My Top Essential Summer Cookout Must Haves

Man Crates is a very unique company that delivers awesome gifts to men in custom wooden crates. Their mission is to end the difficulties in finding a gift for men. I can totally relate to that because I'm never sure what to buy for my husband. One glance at their site tells you that they have very interesting gifts and I'm especially impressed with the Zombie Annihilation Crate, that might be what my husbands gets as his next gift :-)

Man crates reached out to me to do a post about my favorite must-haves are for a summer cookout. Since this weekend is the last official summer weekend for this season, I thought I'll share some of my essentials.

1. Since we always have a vegetarian cookout, we always rely on good store-bought Veggie Burgers that stand up to grilling. We have couple of favorites, Morning Star Garden Veggie Burger and Gardein Chipotle Bean burger.

2. It's hot and kids get really thirsty outside. So homemade mocktail or store-bought juice boxes are a must.

3. Fresh and juicy Corn on the Cob, either grilled or boiled.

4. Reynolds Aluminum foil is my friend for mess free grilling and easy clean up.

5. Games organized for the little ones to keep busy and my favorite happens to be Limbo. All you need is a long stick and some good music, you are all set to go.

Don't forget to check out my Vegetarian Summer BBQ Recipe ideas. Enjoy your Labor day Weekend.

Pasta with Fresh Tomato Sauce

Past weekend we went to Apple picking for the very first time. I'm not a big fan of apples and apple picking never appealed to me that much. But I wanted to do something fun with the kids on the weekend and found a pick your own apple farm very close to my sister's home. We didn't pick too many apples since it started to drizzle and rain and the kids started getting restless. They actually had fun playing in the hay bale maze for a little bit before it started to rain harder.

You must be wondering, why the talk about apples when the dish here is made with tomatoes. As I said we didn't pick too many apples, but the farm also has a fresh produce market and they had colorful cherry tomatoes that I picked up. Since it is almost the end of summer and finding fresh, juicy tomatoes is going to be difficult, I couldn't resist from buying them.

Mango Jam (with Pectin)

It is officially the end of end of mango season. I was lucky enough to taste the final mangoes of the season in India. My mom and I ran to the market in the middle of a hot day as soon as we heard there're mangoes in the market. My daughter and I totally enjoyed the sweet Banganapalli mangoes, while the self proclaimed mango phobic person (my son) looked at us like we were crazy. It's been good 14 years that I ate a good Andhra mango.

I was excited to see some mangoes on our recent visit to the local Indian grocery and bought a whole crate out of sheer excitement, only to find that most of them had dark spots on them. They tasted super sweet and juicy, but the dark spots started to grow bigger by the day. With my husband travelling, I couldn't possibly eat all of them, so decided to make a jam with the rest of them -- this way at least we can preserve and relish the mangoes longer.

Applesauce Oatmeal Bread

King Arthur Flour is my go-to site to buy quality baking ingredients and fool-proof baking recipes. I splurge about 2~3 times a year and buy specialty ingredients for baking and cooking. My absolute favorite is their Vermont cheese powder that I use at least once a week to make mac & cheese for my kids. Another one of my favorite pantry ingredient from KAF is their pizza seasoning blend. It gives the homemade pizza that extra oomph and flavor.

I get KAF catalog every month and that is one magazine that I almost read from cover-to-cover, but all it has is their products and recipes. I make note of all the new additions to the product line-up, just so that I don't miss out on them :-)

Whole wheat Banana Chocolate-Chip Muffins

I made these banana chocolate chip muffins couple of months ago and they were a hit with the kids. I have bananas at home all the time and the last couple overripe ones are the most neglected ones. So I'm looking for recipes to use them up. This recipe is from King Arthur Flour's 'Whole Grain Baking' cookbook.

Rava Kesari (Godhuma rawa Kesari)

Blogging Marathon# 43: Week 2/ Day 3

Theme: Navarthri -- Festival Special

Dish: Rava Kesari (Godhuma rawa Kesari)

Here's another simple sweet dish that is made for festivals. Kesari can be made with either sooji/ semolina or godhuma rava. I like the fine godhuma rawa/ dalia because texture-wise it is like sooji, but with the added goodness of the wholewheat instead of refined sooji.

Since my husband is milk-phobic, I usually skip it or add only just a little bit to give the kesari/ halwa some creaminess. It takes about 12~15 minutes total to make this dish and all you need is 3~4 ingredients.

Bellam Payasam (Dairy-free Rice Pudding with Jaggery)

Blogging Marathon# 43: Week 2/ Day 2

Theme: Navarathri -- Festival Special

Dish: Bellam Payasam (Dairy-free Rice Pudding with Jaggery) 

For the second day of Festival special, I have a dairy-free rice pudding recipe made with jaggery. Bellam payasam was one of the dishes that is made during navathri. I wasn't sure how this was different from bellam paravannam. As I was discussing this with my mom, she remembered a similar sweet preparation that was made by one of my neighbors, it was made with just jaggery and rice -- no milk is added. Since my husband is milk-phobic, my mom decided to make this dish for him.

Chillu Garelu (Minapa Vada)

Blogging Marathon# 43: Week 2/ Day 1

Theme: Navarathri -- Festival Special

Dish: Garelu (Vada)

My theme for this week is dishes made for Navarathri. I planned on having all the dishes ready while on vacation in India, but the last week got too hectic and I couldn't get the posts ready on time.Thanks to my mom who made 2 dishes for me, I have the pictures ready. We are back home now and slowly getting back to routine.
After signing up for this theme, I called my cousin for suggestions for dishes that are typically made for Navarathri. She immediately emailed me the list of dishes that are made on each of the 9 days during Dasara celebrations. I will post that list soon.

American Style Irish Soda Bread

Keeping with the theme of the week, Bread baking, today I have a quick bread recipe that I made from the King Arthur Catalog. This is American version of Irish Soda bread. Traditional Irish soda breads are made of flour, baking soda, salt and buttermilk. This version is slightly sweeter than the original, but not cloyingly sweet. It has currants/ raisins that gives a nice mild sweetness to the bread.

I'm going to keep the post short since we are going back home this weekend and it's going to be a hectic day tomorrow with packing. Will miss home and mom. Hopefully I can come back real soon.

Eggless French Toast (with Custard powder)

Blogging Marathon# 43: Week 1/ Day 3

Theme: Tame the Yeast

Dish: Eggless French Toast

For the final day of this week's marathon, I made a simple eggless French toast using this No-Knead Light Whole wheat bread. I love French toast, be it with egg or without. I like the puffy slightly sweet bread drizzled with some maple syrup or honey.

It's been a while I made French toast and wanted to make it with the first batch of whole-wheat bread, but that loaf was all gone in a blink of an eye. So I baked another loaf and told my mom clearly that the leftovers were for French toast and nothing else. Thankfully I had a few end slices left to make this yummy treat that can be served for breakfast or as an evening snack.

No-Knead Light Whole Wheat Bread

Blogging Marathon# 43: Week 1/ Day 2

Theme: Tame the Yeast

Dish: Varada's No-Knead Whole-wheat Bread

For the second day, another one of our resident expert bread baker, Varada, shared her No Knead Light Whole wheat bread with the group. Back in US, I use my stand mixer to mix the dough for all my breads. Here in India, I didn't have my special equipment, so I was elated when Varada sent her no-knead bread recipe over. I knew this will be perfect to make in India and already made it twice and got rave reviews from family and friends.

Whole Wheat Milk Bread

Blogging Marathon# 43: Week 1/ Day 1

Theme: Tame the Yeast

Dish: Mir's Whole Wheat Milk Bread

We are starting another edition of Blogging Marathon today and I signed up for all 4 weeks this month. We are at the tail end of our summer vacation in India and I can't believe how fast the time went. I had plans of meeting old friends and doing a lot of shopping, but nothing got done. With the 2 kids, it was impossible for me to get out of the house. Hoping that this final week will be a little fruitful.

Green Beans Kootu

Good times don't last for too long. I say this because we are almost at the very end of our vacation in India and we will be back home before we even realize it. I haven't had a chance to finish my shopping and these last few days will be really busy with shopping and packing. 

Today's kootu is my mom's recipe. I'm not sure where she learnt it, but she has been making it for years now. Green beans can be substituted with cabbage, spring onions or other vegetables of choice. This kootu is thick and is the perfect combination of vegetables and lentils. It is great to serve with either rice or roti.