Google / Social Description

Experience the taste of Scottish summer with this gin berry tart, featuring sweet seasonal berries for a delightful summer treat.

Introduction

For me, nothing says summer more than the start of the Scottish berry season – and gin!

 

Gin has been made in Scotland for more than 300 years and we produce some of the best-known brands in the world. In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in its production here; its popularity has been the driving force of a great deal of new distilleries all over the country.

 

Scotland’s soft-fruit production, too, has increased recently, doubling in the last ten years alone. Soft fruit from Scotland is very sweet: the more temperate climate here allows the berries to have longer daylight hours in summer but without high levels of heat. This allows the berries to ripen slower, so they produce more sugar and you get a sweeter berry.

 

I developed this recipe during the lockdowns of 2020 and made it for the first time live in front of hundreds of people via Facebook. It worked a treat! This tart is best done in the summer months when the fruit is at its best.

Google / Social Description

Citrusy, spicy, and complex, these pinchos with quintessential Puertorican BBQ sauce will transport you to the Caribbean.

Introduction

Mami and I knew we were officially lost as we drove down the Carretera 2, cutting through Manatí, when we saw the Walmart. We turned off the main highway. And turned. And turned. Finally, my mom spotted a trailer on the side of the road. It was hoisted on cinder blocks with a sign out front: PINCHOS DE POLLO 3x5$. Before I knew it, my mom had power-walked toward the trailer. When the vendor saw us, he pulled a couple of marinated chicken skewers out of his Cambro food carrier and set them over the charcoal grill. The chicken danced and sizzled as it turned Hawaiian Tropic gold. He then slathered the skewers in quintessential Puerto Rican guava BBQ sauce, and the sugars immediately started to caramelize and pop, lacquering the chicken. He placed a slice of French bread on top of each skewer and handed them to us. The chicken was thick and luscious, sweet, tangy, and sharp, the guava sauce a perfect counter to the rich dark meat. This is my genuflection to that vendor; my recipe is bright with fresh citrus, spicy with sriracha, and complex with fish sauce.

Google / Social Description

This vibrant grapefruit margarita brings the sweet heat. Tequila or not, it's a party in a glass.

Introduction

The words “detox” and “margarita” likely don’t belong in the same sentence, but I’m all for poking a little fun at the wild world of wellness. This vibrant margarita brings the sweet heat with freshly squeezed citrus and a little heat from cayenne (if you dare). Instead of a standard salted rim, I like a pinch of pink salt to emphasize the other flavors. Tequila or not, this juicy tonic is a party in a glass.

Google / Social Description

Margherita Pizza is a crowd-pleaser, and this recipe from the Elena team is the perfect go-to for at-home pizza nights.

Introduction

We all know that the margherita is the benchmark when it comes to pizza. What you may not know about us is that when we first opened the restaurant, we were so clueless about what we were doing (and clearly overwhelmed) that when our friend Kyle ordered a margherita, we brought him a margarita cocktail instead. It wasn’t even on the menu. It’s embarrassing to admit, but thankfully we’ve gotten a lot better at taking orders and making pizza since that first night. This is a great margherita.

Google / Social Description

Marinated with flavourful fennel seeds and anchovies, this grilled leg of lamb recipe is sure to please any large group of guests!

Introduction

When I’m grilling for a large group of guests, all of whom have different meat-doneness preferences, I reach for a butterflied leg of lamb. With the bone extracted and the lamb leg sliced into a slab (which your butcher can do for you), it’s a cut of meat that’s by its nature uneven—in a very good way. When you grill it, the thicker parts stay redder than the thinner bits, and both raremeat-lovers and their medium-to-well-loving counterparts end up happy, without your having to fuss with various cooking times or putting slices of meat back on the grill after you’ve carved it. Marinating the lamb with fennel seeds and anchovies gives it so much flavor, it doesn’t even need a sauce. I usually just put out a little pot of mustard for guests to use—or not—as they see fit. Meat this juicy and flavorful doesn’t lack for a thing. Note that you can also broil the leg of lamb if grilling isn’t on the agenda.

Google / Social Description

The key to these barbeque lamb meatballs? An unbelievable sticky-sweet spiced sauce you'll fall in love with.

Introduction

I remember when I decided to truly take the plunge and start a food blog. Few were doing it for fun, and even fewer were making an actual living from it. Someone once told me, “You discover who you are when you take a path less traveled.” The decision to make a career out of sharing my family’s legacy recipes, as well as recipes I’ve leveled up, didn’t have a road map and has been more difficult than people might think. It requires many skills, from photography to styling to recipe development, which just happened to be one of my favorite parts.

Take these meatballs, for example: They are the quintessential Black folks’ party app, and my family always served them for festive gatherings, like my prom send-o‑and college trunk party. They’re typically made with ground beef—here I give them a remix with lamb, but all in all, I stay true to what made them special in the first place: that unbelievable sticky-sweet spiced sauce. I hope that when someone makes this recipe for the first time, it’ll t right into their life, like a well-made glove. It’s moments like these, being invited into someone’s space when they make one of my recipes, that have made me truly grateful for all the blessings that food blogging has provided me.

Google / Social Description

This lemony polenta cake topped with almonds and strawberries is the perfect treat to share at a summer gathering.

Introduction

This lemony polenta cake is the perfect treat to share at a summer gathering. Topped with toasted almonds and ruby red strawberries, it looks impressive, but it’s delightfully simple to make. The moist, tender cake is wonderful on its own, but you could certainly dress it up more with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dusting of powdered sugar.

Google / Social Description

Don't want to be stuck in the kitchen all day? This fresh, crisp summer salad only takes minutes to put together!

Introduction

When you’re cooking in the summer, the last thing you want is to be stuck in the kitchen all day, and this is an impressive salad that takes only minutes to put together. The key here is to shave the zucchini wafer-thin, ideally with a mandoline, but if you don’t have one or are intimidated by it, with a vegetable peeler. You also want to shave the zucchini at the last possible minute and in elongated pieces rotating around the core, so you’re not getting that spongy middle. The long, thin ribbons soak up the flavors of the herbs, olive oil, and lemon.

Google / Social Description

Choose from three different campfire paella recipes, including a vegan chickpea option, for a sublime outdoor dining experience.

Introduction

No other outdoors dish says party quite like paella. Paella is meant for feasts, for gatherings, for wood-fired cooking. And if you break it down into steps and pay attention as it cooks, truly great prep-ahead camp paella is remarkably straightforward.

While the main recipe is for the showstoppiest of showstoppers—firecrisped rice under a tangle of squid and smoky seared shrimp—I’ve also included a chicken and artichoke version, as well as a vegan chickpea option. All three are celebrations in a pan, and absolutely sublime.