Some things are just meant to be paired together:
Peaches and summer.🍑🌞
Prosciutto and cheese.
Fresh ricotta and warm bread. 🥖
Arugula and anything that needs a little spice brought to the party.🥬🤣

When you put all of those together on a grilled sourdough flatbread and drizzle it with a hearty portion of sweet balsamic glaze and you create summer on a plate.🌞  And the best part is - you don't need to be a professional chef to make it.  

The star of this show is the peach.🍑  Not just any peach. A ripe, juicy summer peach that has been waiting patiently all year for its moment in the spotlight.  Slice it in half and put it right on the grill.  I don't want to go full geek mode on the chemistry of a peach but you should know that the heat caramelizes the natural sugars in the peaches, giving them those gorgeous grill marks and making them even sweeter.  It's the culinary equivalent of putting a summer tan on your fruit.  And if you've never grilled a peach before, prepare yourself.  You may suddenly find yourself grilling peaches for everything.  Salads. Desserts. Breakfast. Snacks.

What I love most about this flatbread recipe is that it's both incredibly simple and completely impressive.  It's sweet and salty, creamy and crisp, fresh and smoky—all in one bite.  The grilled peaches bring the sweetness. The prosciutto brings the salty. The ricotta makes everything creamy. The arugula keeps things fresh.  And the balsamic glaze ties the whole operation together.

Serve this flatbread as an appetizer, a light lunch or dinner on a warm summer evening when you would rather be sitting outside than standing over a stove because summer cooking should be easy - and delicious.

Grilled Peach Flatbreads
15 ounces whole milk ricotta
1 Tablespoon heavy cream
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
4 ripe peaches
2 Tablespoons butter, melted
2 flatbreads
3 ounces thin sliced prosciutto
4 cups fresh arugula
2 Tablespoons balsamic glaze

Top with arugula and drizzle with balsamic glaze.  

​Ciao!

It's Murphy's law that if I light my grill - it's guaranteed to rain. ☔️  Especially if I'm grilling something that requires me to stand in front of the grill for an extended period of time - like sourdough.😅  So if we're ever in a water shortage or severe drought situation - not to worry - I'll just fire up my Big Green Egg, throw on some flatbread and wait for the rain to start. 🙃

There's been no lack of hot, humid days this summer in Georgia and we've had very little rain in my little town. I feel like we had weeks of cloudless days, blue skies, sunshine.🌞  That was until I decided it was time to make grilled sourdough flatbread - cue the downpour. 🤣

Not to worry though.  Neither rain or hail or hurricane force winds were going to stop me from making my grilled sourdough flatbread.  I was determined not to let a little precipitation stand between me and these delicious carbohydrates.😅

By the time the grill was hot, there was monsoon-like rain and I was holding the spatula with one hand and the other was attempting to shield the food from the sudden deluge.☂️  If making this grilled sourdough has taught me anything, it's that I need to have patience --- and an umbrella.☂️😅

Could I have made this flatbread inside on the stove?  Of course.   But the grill gives the flatbread those beautiful little charred spots and crisp edges while keeping the middle tender and chewy.  In my world - totally worth standing in front of a grill in a torrential downpour.   

And this, my friends, is only the beginning of my great grilled flatbread story.  I've been experimenting with amazing new recipes with my grilled flatbread, which means there are two more flatbread recipes coming to the blog later this week.  Make sure you stay tuned for my buffalo chicken flatbread and my grilled peach and ricotta flatbread.  You will not want to miss these.  

Sourdough Flatbread
100 grams levain (active starter)
240 grams milk, warmed
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon olive oil
400 grams all-purpose flour

Place flatbread on hot grill and cook 2 minutes until browned on bottom. 

Flip flatbread and bake until cooked through and golden. 

Ciao!

There are certain things that should happen in September:
The weather should begin to cool off.
The leaves should start changing color.
I should be pulling sweaters out of the closet and pretending I remember where I put my fall boots.
And soup should once again become a perfectly reasonable dinner option.
Unfortunately... somebody forgot to tell the weather.😬😅
So, here I was last week.
Eating soup.
And sweating like a hog at a luau.🥵🍜🤣

Today also marks our 33rd wedding anniversary, which seems both impossible and completely believable.  We've celebrated a whole lot of birthdays, holidays, vacations, milestones and all the ordinary Tuesdays together and that somehow become the fabric of our lives. We've laughed. We've traveled. We've made memories. We've disagreed about the correct way to load the dishwasher.  We've eaten soup in 90 degree weather together.🤪  

This creamy tuscan chicken soup gets its creamy richness from a combination of broth and cream while sun-dried tomatoes add little bursts of sweet-tart flavor. Tender chicken makes it hearty enough for dinner and fresh spinach brings a pop of color that allows us to pretend this is a health-conscious decision.🤷🏻‍♀️  The result is a bowl of rich, savory, creamy and hearty meal.  

The beauty of Tuscan-style cooking is that it doesn't need to be fussy.  Give me garlic, herbs, chicken, greens and sprinkling of cheese and I can create a dish that's worthy of any Italian restaurant.  Add a loaf of crusty bread and a glass of wine and I've got a complete meal.   Good food and minimal dishes.  Happy anniversary my love.😁 🥰 

Creamy Tuscan Chicken Soup
1 Tablespoon sun dried tomato olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 rib celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes
4 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 cup water
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
⅓ cup sun dried tomatoes, chopped
1 cup Ditali pasta
¾ cup heavy whipping cream
1 Tablespoon corn starch
2 cups fresh spinach, chopped 
¼ cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Ciao!

I got a new pantry a few years ago when I remodeled my kitchen.  I really appreciated the added space for food storage but my new pantry quickly became a perfectly functional example of organized chaos.🙃 Everything had a place, technically, but finding that place required the patience of a detective, the eyesight of an eagle and occasionally a small prayer.  So, I decided it was time for a pantry upgrade.

For years, my pantry staples lived in stainless steel food containers. They were sturdy, practical and about as visually exciting as a filing cabinet so I decided to trade my hardworking stainless steel containers for something a little more attractive: glass food storage jars with wooden lids.

Flour and sugar

Pastas, whole grains and rice

15 jars of chocolate to many?? 😂

The final touch was a collection of neat white labels.  And let me tell you - nothing makes a person feel more accomplished than labeling something that is already perfectly obvious.😂
Flour? Labeled.
Sugar? Labeled.
Rice? Labeled.
Orzo? Labeled, because apparently I can no longer trust myself to recognize tiny pasta shapes.

There's something deeply satisfying about a pantry where every jar has a designated place and every ingredient has a name. The labels bring a sense of order without making the space feel fussy. They’re simple, clean, and just polished enough to make me believe that I have my life together.

Once everything was in its proper container, my pantry felt less like a storage closet and more like an invitation to use it's contents.  I can see the ingredients. I can reach the ingredients. I can actually remember that I owned the ingredients so I don't keep buying duplicates.  Naturally, the first thing I wanted to make after finishing my pantry upgrade was make something comforting, fresh and just a little bit fancy.  Lemon Chicken Orzo seemed like the obvious choice. 

Orzo is one of those pantry staples that deserves to take center stage. It looks like rice, cooks like pasta and has the remarkable ability to make an ordinary weeknight dinner feel like it belongs in a sunny little café somewhere along the Mediterranean.
Paired with tender chicken, fresh lemon, garlic, spinach and a little Parmesan it becomes a one-pan meal that's creamy without being heavy, bright without being fussy and comforting without requiring an entire afternoon in the kitchen.

Lemon Chicken Orzo
For the Chicken:
1.5 lb skinless boneless chicken thighs
2 Tablespoons olive oil 
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the Lemon Orzo:
2 Tablespoons butter
2 cloves garlic minced
1 medium shallot chopped
1 teaspoons basil
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 cup orzo uncooked
½ cup dry white wine
2 cups chicken stock
4 oz baby spinach
½ cup heavy cream
½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
3 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

​Stir in heavy cream, Parmesan cheese and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper.

Return the cooked chicken back to the skillet.  ​Garnish with fresh basil, freshly grated lemon zest, Parmesan cheese, and coarsely ground black pepper.

A beautiful pantry will not solve all of life’s problems. It will not make the laundry fold itself, convince the dog to stop shedding or prevent my family from putting an empty container back in the refrigerator.  But it can make everyday cooking feel a little easier.  There is joy in opening a cabinet and seeing exactly what I need. There is satisfaction in reaching for a labeled jar instead of wrestling with a crumpled bag. And there is something wonderfully peaceful about knowing that the ingredients for dinner are right where they belong.  Happy Wednesday friends.  

Ciao!

If you know me - it should come as no surprise that I arrived in Amsterdam with a detailed, down to the minute, four day, jam packed itinerary.🤪 I had theater tickets, museum tickets and canal cruises booked, restaurant reservations made and printed maps to every photogenic park and sight worth seeing in the greater Amsterdam area.🗺️ I accounted for walking time between each event with with added time factored in for stroopwafel and gelato stops. 😋😆🍨🧇

What I didn't have was a rain plan.☔️  Normally, we would put on rain jackets, grab our umbrellas and power through our scheduled activities for the day but biking in Amsterdam - in the rain - sounded kind of miserable - and downright dangerous.😅🚴🏻  Thanks to some gentle encouragement from my ever flexible husband, we pivoted from our itinerary and headed out of the city on our rainy day.  We were hopeful that we could find a bit of sunshine - South of the city so we boarded a train for Rotterdam.🚞  

Rotterdam is a city full of bold buildings and fascinating design.  We still had to dodge a few rain showers but it was totally worth it to take in the sights of this amazing city.  

One of the must see destinations in Rotterdam is Markthal.  It's an enormous, curved indoor food hall that's covered with spectacular interior artwork known as the Horn of Plenty. The colorful ceiling is filled with larger-than-life images of fruits, vegetables, flowers and food, making you feel as though you've wandered inside the world's most elaborate grocery store ceiling. 
It's part market.
Part architectural masterpiece.
A food lover's fantasy -
And a very dangerous place to visit when you're hungry.😋😆

It's packed with food.  Fresh produce.  Cheeses.  Meats.  Fish.  Breads.  Pastries.  Chocolate.  Spices.  International dishes.  Dutch specialties.  Souvenir shops. And food stands from so many different countries that I was suddenly very interested in expanding my culinary horizons. We walked away from the markthal with two important discoveries:
First, Rotterdam knows how to build a market.
Second, we have absolutely no self-control while inside one. 

Baklava isn't something that I ever expected to be tempted by in the Netherlands and yet there I was in the center of Rotterdam, reaching into the depths of my soul to find the willpower to resist the temptation to try all 6 different kinds of baklava at the market. 

Baklava is my kryptonite.  It's one of the desserts that I simply cannot resist.  I still haven't decided whether it's a benefit or a hinderance to have discovered an easy way to make them in my own kitchen without having to mess with sheets of phyllo dough.  If you're like me and have a hard time not eating an entire tray of baklava - do not make these.  They're super delicious - and addictive.😋  

Baklava Bites
1/3 cup + 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 Tablespoon honey
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup chopped walnuts 
1 cup pistachios
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoons lemon zest
1/4 teaspoons salt
2 (1.9-oz.) packages frozen phyllo shells

Spoon 1/2 t. syrup over each warm cup.  To serve, brush with remaining syrup and sprinkle with reserved nuts. ​

Ciao!