hummus among us!

About an hour ago I was experiencing a common cooking conundrum: food indecision. Lacking the appropriate dinner inspiration, I started perusing Pinch My Salt, one of my favorite food blogs. I came across a yummy looking recipe for artichoke hummus. After about thirty seconds I realized that not only did this recipe look delish, I also happened to have all of the ingredients on hand.

{what did I ever do without this thing?}

 


Behold, a simple, easy, delicious and fast recipe. {to make your life amazing, just use the entire can of artichokes rather than the recommended 6 oz.... you're welcome}

Best way to eat this hummus is on one of these tasty morsels:

And while we're outside, lets take a look at how the garden is coming along:

Here's what the garden looked like a few months ago:

Even though I long for more land, more space, more vegetables - this little plot makes me happy.

Sorry for the wonky photos. I've never claimed to be a photographer, but darned if I can't whip up a batch of hummus.


Starting up our newest Netflix movie: Bottle Rocket. Have you seen it?

peach season

Tom and I just got back from a long weekend in Pawley's Island, SC with his family. We had so much fun beaching it and relaxing.

Right now I sense that you are asking yourself whether or not Tom convinced me to eat a raw oyster again.

Yes, yes he did. Second raw oyster ever for me, and I still haven't contracted cholera. Score!

We woke up at 3:45 this morning to get home by 11:30. After getting settled in taking a nap, running a few errands, and calling my insurance company about the new crack in my windshield {sigh}, I took a peek in my fridge. In need of immediate use: a couple of chicken breasts, a few wrinkly peaches I got at the farmers market a little over a week ago, and a head of broccoli.

I headed over to my favorite recipe website: allrecipes.com, and I found the very tempting baked chicken with peaches. This recipe is one of the easiest I've ever come across, and it took almost no time to throw together. Here it is, pre-oven:

Heck yes I cooked that chicken in a pie plate!

Modifications: I used two chicken breasts and three peaches, added some salt and pepper, decreased the brown sugar by quite a bit, and didn't add the lemon juice (I forgot).

I also made up this little recipe to get rid of my broccoli:

Brocolli Stir Fry
One head broccoli
One scallion, sliced
Olive oil
Plum sauce
Ground ginger
Sliced almonds

Heat olive oil in a wok on medium high heat. Add scallion and allow to soften. Add brocolli, plum sauce and ginger, and cook until just softened. Add almonds and stir together. Remove from heat.

Enjoy!

 

 

hash brown casserole, fresh pico de gallo

This morning after my yoga class -- Yes I am now regularly 'practicing' yoga! This has been a long time coming, as you can see here and here -- I was trying to figure out what to cook for breakfast. Neither Tom or I really wanted to have the typical eggs, I didn't want pancakes, and we didn't want to go out to eat.

In truth, I really wanted home fries from scratch - diced potatoes, onions, green peppers - crispy on the outside. We don't have any potatoes at the house right now, bit we did have half a bag of tater tots. You might call tater tots the next best thing, or you might call it a cop out.

{are you having flash backs to fourth grade right now like I am?}

After cooking these bad boys in the oven, I threw them in a skillet, mashed them up, and added six eggs. Let them cook for a while (I like my potatoes/eggs cooked well and a little crispy on the outside) and then add cheese.

Add the homemade salsa. Mix the salsa into the potatoes and then remove the skillet from the heat. You don't want to get rid of the fresh taste of the pico de gallo by letting it cook for too long.

Of course you can use store bought salsa, but I didn't have any. I did, however, have all of the ingredients to make pico de gallo. I might forget to buy salsa at the store more often.

When I make meals that can be described as 'different,' Tom's usual response is some variation of 'what the heck is that and why do you expect me to eat it.' Not so with this one... With delight, he exclaimed: "This looks exactly like Cracker Barrel's hash brown cassarole!!!" Great.

But I bet they don't make their own pico de gallo from scratch.

Ingredients
Hash Brown Casserole
1/2 bag of tater tots, cooked in the oven
6 eggs
salt
pepper

Pico de Gallo
two tomatoes, diced
half an onion, diced fine
one jalapeño, diced fine
handful of cilantro, chopped
juice from half a lime
salt

Kohlrabi Scares Me!

Well, kohlrabi used to scare me. When I went to the farmers market yesterday, I decided to purchase a few and give them a whirl.

Speaking of the farmers market, things are so very SUMMER now aren't they? We've moved beyond spring, beyond chilly mornings, and beyond neverending mounds of kale at the weekend markets (but oh how I do love kale!). I suddenly find peaches, strawberries, lettuce and tender garlic shoots available. Though I did come 5 minutes too late to get the strawberries. Pity.

 

Are you, by chance, admiring the fabric in these photos? You should be. My fabulous sister made me these four fun place mats for my Christmas gift last year. I LOVE them. For a gal who tends to surround herself with grays, white, black and the occasional bright blue, these place mats were just the thing I needed to get me through the winter.

And now that its getting warmer outside, they fit in even more. Our dining area is pretty dark (deep red walls, dark wood floors), and these place mats bring some insta-joy to the space.

Dinner last night was fun fun fun to make. I'll be completely real with you and tell you I wasn't that thrilled with how the food turned out (so I won't put the recipes here to lead you astray), but I had so much fun making some healthy vegetarian food for dinner. And using fresh ingredients was fun too: eggplant, tomato, lettuce, radish, garlic, kohlrabi, sweet onions, fresh grated parmesan cheese (not all these are from the farmers market, just to clarify).

What's on your table this season?

Oh, I should at least share the basics of cooking kohlrabi in case you want to try it out too. First, peel the bulbs. The skin is tough and no fun to eat. Slice the bulb very thin, mix with olive oil, salt and pepper, and then bake in the oven at 450 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Stir frequently to avoid browning. Add freshly grated parmesan to the top of the kohlrabi and bake for another 5 minutes. My mistake may have been not adding enough cheese to the kohlrabi at the end, so I'll try this again in the future. Next time, I'll make a roasted veggie medley with kohlrabi, peppers, carrots, potatoes, etc.

You can eat the green leaves of the kohlrabi too. Will be adding them to a stir fry sometime this week and I'll let you know how they taste.

Happy Monday!

a dish worth making

I'm tired. Its well past my bedtime. Even the dogs have calmed down, and Tom is snoozing away. The sun is down, the sky is dark, the dishes are washed and put away and my eyelids are heavy.

And yet, here I am. Despite the fact that I want to go to bed immediately, I had to share this recipe with you. Creamy Baked Chicken Taquitos. Yum. Amazing. Easy. I wish I had snapped some photos in-process, but I didn't even think of it. Here they are right before and right after going in the oven:

On top: sour cream and salsa verde. On the side: Mexican Cherry Tomato Salad. Divine.

I am staying up past my bedtime to ensure that you don't miss out on the goodness that is creamy chicken taquitos. All I ask in return is that you buy the ingredients on your lunch break tomorrow and make them for dinner tomorrow night. Everyone will love you. Seriously.

You're welcome.

Just for fun, lets discuss the margarita that I had for lunch today. Made with tupelo honey, served in an insanely touristy glass, frufru to the max. I thought this girly-looking drink just might be a gamble worth taking. It was. To get yours you'll have to find your way to Apalachicola, FL. Home of the oyster, so Tom tells me.

Not my most flattering picture to date. Lets just focus on the drink shall we?

Good night everyone. Thanks for reading.

And PS. This Pink Parsley gal is my new.favorite.person.ever.

a week on the beach sounds good to me

As you may have gleaned from the title of this post (I just love that word - gleaned. I try to use it whenever possible..... big dork here, sorry.), I am on vacation! We were going to spend a week hiking the Georgia section of the Appalachian Trail, but Tom totally wussed out at the last minute.
....
....
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Did you believe me? I'm working on my lying skills. No, Tom didn't wuss out. In truth, we cancelled our week of climbing mountains in the woods because I'm terribly out of shape and lazy. Now that I ponder it, reeeeaaaallllyyyy lazy. Lately I've been having a hard time getting out of bed every morning, and I always feel drastically under-rested. I hope I'm not coming down with something.

Thankfully, at the last minute (read: the day before we left), we got a great offer to stay with a friend here in Florida. Plans of lounging on the beach and drinking cold things are being fulfilled. Mostly I'm excited that Barley was invited too, so we brought her along to share in the fun.

Honestly, though, I'm full-on-ready to spend a week away from work and in relaxation mode. I'm excited about using the week to recharge and focus on the little sparkly gems in my life - running, writing, cooking, knitting, crafting. Sort of like a staycation, but without that nagging feeling that you ought to be cleaning your house instead of relaxing.

Last night I made Mexican Cherry Tomato Salad, and it was divine. Really, divine. Also: easy!! Divine and easy is a recipe for success (hardy har, my puns crack me up).

Next up? Perhaps some Brie and Bacon Quiche. Yes please.

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{Image taken from The Pioneer Woman}



Or maybe some Creamy Baked Chicken Taquitos from Pink Parsley. I've never made taquitos before, but these look easy and yum.

{Image from the Pink Parsley}

And the perfect lunch will probably be Goat Cheese and Strawberry Grilled Cheese Sandwiches. Or Strawberry, Mango and Avocado Salad.

If you haven't noticed yet, this vacation is - for me - very much about cooking and food. 

Speaking of which, I tried my very first raw oyster tonight. Tom prepped it and made it perfect (with hot sauce, horseradish, a saltine and cocktail sauce). He did make the disclaimer that the appropriate way to eat an oyster is definitely straight up - no chaser - but I wasn't ready to go that route.

I wish you all a vacation as relaxing as this very soon. And for you mothers, Happy Mothers Day!!

PS. I'm really trying to get in shape. Really. Apparently the city is offering yoga on the beach every morning at 10am this summer.

I will definitely be going.

I might be going.

I'll definitely think about going.