The Perfect Summer Picnic

Summer is our favorite season- the weather is hot and we have plenty of free time for hanging out in the park with a picnic. The perfect picnic brings together friends and family in a fun setting to enjoy great food and drink. We like to have a wide variety of things to eat from bread & cheese to deli meats to side salads to dessert and drinks. As they say, variety is the spice of life!

To help you create the perfect summer picnic menu, we fired up the FoodPair search engine and found a handful of great recipes from across the Web.

Easy Cheese Plate Appetizer
A great cheese plate has a variety of cheeses and tasty accompaniments.
Ingredients: Drunken Goat Cheese, Manchego Cheese, Flavored Crackers, Blackberry Jam, Pumpkin Seeds, Sunflower Seeds

Serrano Ham and Manchego Cheese Plate
Another great option is to pair meats and cheeses. Manchego is delicious!
Ingredients: Manchego Cheese, Serrano Ham, Olive Oil, Black Pepper

Ham and Brie Sandwich
A delicious sandwich on a baguette is a great picnic option.
Ingredients: Baguette, Black Forrest Ham, Brie Cheese, Mustard

A Dilly Potato Salad with no Mayo
This potato salad skips the mayo so you don't have to worry about it.
Ingredients: Red Potatoes, Green Beans, Olives, Celery, Onion, Vegetable Oil, White Wine Vinegar, Salt, Dill Weed, Mustard

The Lady and Sons Peach Cobbler
For dessert, try this delicious cobbler from Paula Deen.
Ingredients: Butter, Sugar, Self-Rising Flour, Milk, Peaches (Canned or Fresh), Cinnamon, Vanilla Ice Cream or Fresh Whipped Cream (for serving)


Let's get cooking!

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Making Homemade Eggs Benedict

It's a lot of fun to recreate your favorite restaurant dishes at home. That way, you can customize them with your favorite toppings without having to ask the chef's permission. Today, we're looking at our favorite brunch dish, Eggs Benedict- a classic combination of Poached Eggs, Ham and Hollandaise perched atop an English Muffin. For the non-ham eaters out there, it's fine to omit it or replace it with anything from Smoked Salmon to Spinach to Lobster. We've also seen a great recipe for making Artichokes Benedict as an appetizer for parties.

Making Eggs Benedict involves creating only two components: perfectly poached eggs and Hollandaise sauce. The Ham or Canadian Bacon can be cooked in a frying pan and English Muffins need a couple minutes in the toaster. Of course, if you're feeling ambitious you can scratch-bake English Muffins using the recipe we provided below.

Poached Eggs: The key is to add a little vinegar to a pot of almost-boiling water. The vinegar helps hold the eggs together during the cooking. Also, to keep the eggs together in the water, we gently lower them into the water after first cracking them one-by-one into a small bowl or ceramic ramekin. If the entire process of poaching seems too daunting, there are plenty of cookware solutions, including this one for the microwave.

Hollandaise: making a great Hollandaise involves gently layering ingredients. First, boil lemon juice and vinegar in a small saucepan and then remove from the heat. While that's cooling, add butter to the saucepan and allow it to melt. In a bowl, whisk together egg yolks with salt and pepper. Then, add the cooled lemon juice and vinegar mixture and continue stirring. Once the butter starts to foam, remove it from the heat and whisk it into the bowl with the egg yolks, lemon juice and vinegar. Voilà!

To help you create the best Eggs Benedict dish ever, we fired up the FoodPair search engine and found a handful of great recipes from across the Web.

Classic Eggs Benedict
This classic eggs benedict brings it all together.
Ingredients: egg, butter, vinegar, English muffins, Hollandaise

Hollandaise Sauce
Making Holandaise is easier than you think- it only takes 10 minutes!
Ingredients: egg, butter, lemon juice, salt, black pepper, white wine vinegar

Easy Poached Eggs
With a little practice, you'll be poaching eggs like a pro!
Ingredients: egg, vinegar

English Muffins
Now you can bake English Muffins at home.
Ingredients: butter, salt, water, bread flour, instant yeast, semolina

Home Fries
Pair your Benedict with classic home fries.
Ingredients: onion, salt, black pepper, canola oil, Russet potato


Let's get cooking!

Any other favorite ingredients or dishes you'd like us to highlight? Post them in the comments section or on our Facebook page! And while you're at it, "Like" us on Facebook to get helpful updates in your news feed.

Celebrating Bastille Day with French Classics

July 14th is Bastille Day, the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille prison which marked the beginning of the French Revolution.

To celebrate Bastille Day and all the French contributions from the chateau to democracy to the souffle, we've assembled a classic French menu that everyone will enjoy. Home cooks should practice French dishes because many form the basis of the best dishes we've ever eaten.

To help you find the best French dishes, we fired up the FoodPair search engine and found a handful of great recipes from across the Web.

Celery Root Bisque with Thyme Croutons
Celebrate with this great version of French bisque.
Ingredients: shallot, butter, celery, thyme, whipping cream, chicken broth, Russet potato


Mustard-Roasted Chicken (with Warm Frisée Salad)
There's nothing like a juicy roasted chicken.
Ingredients: garlic, olive oil, chicken, rosemary, thyme, sage, Dijon mustard, Italian parsley

Garlic Truffle Fries
Classic French frites are enhanced by garlic and truffle oil.
Ingredients: garlic, truffle oil, parsley, Russet potato, cooking oil, truffle salt

Green Beans with Bacon and Shallots
Haricots Vert are fantastic with shallots & bacon.
Ingredients: bacon, green bean, shallot, butter

Dark Chocolate & Lime Souffles
Make shave ice at home and top it with great Hawaiian ingredients!
Ingredients: egg, sugar, salt, whipping cream, semi-sweet chocolate, lime juice, bittersweet chocolate, lime peel


Now it's time to cook and eat!

Any other favorite ingredients or dishes you'd like us to highlight? Post them in the comments section or on our Facebook page! And while you're at it, "Like" us on Facebook to get helpful updates in your news feed.

The Best of Hawaii

Sure, we love to travel, but we love eating even more! When visiting friends in Honolulu, FoodPair discovered a delicious cuisine that's equal parts native Hawaiian and Asian-fusion with the soul of a surfer.

One of the common misconceptions of Hawaiian food is that it's built around SPAM. While we saw plenty of SPAM in Hawaii (including some decent looking SPAM Sushi) we're here to report that there's so much more to Hawaiian cuisine than ham in a can. From the ocean, Hawaii features great fresh seafood including Ahi Tuna, Mahi Mahi, Ono and Opah. From the farm, there are delicious tropical fruits including Pineapple, Guava and Lilikoi (aka Passion Fruit). Then, there are uniquely Hawaiian dishes like Shave Ice, the Puka Dog and the Plate Lunch. Oh, and don't forget about 100% Kona Coffee!

For those not yet familiar with Hawaiian food, Shave Ice is like a Snow Cone, but the ice is shaved off a block instead of being crushed. The result is a fine, snow-like ice which gets topped off with syrups featuring tropical fruit flavors. Puka Dogs are Hawaiian Hot Dogs stuffed into a small loaf of bread through a "puka" (Hawaiian for "hole") and topped with flavored garlic mayo and tropical relish. The Plate Lunch is a Hawaiian staple and favorite post-surfing meal consisting of two scoops of white rice and one scoop of macaroni salad topped with a flavorful meat dish like Teriyaki Beef, Shoyu (Japanese for "soy sauce") Chicken or Kalua Pork. We're not sure why, but that macaroni salad is magical!

To help you find the best Hawaiian dishes, we fired up the FoodPair search engine and found a handful of great recipes from across the Web.

Seared Ahi Tuna
On the mainland we eat seared tuna, in Hawaii they make "poke".
Ingredients: garlic, scallion, ginger, soy sauce, lime juice, dark sesame oil, ahi tuna


Grilled Mahi Mahi with Avocado-Melon Salsa
It's time to try your hand at Mahi Mahi with tropical salsa.
Ingredients: avocado, cilantro, olive oil, red onion, mahi mahi, lime juice, cantaloupe, jerk seasoning, lime peel

Guava-Stuffed Chicken with Caramelized Mango
This is a great dish pairing chicken with tropical mango & guava.
Ingredients: garlic, mango, olive oil, spinach, butter, lemon juice, parsley, thyme, guava, cream cheese, white wine, chicken broth, chicken breast

Mom's Macaroni Salad
Every Plate Lunch starts with white rice and delicious macaroni salad.
Ingredients: scallion, parsley, paprika, salt, black pepper, mayonnaise, red bell peppers, hard boiled egg, macaroni

Shaved Ice with Coconut and Tropical Fruit
Make shave ice at home and top it with great Hawaiian ingredients!
Ingredients: mango, pineapple, papaya, water, coconut milk, tapioca, ice, coconut flakes, palm sugar


Now it's time to cook and eat!

Any other favorite ingredients or dishes you'd like us to highlight? Post them in the comments section or on our Facebook page! And while you're at it, "Like" us on Facebook to get helpful updates in your news feed.