack.

BEAT sweetened condensed milk and cream cheese in large mixer bowl until smooth. Gently fold in whipped topping. Divide mixture into two medium bowls. Stir lemon juice and lemon peel into one bowl and lime juice and lime peel into other bowl.

POUR about 3 tablespoons lemon cream cheese mixture over 12 cookie cups. Repeat with lime cream cheese mixture and remaining cookie cups. Refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight. Decorate with lemon and lime quarter slices, curls or peel, if desired.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

This was by far the best banana bread I've had. There. I said it.

In all seriousness though, this bread was SO moist, flavorful, and the addition of the chocolate was absolutely fantastic. I am a chocolate lover though, so anywhere you want to put in some chocolate is OK by me!

I'm not the only one who thought this bread was great though; my husband and co workers devoured it! In fact, I had one coworker who described it as a "banana cake" rather then a banana bread, and I have to say I agree with him. While it certainly wasn't overly sweet, the texture just reminded you of a delicious cake!

I followed the recipe exactly, which obviously worked well and came out great. Next time I might use 1/2 butter and 1/2 shortening, just to see what it does to the flavor (and because I hate using shortening) but really this is just a great recipe as is. Definitely a keeper and a perfect way to use your overly ripened bananas!

Ingredients
Source: AllRecipes.com

1 cup shortening
2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons mayonnaise (I used light mayo which worked fine!)
6 very ripe bananas, mashed
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I omitted)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans.
In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition. Stir in the mayonnaise and bananas. Stir together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Blend the flour mixture into the banana mixture; stir just enough to evenly combine. Fold in the chocolate chips and walnuts.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean, about 50 to 75 minutes. Cool loaf in the pan for 20 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.