Summer is over! The weather is shockingly cool after the hottest summer in the world (literally)! I was not planning a party or picnic, but on a day like today. I cannot resist.  Quick! I need recipes that reflect the season and can be made fast, fast, fast! This was the very first, so unbelievably delicious thing that came to mind.

Green Bean, Grape Tomato, and Grilled Corn Salad

1 1/2 lbs of green beans, trimmed

3 ears of corn husked

1 TBLS plus 1/2 cup EEOV

1 1/2 cups grape tomatos halved

1/3 cup packed thinly sliced fresh basil

1 large shallot, chopped

3 TBLP white wine vinegar

Cook beans in a large pot of boiling salted water until just crisp, about 4 minutes. Drain; rinse with cold water and drain again. In other circumstances, these can be made one day ahead. Chill and wrap.

Prepare BBQ to med-high. Brush corn with 1 TBSP of oil. Sprinkle with salt (I use Kosher) and pepper. Grill until browned in spots, turning to cook evenly about 10 mins. Cool

Cut kernels off cobs into a large bowl. Add beans and tomatoes. Mix basil, shallot and vinegar in medium bowl. Gradually whisk in 1/2 cup of oil. Season with salt and pepper. Add dressing to salad and toss.

This salad is so flavorful and refreshing. Enjoy!

A year and a half after we launched our original website The Best of Food.com, we have launched a new, improved and updated website. Why so soon? Why, indeed!

When we set out on this path, we had grand plans of creating a website that would be a diners best friend, a non-diners guide to better food options, and an all around reliable “go-to” site for dining in the tri-state area. The #1 priority of the site was to be user friendly. In certain ways it was, but for the most part, not so much!

We wanted users to be able to pick as many features as they wanted and have our website “spit” out exactly what they were looking for. For example: The best French restaurant for outdoor dining, with kids, in center city would be ~ Click a button. In our old site, you had to look up outdoor dining and child friendly separately, although that was not what we requested.

In keeping with our theme of “local” businesses, we picked a web developer that was in walking distance from our homes. Great idea, right? Sure, if the developer had any interest in meeting face to face. We met once in a year and a half. After that, everything was via conference call or email. Nothing about the site ended up being what we wanted and after being live for 2 months, we started to search for a new web host/developer.

Thanks to twitter, we found a new web developer in Lancaster and they were willing to travel to Philadelphia to meet with us as needed. We now have the flexibility to do anything with the site we wish. On our old site we had to send an email to have them change everything. Talk about a complete lack of flexibility!

So, thank you for your patience with us for the last year as we have moved toward our goal of being the Philadelphia area’s most comprehensive restaurant guide for the BEST places to dine. We can now get back to the business of building our database to add, add, and add some more great places for you to visit. Please take a look around at our new search features, our new bakery, gourmet and catering pages, and know that we will be adding great new places each and everyday! Also, we now have restaurant’s specials on some pages and we are loading them daily too!

We would LOVE your feedback with ideas, suggestions or questions!

Have a delicious day!

Freshly Charred Peppers

I absolutely love roasted peppers with a great Italian dinner. There is nothing quite like them on perfect Italian bread. A few months back I promised to write about food my dad loved after he passed away and I plan on keeping that promise. Roasted peppers fall into that category.

Last month we had a big dinner to thank some of my dad’s closest friends for everything they did to help my sister and me get through the toughest weeks of our lives. We had a big Italian feast which started with antipasto. I made roasted peppers to go with The Conshohocken Italian Bakery bread our dear friends and owners of the bakery brought to compliment the meal.

If you have never made homemade roasted peppers, you may be surprised by the method and how unbelievably easy they are to make. You do need a gas stove to make them perfectly, but otherwise, it is pretty simple. I use red and yellow peppers because they make the nicest looking presentation and the colors contrast nicely.

The first thing you do is place each pepper in the center of a burner directly over the heat source. Then, turn the flame on to a medium setting.

Pepper over Flame

Let the skin cook until it roasts and blisters, then turn. It is almost impossible to overcook. The skin should actually crack.

Another Angle of Pepper Cooking

As you can see in the photo above, the center of the side that is showing is under cooked. It is important to continue to maneuver the pepper over the flames so all sides cook evenly.

Peppers Cooling

When peppers are cooked evenly on all sides, remove from heat. Cool completely. Once cool, cut peppers in half. Remove seeds and peel skins off of peppers. Rinse peppers and cut into strips. Toss peppers in extra virgin olive oil and season with fresh ground pepper and a little kosher salt.

Roasted Peppers

Serve with Crusty Italian Bread and butter and/or Olive Oil and Aged Balsamic Vinegar

I saw something interesting on the Internet recently.  Actually, it was one of those numerous emails that you get that gnaw at you because you think you should read it, but you know there just isn’t enough time in the day to read all of that stuff.  Well, I decided to read this one and it really made me stop and think.

Do we ever think about what foods we eat and the fact that they actually help certain parts of our bodies?  For instance, if you look at a sliced carrot, doesn’t it look like the human eye (think pupil, iris and all of the lines)?  Now think about how you were always told that carrots were good for your vision.  It’s actually because they greatly enhance blood flow to, and enhance the function of the eyes.   Here’s another one…a tomato…which has four chambers and is red.  Well, the heart has four chambers and is red.  Research shows tomatoes are loaded with lycopine and are, indeed, pure heart and blood food.

Here is one more and I’ll leave you to think about the rest for yourselves.  A walnut, which looks like a little brain.  Well, we (some scientists anyway) know that walnuts help develop more than three dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.

Now see, wasn’t that interesting???