In honor of the unofficial beginning of the grill season, I’ve compiled a list of amazing grill-inspired recipes.  Whether you’re looking for healthy steak rub, a sauce to spice up any grilled meat, the perfect portable cookie or a signature drink to serve the masses, there’s something for everyone in this Hip Hostess grill-inspired recipe roundup.

Coffee & Chili Steak Rub

Chimmichuri Steak Sauce

Guinness Cheese Burgers 

Basil & Garlic Rubbed Grilled Chicken

Hamburger Cupcakes

Grill Theme Cake

Espresso Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Rose Sangria

Traditional Sangria with a Hip Twist

Use leftover gift tags to hang a sweet note on a homemade Mother’s Day bouquet.  Write a little note and tie it to one of the flowers in your arrangement for a pretty little detail that mom is sure to appreciate.  Happy Mother’s Day!

Green Pea “Guacamole”

Smokey Roasted Red Pepper & White Bean Dip

Black Bean Enchiladas

Kickin’ Black Bean Dip

Brie & Peach Quesadillas with Lime-Honey Dipping Sauce

Dulce de Leche Brownies

Enliven your table with an arrangement of mini bouquets set in juice glasses or small mugs.  These mini bouquets are adorable and economical: A few bunches of inexpensive spring flowers pepper your entire table.  Pick a few small-budded flowers in similar hues, such as tulips, daisies and daffodils.  Trim the stems short enough so the flowers will peek over the rims of the glasses or mugs.  If using mugs, place a small round metal floral frog in each mug to help shape and hold down the arrangements (the frog will show through clear juice glasses, so rather than using the frog, just fill them a bit tighter to keep the stems in place).

This is a great idea for a spring shower or brunch.  After your event is over, place one of the mini arrangements next to the sink in your bathroom and the rest on bedside or end tables around the house.

My newest obsession is yogurt from White Cow Dairy – a small, family farm in Western New York that uses dairy produced from their grass-fed cows.  White Cow yogurt is hands-down the most delicious yogurt I have ever tasted.  Their flavors are amazing: rueberry (rhubarb berry), lemon raspberry, lemon ginger, pumpkin and red fruit (grapefruit) are a few of my favorites.  The flavors are seasonal and change often.  

The yogurts contain purees and chunks of fruit rather than being flavored and strained.  The grass-fed milk produces a wonderful texture – rich and creamy with a luxurious mouth-feel. 

These amazing yogurts are pricey ($3.25/ 5.5 oz jar), but worth every penny.  They’re a nice treat and would be wonderful to serve at brunch.  Set out several jars in various flavors with pretty teaspoons to give your guests a taste of this truly special yogurt.      

White Cow yogurts are available in select Western New York store (including Wegmans) and in NYC at Murray’s Cheese (both locations).  Hopefully they’ll expand their retail outlets.  For now, they’re worth a special trip.

In these healthy “pizzas” large portobello mushroom caps stand in for pizza dough.  Serve several with a side of steamed greens for a healthy and filling vegetarian (and gluten-free) meal.  They’re also a great appetizer for any Italian theme menu.

Portobello Mushroom “Pizzas”

6 large Portobello mushroom caps

¾ shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

15oz can pizza sauce

1 tsp. dried oregano

1.            Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line rimmed baking sheet with tin foil and set aside.  Carefully remove any dirt from mushroom cap using a damp paper towel.  Remove gills from inside mushroom by gently scraping with a spoon, leaving sides of mushroom intact.  Place cleaned mushrooms on baking sheet.

2.            Fill each mushroom with ¼ cup pizza sauce and top with 2 Tbs. cheese.  Bake 15 minutes in preheated oven, or until mushrooms are softened and cheese is melted and golden brown in spots.  Sprinkle each mushroom “pizza” with a pinch of dried oregano.

6 servings

Nutritional Info per serving: 85 calories; 2.8g fat (1.8g saturated fat); 7.5 mg. cholesterol; 475mg sodium; 10g carbs; 2.3g fiber; 6.6g protein.

I totally forgot about this trick for making tulips bloom and stand upright until a facebook friend reminded me via her status.  Here’s the great tip: Place a shiny copper penny in the water with tulips to make the buds open and prevent the stems from flopping.  The copper in the penny acts as a natural antibacterial and will even extend the life of your fresh-cut flowers.  Using a shiny/ new penny will yield the best results.

Millport Diary, a small Lancaster, PA farm that makes a great raw milk cheese has a horseradish cheddar that is sharp and delicious.  The cheese is studded with large, uneven chunks of horseradish so some bites are more pungent than others.  Millport also has a monterey jack cheese with horseradish (pictured) which is a bit creamier and milder than the cheddar.  Millport Dairy is available at several NYC Farmer’s Markets, including Thursdays at Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn.  Their full schedule is available here.

Yancey’s Fancys, a New York artisan cheese, makes a nice horseradish cheddar that is smooth, slightly creamy and mild.  Yancey’s cheese is available on Amazon and at Wegmans and several other NY stores.

Grafton Village, a wonderful Vermont cheesemaker, makes a great horseradish cheddar that has a bit of kick to it but is still mild enough for broad appeal.  Grafton Village cheeses are available at Whole Foods, Zabars, Murray’s Cheese and several other NY and Vermont stores.

Be sure to serve this at a milk or pareve meal if you’re keeping Kosher.

This cake ideas is inspired by a Martha Stewart recipe I used the recipe for the cake decorating instructions and frosting.  The reviews for the cake on Martha’s site  said the cake wasn’t very tasty so I used the “best ever banana cake” recipe for the actual cake and adapted it by using whole wheat pastry flour and less sugar.

Monkey (Banana) Cake Recipe

For the banana cake:

1 ½ cups very ripe banana mashed

2 teaspoons lemon juice

3 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

¾ cup unsalted butter, softened

1 ¼ cups sugar

3 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 ½ cups buttermilk

For the frosting:

3 ½ sticks butter, softened

¾ tsp. vanilla extract

3 ¾ cups confections’ sugar, sifted

yellow food coloring

¾ cup unsweetened cocoa

black shoestring licorice

chocolate covered espresso beans

1.  To make the banana cake: Preheat oven to 275°.  Grease and flour an oven-proof metal bowl.  Mix mashed banana with lemon juice and set aside.  Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.  Cream ¾ cup butter and 1 ¼ cups sugar in mixer until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs, one at a time; add 2 tsp. vanilla and beat until combined.  Mix in flour mixture, a cup at a time, alternating with buttermilk.  Stir in banana mixture.

Pour batter into prepared pan (metal bowl) and bake in preheated oven for 1 ½ – 2 hours, or until toothpick or cake tester inserted into center comes out clean (cooking time will vary depending on the size of your bowl).  Cool on wire rack.  When cool, invert onto a plate and trim flat side of cake to make it even (Note:  trim even if the cake looks even on top – this is important for frosting and piping around the bottom of the cake).

3.  To make the vanilla buttercream frosting:  Combine ½ stick butter, ¼ tsp. vanilla and ¾ cup confections’ sugar.  Mix with a paddle attachment on medium-high speed, until pale and fluffy (about 2 minutes).  Stir in 2 drops of food coloring to make pale yellow frosting.  Transfer to a pastry bag (or ziplock bag with small tip snipped from the bottom corner of the bag).

4.  To make the chocolate buttercream frosting:  Beat 3 sticks butter in mixing bowl on medium-high speed.  Add cocoa and beat on slow speed until fully combined.  Add remaining confections’ sugar, 1 cup at a time, to the cocoa mixture.  Add ½ tsp. vanilla and mix on high speed until fully incorporated (about 20 seconds).  Transfer ¼ of frosting to a pastry bag (or ziplock bag with small tip snipped from the bottom corner of the bag).

5.  To decorate the cake:  Place cake on cake stand with flat side down (dome facing up).  Place 3 strips of waxed or parchment paper on the cake stand under the cake, to keep the stand clean while frosting (remove strips when done frosting by pulling them out from the sides).  Slice cake horizontally in the middle and fill with chocolate frosting.  Place top back on cake and frost entire outside of cake with chocolate frosting, using an off set spatula.  Remove waxed paper strips and pipe small dots along the bottom edge of the cake.  To make the mouth, pipe an oval with the vanilla frosting, filling the center with additional vanilla frosting and spreading with an off set spatula.  Place two chocolate covered espresso beans above the vanilla oval; use two small pieces of black licorice to make the nose (placing them parallel) and one longer piece of licorice for the mouth.  Refrigerate and bring to room temperature before serving.

I made a mini smash cake (using a smaller metal bowl and mini muffin tin), but it was much harder to frost and came out looking a little angry.