All any of us have been reaching for in this heat wave is fruit. Harper can crush a pound of strawberries on a regular day, so you can imagine how much fruit is flowing through our kitchen right now.
I love this easy fruit salad, especially when it comes right out of the fridge. Is there anything better than extra cold watermelon when the real feel is 104?
Can I even just tell you guys how much I love appetizers? It’s just my favorite. A cocktail party is my dream. Tapas is so much fun. I just love having lots of little dishes, especially for entertaining. My favorite gatherings I’ve hosted have been ones where we just serve picky food.
So, here’s a new idea for your Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving table – goat cheese crostini topped with apple cider cranberry sauce!
These crostini are toasted in a pan with butter, giving them a gentle crunch with a soft middle. The creaminess of the goat cheese balances the tang in the cranberry sauce. And then, there’s the cranberry sauce. Sweet. Tangy. A little warm, with a hint of cinnamon.
Welcome to Friendsgiving week! I love using Friendsgiving as an excuse to create some fun, non traditional dishes. I hope you love the recipes this week and it inspires you to try something new, whether a small Thanksgiving gathering or a socially-distanced-outdoor-mask-wearing-be-smart-Friendsgiving.
If you haven’t made acorn squash yet, this recipe is your reason to try it! I always see stuffed acorn quash for a Thanksgiving side, but I cut these into slices and roasted them up in butter, garlic and parmesan. Can I even tell you how amazing the house smelled?!
I love when colder weather starts to set it and everything in the kitchen shifts to warmer spices and cozy dishes. This dish is definitely a new favorite cozy-comfort-go-to! Seriously…it’s vegetarian and even my husband liked it. That’s a *big* win!
First, you’ll melt some butter with fresh sage leaves and smashed garlic cloves. It smells insane and gives the butternut squash a delicious flavor. Then, right as your squash is starting to brown, you’ll start the orzo. The orzo takes 10-15 minutes and is just, wow. Really, really, good.
My husband, who does not like vegetables – I can’t even explain to you how he tries to avoid them – said he loved this dish. He even remarked that the squash was perfect to go with the orzo. I was floored, I tell ya!
Quarantine has really challenged me to step up my lunch game. Having just gone back to work, it’s nice to have something to look forward to and not have a #saddesklunch. It feels like a blessing to be home and have the space to be a little more creative, especially in the middle of the day.
These hummus toasts come together in just 20 minutes, most of which you’re just roasting up the brussels sprouts. You use store bought hummus, spread it over the toasts, spread the brussels sprouts over them and BAM you’ve got lunch, sis!
Now that our front porch is extra liveable space (reveal coming next week!), we’ve really taken to enjoying a cocktail and appetizer outside on Fridays and Saturdays. Trying to embrace the whole date night at home thing, which is so easy in our new outdoor space.
Last week, I made a batch of tomato chutney (which I want to put on everything right now), and toasted up some bread, served it with burrata and a glass of wine on our little porch. It was a nice change of scenery, and a fun appetizer that felt a little more elegant for a Friday night.
Anytime I make a Panzanella salad I always wonder why I don’t make them more. This salad was no exception – the salmon came out perfectly and it was a fun weeknight dinner. I’ve been trying to make our weeknight dinners more interesting during quarantine and this one is definitely one we’ll be having again soon.
The salmon was so simple to roast – just a bit of butter, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and fresh basil. It was ridiculously delicious!
This one is fondly known around here as the “pizza salad.” All of the spices combine together and kind of, sort of, if you close your eyes, taste a little bit like pizza. Listen, when you’re trying to lighten up a few meals, this one is a good choice – the flavors hit the spot and has enough protein that it’s satisfying.
This is a great recipe for meal prep – the flavors really develop in the fridge, or if you just need to whip up a quick lunch on a weekday between zoom meetings.
You know when you have these stories in your head from growing up, and then you ask a parent about it and they’re all, “uh, no that was literally one time”? I think that’s my growing up experience with Strawberry Rhubarb pie. I have this distinct memory of my aunt “always making” SRP, but I’m 99% sure it was probably just one time.
To me, strawberry + rhubarb is a quintessentially summer flavor (okay, along with basil, but I digress). I’ve been playing around with rhubarb a lot this year (rhubarb ricotta cake coming at ya next week!) and I am 100% in love. We might even need to make a s + r ice cream topping, what do you think?
Oh how I love some grilled pizza, year-round, but especially in the summer. On Friday nights, we host a Fire Pit Friday with grilled pizza for all our friends and family. For that, we use the Trader Joe’s crusts, but when it’s just myself and hubby at the pool, we love to use a loaf of French bread, topped with pesto, mozz and cherry tomatoes. And it’s literally ready in 7 minutes!
Food poolside always feels like such a challenge to my creativity – kind of like when you’re trying to have a picnic and have to come up with something easy to eat, clean up and something that can hold up to the hotter weather.
