With spring well and truly here, we wanted to share with you a few of our favorite recipes including ideas for a drink, appetizer, meal and a dessert for your next onboard party.
Vodka and Watermelon Cooler (from epicurious.com)
Yield: Makes 6 drinks
Ingredients
3 pounds of cut watermelon, plus thin slices for garnish
1/2 cup vodka
1/4 cup Triple Sec
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
Directions
In a blender, purée the watermelon pieces and strain the mix through a very fine sieve set over a pitcher, throwing away the solids. (There should be about 2-1/3 cups juice.) Mix in the vodka, the Triple Sec, and the lime juice, pour the cooler into long-stemmed glasses filled with ice cubes, and garnish each drink with a watermelon slice.
Summer Chicken Salad
Ingredients
1 whole rotisserie chicken (you can use 3-4 parboiled chicken breasts instead)
1 bunch of fresh dill, chopped
1/3 of a yellow onion, coarsely chopped
3-4 stalks of celery, cut into chunks
Salt and fresh ground pepper
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3/4 fat free plan Greek Yogurt
1/2 cup of Craisins
Directions
1. Tear all the meat off the rotisserie chicken.
2. Pour 2-4 Tablespoons of lemon juice on top of it, and stir it all together.
3. Finely dice the onion and celery.
4. In another bowl, mix the dressing ingredients - the yogurt, dill, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and a bit of ground black pepper.
6. In the bowl with chicken, add the onion, celery, and Craisins. Stir well to mix. Add the dressing and stir until evenly mixed.
Strawberry Shortcake with Raspberry Coulis
Ingredients
12 ounces of strawberries
Bisquick – prepare individual shortcakes as directed on the box
1.5 cups heavy cream for whipping
4 oz package of raspberries
2 tablespoon confectioners sugar
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar (for Simple Syrup)
Directions
1. Using Bisquick make shortcakes per the recipe according directions on the box.
2. Whip the heavy cream until it starts to come together and add granulated sugar and the vanilla extract. Whip until firm and set aside in the refrigerator. You will now have 3 cups of whipped cream.
3. In a double-boiler add the 2 yolks and confectioners sugar—mix until smooth and fluffy. You can’t do it directly on the stove or you will have scrambled eggs within 30 seconds. It takes about 3 minutes to do this, but really worth it. When done, remove from double boiler and set aside—don’t refrigerate but you want it to cool down.
4. Rinse and hull strawberries and cut into halves and quarters depending on size of berry. Clean the raspberries at the same time. Note that you don’t sugar the strawberries. When you do, the berries start to break down and become soft within an hour and there is enough sugar in the coulis and whip cream to compensate.
5. Make a simple syrup: In high sided pan add 1/2 cup sugar with 1/2 cup cold water over medium high heat until the sugar is completely dissolved—this takes about 5 minutes. Do not let it bubble and boil or it will carmelize.
6. Using a food processor, add the raspberries and pulse until mushy. Now add the simple syrup and pulse until it’s pureed. Take this mixture and put it through a food mill, or mash through a fine mesh sieve until you get a satiny sauce. Pour into a plastic squeeze bottle (you can get these at any craft store—they cost about a dollar).
7. Take the whip cream and gently fold in the egg/sugar combo you made in the double boiler in Step #3.
8. Ready for plating—squeeze some Raspberry Coulis onto the plate—be creative with your squiggle, as there is no way to mess this up. Add bottom of shortcake on top of the coulis—add generous spoonfuls of whipped cream. Now layer on your strawberries as you much as you want. Add the top shortcake and sprinkle with a little confectioners sugar on top. Then drizzle a little more of the coulis on top of shortcake and whip cream.
Check out more recipes at our Pinterest page!