Hazelnut chocolate and raspberries make the perfect combination for this gelato.

I’ll never forget the first time we had gelato. We were in Italy with friends and we knew we would be seeing gelato stands on just about every corner of any town we were visiting. Kind of like Starbucks or back in the day when there was a gas station or beauty shop on just about every corner in our home town.

Well, once we tried gelato, we found ourselves eating it at LEAST once a day if not twice on some days. I loved the little spoons that came along with the gelato. I think my favorite flavor was pistachio. I’m sure between the six of us, we tried just about every flavor offered.

Nutella was also something I had not tried before. While in Italy we were served Nutella for breakfast with crusty breads. Since coming back from Italy I have tried it on top of waffles, made a Nutella Cherry Dumpling, filled won ton wrappers with Nutella (fried, and powdered sugar them), filled strawberries with Nutella but I have never been tempted to just eat it out of the jar with a spoon.

I was watching Giada at Home the other day and she was making Nutella Gelato and I deceided to make my own version. I added in the crushed raspberries just as the ice cream was almost finished churning. I also changed the whipping cream to Half and Half.

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Cool and refreshing to go with my b-b-q ribs!

I was laying in bed this morning thinking about the baby back ribs my husband was going to smoke tonight. I knew they would be delicious because he does the best bar-b-q around. I think my dad taught him well and over the years my husband has put his own spin on smoking/grilling by using all sorts of different woods to get a great smoke flavor to his meats.

So, on with the story. I was trying to come up with a salad that would be cool and refreshing to go along with his hot and spicy ribs. I was thinking about a watermelon that our neighbor, Anne, just gave us and what might go with that to make a delicious salad. Watermelon, orange, maybe some red onions, avocado and some toasted pine nuts. I thought about putting this on a bed of baby spinach for extra color. And, for the dressing, you can’t go wrong with balsamic, maybe a little lime juice and cilantro, shallot, some olive oil and perhaps toss in a little cumin to add a touch of spice to the salad to compliment the ribs.

I remember years ago when we would go to Florida for summer vacations, my grandfather would pull over at local farm stands to buy some produce. Whether it be watermelon, oranges, or peaches, he always wanted to taste the fruit before buying it. Of course, we only bought the ripest and most flavorful fruits. Wonder, why we aren’t allowed to taste our produce in the grocery stores?  Guess they only sample the things they know are tasty OR we wouldn’t be buying all the hard, tasteless fruits and vegetables we get at certain times of the year.

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I love Chimichurri on this flank kebab. The color of the sauce is so vivid and pretty on the plate.

I love flank steak. It’s one of those pieces of meat that a lot of people don’t know what to do with because it can be tough. I have cooked flank steak for years and have found that if you marinade it for a few hours it will be very tender. Flank should always be cut cross-grain and never cooked more than medium to medium-rare. 

The flank comes from the abdominal muscle of a cow and is a long thin piece of meat. It looks a little like skirt steak that is used in making fajitas. Normally it needs some type of moist cooking method. But I have found just marinating it, grilling for about 30 minutes, produces a juicy, tender steak.

Over the years I have taken flank steak strips and spread them with a blue cheese spread, rolled it up, skewered it and served as an appetizer. We have had it as an entree marinated in my teriyaki sauce (see below), and I have skewered it with marinated mushrooms for an appetizer. Always cut it very thin and you will never be disappointed in this piece of meat.

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Fredericksburg peaches — I finally bought some good peaches!

Peaches, prosciutto, balsamic and honey. Perfect ingredients for a quick summer appetizer.

Seems like I am always late on making it out to pick whatever fruit is in season. I have missed picking blueberries for about four years in a row. I have missed raspberry picking season for years. But, I did manage to get in the blackberry patch this year and picked 12 pounds of berries.

So, when I received an email from a local farmer’s market about ordering Fredericksburg (Texas) peaches, I jumped on it knowing that if I didn’t another season would roll around and I would be complaining about the hard, tasteless peaches I would be buying at the market. I get so upset when I buy peaches at the market and they look beautiful, feel firm and ripe, only to have a mushy, mealy peach with no flavor when I cut into it later. Not so with these Fredericksburg Peaches.

Yesterday I was like Fanny Farmer or Julia Child and spent the afternoon making some peach jam and freezing peaches to use next winter. For a cookout over the weekend I used some of my freshly picked peaches for Grilled Peach Prosciutto Kebabs. These kebabs don’t have to be grilled; you could simply wrap the pieces of prosciutto around the peaches, pick and serve. I love making kebab appetizers. You can pick anything and call it an appetizer.

I wanted a grilled taste to my peach and a little crispiness to the prosciutto, so I  talked my husband into popping these on the grill for a few minutes.  When they came off the grill, I drizzled them with a little honey and balsamic. Serve hot or cold.  However you serve them, they are full of fresh summer fruit flavor.

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Such a simple appetizer that will be a hit at your next party.

A couple of years ago I catered an “Old Hollywood” theme birthday party. It was such a fun party. It was a surprise party for the hostesses’ 40th birthday.  Her husband had a limo pick her and their kids up for dinner.  When they returned to the house, there was a red carpet runner laid out on the walkway to the front door.  All the people were dressed like their favorite movie star (there were a lot of Audrey Hepburns) for the night and they greeted the birthday girl at the door with applause. I made a copy of all these old Hollywood star pictures, matted them and used them on the tables around all the food trays. (See more pictures from party table below.)

There were movie popcorn boxes on one table, two chocolate fountains going in the kitchen, food covering the table, and champagne everywhere.  I loved catering this party. Everyone had a great time and the table looked great and the food terrific.

I have been doing this appetizer for years.  I usually buy jumbo pitted black olives, roll up pepperoni and insert in olive, and stuff with a cream cheese mixture and then just stack up on a tray and watch them disappear. I used to cut a thin strip of green bell pepper and insert into the cream cheese, but after doing 200 of these for a party once, I decided to quit doing the pepper garnish. It was way too tedious to cut and insert these strips of pepper into the olives and they are just as good without it.

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