Does anyone else think it's possible that this whole charcuterie craze is being fueled by a generation that grew up on lunchables? 😅 I didn't grow up as part of the "lunchable generation" but I do think it's likely that these original bento box style eaters have grown up and popularized the charcuterie board. The definition of charcuterie refers to smoked or cured meats. I use the term in a much broader sense and less of a literal interpretation. 😅 Some of my charcuterie boards don't actually include any meat at all. I labelled this creation an Independence Day dessert charcuterie board. 👇🏻 For the record, no matter what they're called - I'm on board with the charcuterie board movement. I love designing them. I love making them and most importantly, I love eating them. 😋 I designed this colorful creation over a bed of lettuce so technically - it's a charcuterie salad. 🤣 I started with a very basic recipe and then added all of my favorites. A layer of crisp romaine covers the bottom and ripe peaches, sweet corn, crispy red onion, turkey bacon, creamy avocado, blueberries, salty parmesan, fresh herbs and the most tasty, grilled chicken ever, decorate the top. 🍑🌽🥑That's the thing about charcuterie boards - I can add whatever I like. 💁🏻♀️ Rosemary Chicken and Peach Salad 3 Tablespoons sodium soy sauce 3 Tablespoons olive oil, divided 1 Tablespoon honey 1 Tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary 1 Tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs 2 ears corn 6 slices turkey bacon, cut into thirds 1 head romaine, roughly chopped 2 peaches, sliced 1 avocado, halved, seeded, peeled and sliced 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced Balsamic Dressing 1/4 cup olive oil 1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 1 tablespoon honey 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard 1 Tablespoon fresh basil
Add corn, bacon, peaches, avocado and onion. Honestly, I think that the hardest part of this whole salad charcuterie process was eating it. 🤣 It was hard to get some of each ingredient on our plates along with some of the crispy lettuce from underneath. I considered dumping the whole platter into a bowl and tossing it but that kind of defeats the purpose of a charcuterie style salad. I guess if figuring out how to eat it is my biggest obstacle - I'm okay with that. 😉
Ciao!
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My goal when I travel is to experience a new place using ALL of my senses. I want to see and smell and touch and hear and of course, taste - every new destination. 🙈🙉 🙊So on our very first trip to the Florida Keys last weekend - we sampled ALL of the local favorites. Key lime pie, conch fritters and conch chowder, fresh local seafood, lobster rolls and plenty of cuban delicacies. 🥧 A weeks worth of great food - consumed in 2 1/2 days. 🤣 We pretty much ate our way though the Historic District of Key West and I'm not unhappy about that. 😅That lobster roll was our favorite but all of the food was incredible. Great food paired with great cocktails while watching the sunset in Mallory square is a pretty great way to spend a weekend. 🌅 After a weekend of overindulging - it's back to making healthy meals. A giant scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream probably shouldn't be my mid day snack anymore either. 😂🍨 I'm doubling up on the veggies and getting back to my workout routine this week. This Grilled Broccoli with Pistachios and Citrus Vinaigrette was the perfect way to ease myself back into healthy eating. 🤣 It contains all of the nutrients that my body has been craving AND it's beautifully vibrant and delicious. Oh, and in case you were wondering - I didn't cook this on the grill. In short, the heat in Georgia is off the charts this month so I opted for a modified indoor skillet version. Whether you grill it, roast it in the oven or brown it in a skillet - this broccoli is worth a try. Grilled Broccoli with Pistachios and Citrus Vinaigrette 3/4 cup salted pistachios, finely chopped 6 Tablespoons olive oil 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest 2 Tablespoons lemon juice 1 teaspoon grated orange zest 2 Tablespoons orange juice 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper 1 1/2 pound broccoli, cut into 1 1/2" spears 1/2 cup fresh mint, sliced thin
Add broccoli to a bowl with vinaigrette while still warm. Transfer to a platter. Drizzle with any dressing remaining in bowl. Sprinkle with mint and serve.
I love a great broccoli recipe and this one is great but seriously, can anyone tell me how long it will be before my lobster roll cravings subside? 🦞😅 Ciao! My 10 year blogaversary is quickly approaching. July 20th is the fateful day that I published my very first blog post - in 2011!!! 🙌🏻 For those of you who have followed the blog from the beginning (aka. my mom) - THANK YOU!!! I know those initial years of blog posts were not very engaging. I'd go as far as to say that my first attempts at writing a food blog were downright cringeworthy. Safe to say that it took some time (years, maybe) for me to navigate the world of blogging and find my writing "voice". No matter how awkward and agonizing the first few years of blog posts might have been, I can never delete the posts because I still reference those recipes. The quality of the recipes makes up for my poor articulation.😅 Those posts are also the place where I go when I'm feeling nostalgic and I want to see pictures of my kids from ten years ago. 😭 My very first blog post was a recipe for Shrimp Salad. The post was a total of 11 sentences and exactly 1 picture of the aforementioned salad. 🍤 I still go back to that post every summer though, because we love that recipe for Shrimp Salad. I recommend that you check it out if you're looking for a great summer salad recipe. #Lowqualitywriting-highqualityrecipe. 🤣 I feel like I should have titled this recipe - the evolution of a salad. It's hard to believe that I started out attaching a single photograph to a recipe. Now I feel like I've progressed to the opposite end of the spectrum. I include pictures of every single ingredient, pictures of the process and multiple angles of the finished product. 📸(There has to be a happy medium.😅) As you scroll through this post - you can literally watch the salad come together from beginning to end in pictures. 🥗 This wasn't necessarily planned - but when I have beautiful ingredients like ripe, red strawberries and crisp, green lettuce - I can't help but photograph them. 💁🏻♀️ Strawberry Avocado Salad Dressing 1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar 1 Tablespoon brown sugar 1 Tablespoon olive oil 1 clove garlic, minced 1/4 cup salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper Salad 1/2 red onion, sliced thin 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon sugar 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar 1/2 cucumber 1 cup strawberries, quartered 1 head butter lettuce, torn into pieces 1 cup alfalfa sprouts 2 ripe avocados, sliced thin 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
Drizzle with dressing just before serving.
In my very first blog post, I promised to be honest with my readers. Being completely transparent isn't always easy - it's hard to admit a failure. Sometimes it's not a complete disaster either. Some recipes just needs some tweaking to make them better. For example, this salad, in my opinion, would be better without the garlic in the dressing. A minor change to the dressing would really take this from good to great. Ciao! \Mushrooms are brown. Even when stuffed with amazing aromatics, onions, rice and nuts - they're still very monochromatic. And albeit delicious - they aren't very good subject material for photographs. So in an effort to make today's blog post more visually appealing - I'm adding a few of the pictures that I took this morning at the Monroe Blooms flower festival. The pictures really have nothing to do with a recipe about stuffed mushrooms other than the fact that they add some color to what would otherwise be a very brown blog post. 😅 I've said it before and I'll say it again - I love this little town that I get to call home. This was my first visit to the flower festival and I was totally impressed. So many beautiful flowers and I'm not color bashing mushroom brown by any means, but the vibrant colors of the flowers at the festival were incredible. 🌼 Now onto the recipe of the day - stuffed mushrooms. 🍄 I'm not much of a meat or pork eater so a lot of times, I'll make myself a big stuffed mushroom as an alternative to a hot dog and a burger at summer cookout. I normally stuff my mushrooms with cheese and spinach so when I found this brown rice and pine nut stuffed version, I was intrigued. Stuffed Mushrooms 1/2 cup pine nuts 3/4 cup brown rice 3-4 large portobello mushrooms olive oil 1 Tablespoon fresh thyme 2 onions, chopped 4 cloves garlic, minced 1 Tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese 1 teaspoon chicken or vegetable bouillon fresh lemon juice 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
I was never unhappy with my recipe for cheese stuffed mushrooms but I feel like this rice and nut filled version is more of a "meal" mushroom rather than an appetizer "mushroom". Does that even make sense? Maybe it's because I made big portobellos instead of small ones but these seem heartier and more filling than a cheese stuffed mushroom. I think that there's room for both types of stuffed mushrooms in my life though. 🤣
Ciao! I am in awe of people with authentic - spontaneous creativity. My left brain dominated personality has a true appreciation for anything creative. Oh, I have moments of creativity but they almost always come from a place of cognitive and deliberate intention. What may seem to some as a creative and spontaneous new recipe is really a result of hours of thinking, planning and significant google research. #creativebutnotspontaneous I've been told that to make great jambalaya - you have to open your frig - toss everything into a big pot and cook it. 😬 I have yet to make jambalaya. 🤣 I've never been one to just toss random ingredients into a bowl to see what comes out. My cooking (and my baking) is much more deliberate and intentional. Every ingredient and spice that I add to or take away from a dish has a purpose. I may never be a spontaneous cook but I do have a compelling desire to reduce food waste which forces me to be creative. Todays leftover chicken becomes, tomorrows chicken salad or chicken tacos. Overripe fruit gets turned into chutney or sweet cobblers. Unused vegetables get turned into soups, or tossed into an orzo salad or sometimes - even become their own delicious side dish. This Zoodle Salad recipe is a great way to use up some extra veggies or to express your creativity. You can make all kinds of substitutions to this salad (and the dressing) and really never go wrong. I'd love to hear from all of you creative zoodlers out there. What delicious recipes are you coming up with for your summer veggies? Zoodle Salad 1 zucchini, spiral sliced 1/4 cup grape tomatoes, halved 1/4 cup fresh corn 1 avocado, diced 1/4 cup chick peas, rinsed and drained 1/4 cup fresh mozzarella pearls 2 Tablespoons fresh basil 1 Tablespoon red onion, sliced then Vinaigrette 1 Tablespoon white whine vinegar 1 Tablespoon olive oil 1 clove garlic, minced 2 teaspoons lemon juice 1 teaspoon dijon mustard 1 teaspoon honey Spiral slice zucchini. Add tomatoes, corn, chick peas, basil, onion and mozzarella to zucchini. Stir together to combine. Toss in avocado gently. Toss vinaigrette with zoodles and serve. Saturday, we went to the interactive Van Gogh exhibit in Atlanta - talk about the ultimate creative thinker. Woah! 🙃 These people that I went with - the best - and all creative in their own unique way. 🌻 Ciao!
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