Mom’s Watermelon-Mint Salad

It’s that time of year for those of us here in the mid-Atlantic area where the weather is starting to warm, the flowers and trees are in bloom, and summer is on its way. During our holiday time together over Easter weekend, my mom was at it again with another tried and true recipe. If you haven’t noticed, she’s often providing, or giving the inspiration for, new recipes on our blog: here are a few examples (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

Growing up, I loved having a slice of watermelon here and there, but was never a fiend for it. That being said, this salad has me coming back for seconds and thirds every time. I’m a big fan of refreshing, healthy, and simple; and this hits all three right on the head.

Tom Kha Gai ต้มข่าไก่ (Thai Coconut Soup)

This weekend we had the pleasure of doing some cooking, and hanging out, with our friend Russ of the Domestic Man. We cooked for almost a solid 5 hours, and came up with some great recipes to share with you all as a result.

This first piece is a Thai soup based off of what I had ordered from a local Thai restaurant, Tom Kha Hed (ต้มข่าไก่). This soup, sometimes also known as Tom Kha Gai, Kai or just Tom Kha, is literally “chicken galangal soup.” We forwent the chicken itself, but one could easily add chicken and or prawns for a heavier soup.

Lemon-Garlic Chicken

Lemon-garlic chicken is a simple and classic dish, but many recipes today involve bread crumbs. This is a simplified, paleo-friendly version that results in a golden and juicy roast bird.

When I was a little girl, my dad always roasted the chicken with the breast down for the first half of it’s total cook time. He said that doing so would help prevent the breast from getting too dry. I never questioned his logic, nor did I ever pay attention to how pretty or ugly the bird came out. All I cared about was whether it was tasty or not, and it usually was.

So, while preparing to make this lemon-garlic chicken recipe, I decided I would give Dad’s way a try. I’ll admit, this bird won’t make it to the cover of Better Homes and Gardens or Paleo Mag. But it was juicy and full of subtle lemon and garlic flavors.

Fancy Homemade Burgers

Are you ready for fancy homemade burgers? We hope so! We love burgers, all kinds of burgers. Regular beef burgers. Salmon burgers. Bacon burgers. Matt and Stacy’s 50/50 burgers. Bison burgers. I could go on, but you might get bored. So, instead, I’m just going to tell you about our latest experiment so we can get down to business: sharing with you a recipe for fancy homemade burgers!

A couple weekends ago, I was hankering for burgers but Brent was simply not in the mood for more beef. (Admittedly, it had been a week of steak, chili and roast beef.)  So, we were staring at the selections of meats available at our local Whole Foods, hungry and indecisive. Finally, he grabbed ground pork, ground veal, and ground lamb. My eyes lit up. I couldn’t wait to get home and put them together.

This recipe seems “fancy” because, growing up in my house, veal and lamb were special foods for special occasions. But these fancy homemade burgers are actually quite simple to make! We hope you’ll enjoy this casual and delicious new twist on an old favorite.

Spicy Curry Chicken Wings

Brent loves buffalo wings, and while I love his Zesty Buffalo Wings, I’ve always preferred wings with other flavors—sweet barbecue, teriyaki, honey barbecue, jerk, spicy barbecue… (Hi, my name is Heather and I have a problem: I love barbecue.) So, with all the big football games lately, I’ve been itching to experiment with the wings.