Corn Salad

After spending July 4th weekend with my family at our lake house I have to admit I am in full fledged summer mode. I feel like I am still on vacation - taking a break from any real meal planning and instead making lots of little dishes and then mix and match. This corn salad is a perfect addition to your BBQ table with a smoky savory flavor that will stand up to any grilled meats.

I love using different seasonings to add lots of flavor to normal recipes and I find that summer picnic food in general can be lacking some flavor. In one of my other posts, I looked at a fun twist on Greek ingredients and potato salad but using the ready made KC Masterpiece® BBQ sauce is even easier and perfect for those day after leftovers. I hate feeling like I am eating leftovers but of course I wouldn't waste food so I try to "recycle" by using the ingredients in a new way. This would be a perfect way to make left over BBQ goodies into an amazing lunch salad (add some tomato, cucumber, lettuce and diced up grilled chicken). You can even mix the BBQ sauce with some herbs and olive oil to make a spicy dressing! 

White Wine Steamed Clams

I grew up in New England, where summer time is synonymous with clam bakes. Even now that I have lived away for over 5 years, I still get an urge when fresh clams start showing up in the store. However when you live in a small apartment, sometimes having a steaming kettle full of fresh seafood (and the stinky trash that goes along with it) is less than appealing. That doesn't mean you have to forget those summer time memories - just scale things back to apartment size! The traditional clam boil includes clams, lobsters, steamers, mussels, corn and potatoes boiled up in a beer and water mix (cooked in a giant sand pit if you have one but more often just in a big pot on a gas burner). But for us, since clams were on sale at the market, it was an easy decision to just grab a few dozen little necks and get cooking.

For our clam bake we are going to do things a little different though.... no surprise for those who read this blog often. I do enjoy a nice beer I was thinking more along the lines of white wine and garlic flavors. This recipe is a bit more of a French style than a New England one but I suppose when you have deliciously fresh clams on hand, its hard to go wrong! Instead of using a large stock pot to steam my clams I used a large saute pan with under an inch of brother in the bottom - just enough to steam but not boil.

Greek Potato Salad

I love summer BBQs just as much as the next girl but traditional fare is...well boring and full of bad fats! Now I am not one to start preaching about fat and calories  (especially when most of my recipes involve a fair amount of "good" olive oil) but eating mindless gobs of mayonnaise when there isn't any taste just isn't my style. I decided to come up with this potato salad recipe that has tons of flavor by using my favorite type of green salad as inspiration. I used large red potatoes cut into bite sized pieces, however small marble sized potatoes would be very cute as well!

Because this salad is mayo-free its a little easier to store and serve at a hot summer BBQ, there is some cheese in it however so don't leave it out too long! We have an olive- hater in our family so serving anything "Greek" style can be a little challenging. The best part of this salad though is that the olives (or the cheese is there is a dairy-free person) can be tossed in to individual taste.