Smoky chicken barbecue kebabs

We made Southern Living's smoky chicken barbecue kebabs for Sunday dinner this week. These were super simple to make and tasted delicious!! Definitely an easy, go-to summer grill recipe. I served ours with grilled corn on the cob- nothing fancy, just seasoned with oil, salt and pepper. Also, if you want to make the kabobs even easier, you could skip the white barbecue sauce - the rub has plenty of flavor on it's own.

S'mores bars

The sweet treat for last week's Bachelorette watch party was s'mores bars from a fellow food blogger, Our Everyday Dinners. These are a great twist on traditional s'mores - no campfire required! I didn't go to the trouble to measure the marshmallow creme (too sticky), so I just used the entire 7 oz jar and it looked about right. I also used Hershey Special Dark bars instead of milk chocolate. YUM!! Several people commented it was their favorite thing I've ever made- and we've eaten a lot of sweets over 4 seasons of the Bachelor together!

Grilled corn on the cob with roasted jalapeno butter

Last week we made a spicy chicken recipe from Rachael Ray that we decided was just average (kind-of hard to make a chicken breast turn into anything too exciting), but I served it with Cooking Light's grilled corn on the cob with roasted jalapeno butter, which was a big hit! Delicious corn-on-the-cob is in abundance right now, so fire up your grill and try this one!

Slow-cooker red beans and rice

This is actually a repeat recipe, but somehow I missed posting about it last time. Which was a mistake on my part, because Robert and I both love this red beans and rice recipe! So easy (slow-cooker!) and delicious. I halve the recipe and cook it 4-5 hours on high. I'm also a little heavy-handed with the creole seasoning because I like things spicy. YUM!

Super lemon ice cream

It is already hot, hot, hot in Arkansas, so that is my cue to put the ice cream maker to good use. This weekend we made Super Lemon ice cream from my favorite ice cream book, The Perfect Scoop. I chose this recipe because a) it sounded delicious and made my lips pucker up just thinking about it, and b) it's so easy - no eggs or cooking a custard required! Now, the absence of the custard changes the consistency of the ice cream to almost snow-like, vs a smooth, creamy one, but it tastes great and is very refreshing- and it's nice to take shortcuts every now and then!

SUPER LEMON ICE CREAM
Ingredients:

2 lemons
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (from 3-4 lemons)
2 cups half-and-half
Pinch of salt

Preparation:

Zest the lemons directly into a food processor or blender. Add the sugar and blend until the lemon zest is very fine. Add the lemon juice and blend until the sugar is completely dissolved. Blend in the half-and-half and salt until smooth.
Chill for 1 hour, then freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Asian barbecue chicken stir-fry

We tried this Asian BBQ chicken stir-fry from Rachael Ray last week- it is simple to pull together, it just requires a bit of chopping. Also, I subbed brown rice for white, which takes longer to cook (we got impatient and ate it a little al dente). This has great flavor, and the peanuts add a nice crunch!

Photo credit: Rachaelray.com

Memphis Beale Street burgers

Last week we tried Memphis Beale Street burgers from the Neely's, of Memphis BBQ fame. This one is a no-brainer - big meaty burger with bacon, pepperjack cheese, and a barbecue-mayo sauce. Since we don't have the Neely's dry rub or sauce, we subbed with our favorites from McClard's. YUM!

Photo credit: Foodtv.com

Fleur de sel chocolate chip blondies

The sweet treat for last night's Bachelorette watch party was fleur de sel chocolate chip blondies from Dessert First on the Food Network. If you've ever seen her show, you've probably noticed a theme- 2 sticks of butter and 3 cups of chocolate chips makes everything better! I love that the recipe even specifies "your machine will seem to be struggling to mix in the chocolate chips because there are so many of them, but don't turn it up". Chocolate chip overload! I used a combination of mini and regular sized chips because that's what I had on hand, and subbed sea salt flakes on top instead of fleur de sel, which I somehow don't have in my extensive salt selection. I baked mine in a 9x13 cake pan and cut them into 18 large bars. At first, my watch party group commented they wouldn't be able to eat a whole bar, but next thing I know, everyone has an empty plate - they were too irresistible not to finish!

Parmesan crust pizza

I bookmarked this page for parmesan pizza dough a few weeks ago and it made it into the dinner rotation tonight. I used it for a simple pepperoni pizza - quick marinara, pepperoni slices from the deli counter, and fresh mozzarella. My dough was really sticky when I was trying to roll it, so I was worried how it was going to turn out. But we all LOVED it - even the kids - and you can really taste the parmesan cheese in the crust. This will be added to my go-to pizza dough favorites!

Chocolate chip cookie and Oreo fudge brownie bars

These chocolate chip cookie and Oreo fudge brownie bars should probably be called 'bars of ridiculousness' because oh my goodness, who wouldn't love this combination of chocolate chip cookies, Double Stuffed Oreos, and brownies? But wait, there's more- you top them with vanilla ice cream and hot fudge!! Good grief that's a lot of chocolate! As you can imagine, they are very rich and VERY delicious.

(I'm borrowing the photo from Amanda's blog because she stacked hers up so pretty and got the fudge to drizzle just right).