Summer Grilling at its Best

There's nothing like fresh vegetables and herbs in the summer.  My favorite combination is tomatoes and basil.  Here's a great recipe for tuna using both.

Grilled Tuna with Tomato-Basil Vinaigrette

2 tablespoons olive oil
Juice of 1 lime
Salt and pepper to taste
2 yellowfin tuna steaks

Tomato-Basil Vinaigrette
1 ripe tomato, cored, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil (do not use dried)
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine oil, lime juice, salt and pepper in a plastic ziploc bag.  Add tuna and marinate for at least 10 minutes.  Grill until medium rare (do not overcook).

Combine ingredients for vinaigrette.  Spoon over the tuna.

Must Have Kitchen Gadgets: Part 1

This year "Santa" brought me the best stocking stuffer.  It's a strawberry huller--except I don't use it on strawberries.  I love it for coring tomatoes.  It's the best!  To operate, you press the green button down and push it into the top of the tomato so it surrounds the core.

Release the button and twist.  Voila, your core comes right out.  

You can get it at Williams Sonoma for $7.95.  It's well worth it.

Fresh Basil

One of the joys of summer is growing fresh herbs on the deck.  Basil is my favorite.

My husband and I went to the Farmers' Market last Saturday and got some greenhouse tomatoes (it's still  a little early for tomatoes in Michigan), fresh mozzarella cheese from the Cheese Lady, and had our first Caprese Salad of the season.

Caprese Salad

Fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced
Fresh tomatoes, sliced
Fresh basil, chopped
Equal parts: balsamic vinegar
                    olive oil
Kosher salt, to taste

 The vinegar and olive oil are not on the salad yet. 

The vinegar is brown and doesn't look very pretty.

Assemble salad in the following order:  tomato, cheese, and basil.  Whisk balsamic vinegar and olive oil together and drizzle over salad.