Kimchi hot dogs, pineapple upside down cake, and more! 🍍

All the makings of a great start to summer!

Hi hangries! 🍍 I looked outside and started sweating, which means that it is officially summer in DC! In spite of the humidity, I’m looking forward to day trips and long weekends to beachier places, lots of Washington Spirit games, and weekly farmer’s market trips. Undoubtedly one of the best parts of the summer is the abundance and ripeness of juicy berries, peaches, tomatoes, and other seasonal produce. I also intend to take full advantage of grilling season, and by that I mean sending Peter downstairs to our apartment courtyard to grill up dinner for us.

From the grill: Wagyu beef hot dogs, scallions, halloumi, and corn

This week, I’m sharing some memorable meals over the past few weeks that will hopefully inspire your culinary adventures this summer! And if you’re looking for some more summer content, you can check out some previous newsletters where I talk about grilled veggies, BLTs, and pies, cobblers, and crisps. In the next coming months, you can look forward to more content on all of the above. So let’s jump in! Keep reading until the end to get my family’s recipe for pineapple upside down cake.

Maximizing your extra pesto

Summer is for tomatoes, and basil is a tomato’s best friend. If you have some extra basil laying around, make some pesto (this classic recipe is great and so is this one if you don’t have pine nuts) and try some of these recipes I loved making recently. You can use already-made pesto from the store or farmer’s market too.

One recipe to use it up is this Heirloom Tomato Galette which uses a thin layer of pesto as its base and as a colorful topping once it’s baked. As you know, I’m planning to make as many galettes as possible this summer, and this was a wonderful savory one to add to the rotation. Since the tomatoes are cooked, this is a great recipe to make leading up to peak tomato season. Slices of the galette heated up nicely in my toaster oven for next day lunches.

Heirloom Tomato Galette

Another way to use that pesto is these Chicken Pesto Meatballs, which are just as easy to make as they are delicious. If you’re a fellow Grossy Pelosi fan like, you’ll know these are all the rage on Instagram right now. These meatballs were worth they hype — they were so juicy and flavorful, coming together in no longer than 20 minutes total. I’m excited to make them again and again this summer and beyond, playing around with different meat and pesto combos. The only thing I would have changed was doubling the recipe so that we had more leftovers.

Chicken Pesto Meatballs

Smoking and grilling

Summer is prime time for my dad’s barbecuing. He has a smoker at his house, which he uses to cook up things like pork butts and brisket. A few weeks ago, he made chicken thighs, which is one our favorites from the smoker. The barbecue sauce that the chicken was cooked in and that we added on top before eating was a “Jimmy special” combining what he likes best from his favorite well-researched sauces, including blackberry preserves which gave it a fruity, summery vibe that I loved. My dad has long been neighborhood-famous for his chicken-cooking skills. Our family friends in Florida growing up called it “Jimmy’s chicken,” and I remember them always mentioning how he made the best grilled chicken.

Smoked chicken thighs ("Jimmy's chicken")

For a while now I have been craving grilled hot dogs, so Peter and I decided to try the Wagyu beef hot dogs from our local butcher that we’ve been eyeing. My ideal hot dog has yellow mustard, raw onion, and sauerkraut. With so much amazing kimchi in our fridge, I thought why not sub the sauerkraut for chopped kimchi? When I first brought up the idea, I could tell Peter was a little unsure, but after we tried it, he was just as hooked as I was. I can’t imagine having a hot dog at home now without adding some chopped kimchi. If you take nothing else from this newsletter, I hope it’s that you try hot dogs with kimchi at some point this summer.

One of my best grilling tips is to grill up some veggies too while you’re at it. For this meal, Peter also grilled some corn, scallions, and thick slabs of halloumi cheese that I then cut up, tossed with some cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, and a lemon-honey-sumac vinaigrette. I’ve been making that dressing for other salads, and it has become one of my new go-to’s — I’ll have to share the recipe soon.

Wagyu beef hot dogs with kimchi and grilled corn and halloumi salad with lemon lemon-honey-sumac vinaigrette

This past weekend, I also got to cook with one of my friends Tati, and it was a true treat. She brought over marinated chicken wings that Peter grilled up with some short ribs (maybe I can get him to share the recipe with hangries in a future newsletter!). Tati made a super tasty fruit salad where she added lemon juice, lime juice, a little honey, and some chopped dried mango, which is an idea I’m going to borrow in the future because it gave such a nice chewy texture and almost candy-like addition to the mix. She also brought deviled eggs, which were of course delicious. I made a tortellini pasta salad (based on this recipe) and a chili crisp wedge salad with a cilantro ranch (inspired by this one). Both turned out great, and I’ll be making a lot more cilantro ranch this summer (and adding chili crisp to salads!).

Wedge salad, pasta salad, deviled eggs, chicken wings and short ribs, and the full plate!

To finish the meal, I made one of my favorites growing up and a perfect post-grilling dessert: pineapple upside down cake. I used my grandma and mom’s recipe — eating it feels so nostalgic of my childhood. It warmed my heart so much seeing Tati’s kids enjoy it, quickly running back after finishing their first slices saying, “more please!” The best part about baking it is that it uses a package of yellow cake mix, replacing the water it calls for with the pineapple juice that comes in the can of slices. I’ve included the recipe below (thanks, Grammie!).

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Ingredients: 

• 1 stick butter

• 1 ½ cups light brown sugar

• 1 package of yellow cake mix plus ingredients for that cake mix

• ⅓ cup vegetable oil

• 3 eggs

• 16-oz. can of pineapple slices (in pineapple juice)

• 12 maraschino cherries

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a 9x13-inch pan, melt the butter in the oven while it preheats. Remove from oven as soon as melted.

2. Sprinkle the brown sugar over top, approximately 1 ½ cups, and mix together. Add enough to absorb all the butter.

3. Open the can of pineapple and drain the juice carefully into a liquid measuring cup. Then place the slices of pineapple in the pan on top of brown sugar. There are usually 10 slices, so cut the extra 2 slices in half in between in middle. Place a maraschino cherry in the hole of each of the pineapple slices.

4. Make the cake mix according to the package directions but substituting the pineapple juice for water. There will be slightly less than 1 cup of pineapple juice, so add enough water to make 1 cup. Pour batter in the pan over over pineapple evenly.

5. Bake according to the package directions, but it will take longer around 8-10 extra minutes. It bakes for slightly longer than you would think — even after the cake starts to slightly brown and a toothpick comes out clean, leave in for a few extra minutes.

6. While the cake bakes, have a sheet pan out and ready. As soon as you remove the cake from the oven, run a butter knife around edge of the baking dish, place the sheet pan facing down over top of the cake. Holding both of the pans together, quickly and carefully flip the cake over onto the sheet pan. (I’ve included a video below of this step in case the instructions are confusing — I don’t want to risk anyone making this to end up with their gorgeous cake on the floor!)

Thank you for reading, subscribing, and continuing to follow along at @hangrytohappyy on Instagram and @hangrytohappy on TikTok! See you here next week! Xoxo 🍍